John Berrien | Biography

John Berrien served as U.S. attorney general from 1829 to 1831 under President Andrew Jackson. Berrien had previously served as a Georgia legislator and judge and as a U.S. Senator. Following his removal from the Jackson cabinet, he reentered politics and later served again in the U.S. Senate.

Berrien was born on August 23, 1781, near Princeton, New Jersey, but grew up in Savannah, Georgia, after his father purchased several plantations. He graduated from Princeton University in 1796 and then studied law with a Georgia lawyer before being admitted to the Georgia bar in 1799. Berrien started a private law practice but left in 1809 when he was elected solicitor of the eastern circuit of Georgia. The following year he was elected a judge of the eastern circuit, a position he held until 1821. He also served as a captain of the Georgia Hussars, a volunteer company, in the War of 1812.

Berrien's interests shifted to politics in the 1820s. In 1822 Berrien was elected to the Georgia state senate, and then he was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 1824. During this period, Andrew Jackson became a popular Democrat because he insisted the state governments be more democratic and the federal government defer to the states as much as possible. A controversial figure, Jackson was elected president in 1828.

Jackson took office in 1829 and immediately named Berrien U.S. attorney general. Berrien soon became embroiled in the controversy between Jackson and his vice president, John Calhoun. Though Jackson was a strong supporter of state's rights, he disagreed with the extremist position staked out by Calhoun, who had previously been a very powerful U.S. senator from South Carolina.

During his senatorial service, Calhoun had proposed a theory of nullification, under which a state could refuse to obey acts of Congress it considered unconstitutional. Congress then would either have to drop the disputed act or obtain its approval through a constitutional amendment. Calhoun sought Jackson's support for the nullification theory, but the president publicly declared that the federal government was supreme when it came to enacting and enforcing its laws.

This political dispute was matched by a personal conflict between the president and vice president, one in which the cabinet took sides. Calhoun and his followers refused to treat with respect the wife of Secretary of War John H. Eaton, believing she was a promiscuous and immoral woman. As these rumors grew, Jackson became enraged. Jackson strongly defended Mrs. Eaton, which placed most of his cabinet at odds with him. Berrien sided with Calhoun and soon Jackson sought to remove most of his cabinet. Berrien realized he had lost Jackson's trust and resigned in 1831.

After leaving office, Berrien returned to Georgia to practice law. However, he joined the Whig Party and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1841. In 1845 he resigned his seat in the Senate because of his dissatisfaction with politics in Georgia but was promptly reelected. He was reelected again in 1847, but lost another reelection bid in 1852. Berrien died on January 1, 1856 in Savannah, Georgia.