James Alfred Pearce
United States Senator from Maryland
In office March 4, 1843 – December 20, 1862
Preceded by	John L. Kerr
Succeeded by	Thomas H. Hicks
Personal details
Born	(1805-12-14)December 14, 1805 Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Died	December 20, 1862(1862-12-20) (aged 57) Chestertown, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Whig, Democrat
Alma mater	College of New Jersey
Profession	Politician, Lawyer

James Alfred Pearce (December 14, 1805 – December 20, 1862) was an American politician. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the second district of Maryland from 1835–1839 and 1841-1843. He later served as a U.S. Senator from Maryland from 1843 until his death in 1862.

Pearce was the son of Gideon Pearce and Julia Dick, and the grandson of Elisha C. Dick.^[1]

Pearce was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and, as a youth, attended a private academy there. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1822. He later studied law, and was admitted to the bar, commencing practice in Cambridge, Maryland, in 1824. Pearce moved to Louisiana in 1825 and engaged in sugar planting, returning to Kent County, Maryland, in 1828, where he resumed the practice of law in Chestertown.

From 1831 until 1835, Pearce was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1835 until March 3, 1839, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1838 to the Twenty-sixth Congress, losing to Philip Thomas. He was again elected to Congress in 1840, and served one term from March 4, 1841, until March 3, 1843.

Pearce was elected as a Whig to the United States Senate in 1843, and was re-elected in 1849, 1855, and 1861, the last time as a Democrat, and served from March 4, 1843, until his death in 1862. In the Senate, Pearce served as chairman of the Committee on the Library (Twenty-ninth through Thirty-seventh Congresses). He also served as chairman of the Committee on Finance for two months in 1861 and was a regent of the Smithsonian.^[2] He died in Chestertown in 1862, and is interred in New Chester Cemetery.

References [edit]

• James Pearce at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

External links [edit]

• James A. Pearce - Delmarva Heritage Series

v t e United States Senators from Maryland Class 1 Carroll Potts Howard S. Smith Harper Hanson Pinkney S. Smith Kent Merrick Johnson Stewart Pratt Kennedy Johnson Whyte Hamilton Whyte Gorman McComas Rayner Jackson Lee France Bruce P. Goldsborough Radcliffe O'Conor Beall, Sr. J. Tydings Beall, Jr. Sarbanes Cardin Class 3 Henry J. Lloyd Hindman Wright Reed R. Goldsborough E. Lloyd Chambers R. Goldsborough Spence Kerr Pearce Hicks Creswell Vickers Dennis Groome Wilson Gibson Wellington Gorman Whyte J. Smith Weller M. Tydings Butler Brewster Mathias Mikulski

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Finance Campbell Eppes Sanford Holmes Lowrie Smith Webster Wright Clay Evans Woodbury Calhoun Lewis Atherton Dickinson Hunter Pearce Fessenden Sherman Fessenden Sherman Morrill Bayard Morrill Voorhees Morrill Aldrich Penrose Simmons Penrose McCumber Smoot Harrison George Millikin George Millikin Byrd Long Dole Packwood Bentsen Moynihan Packwood Roth Baucus Grassley Baucus Grassley Baucus

v t e Deans of the United States Senate Gunn/Langdon Foster Brown Hillhouse Anderson Gaillard Ruggles King Benton Mangum Pearce Bayard/Foot Foot Wade Sumner Chandler Anthony Edmunds Morrill Allison Hale Frye Cullom Gallinger Lodge Warren Simmons Smoot Borah Smith McKellar George Hayden Russell Ellender Aiken Eastland/McClellan Eastland Magnuson Stennis Thurmond Byrd Inouye Leahy