“C” is for Cheves, Langdon [1776-1857]. Legislator, congressman, bank president. A native of Abbeville, Cheves studied law in Charleston and soon had a large, statewide practice. He was a staunch Jeffersonian Republican throughout his active political career. He represented Charleston in the S.C. House of Representatives. In 1810 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he was a prominent “War Hawk”—seeking war against Great Britain. In 1814, he was elected Speaker. President Monroe appointed Cheves president of the Second National Bank of the United States where he instituted policies that restored the bank to a sound financial basis. He returned to South Carolina in 1829. By the 1850s Langdon Cheves, like a growing number of southern radicals came to the conclusion that secession was the only palatable answer to the sectional crisis in America.
“C” is for Cheves, Langdon [1776-1857]
