President Ulysses Grant President James Buchanan Succeeded by Marshall Jewell Preceded by Benjamin Perry Party Democratic Party | Lieutenant W. D. Porter Education University of Virginia Preceded by Andrew Curtin Name James Orr Siblings Jehu Amaziah Orr | |
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Preceded by Constituency established Role Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Died May 5, 1873, Saint Petersburg, Russia Previous office Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1857–1859) | ||
James Lawrence Orr (May 12, 1822 – May 5, 1873) was an American politician who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in the United States Congress. He later served in the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War and was the 73rd Governor of South Carolina.
Biography
Orr was born at Craytonville, South Carolina located in Anderson County, South Carolina. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1841 and became an attorney. He served as a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina from 1849 to 1859, serving as the Speaker of the House from 1857 to 1859. Orr was an advocate of states' rights who used his position to assist those persons who promoted the continuation of slavery. He foresaw the consequences of the decision by South Carolina to attempt to secede from the Union, but he remained loyal to his State. He was one of the three commissioners sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate the transfer of federal property to South Carolina; the failure of these negotiations led directly to the bombardment of one of the highest-profile federal assets within South Carolina, Fort Sumter.
After Fort Sumter and the outbreak of the American Civil War, Orr organized and commanded Orr's Regiment of South Carolina Rifles, which saw little action before he resigned in 1862 and entered the Confederate Senate. The regiment continued to bear his name throughout the war and fought in some of the most prominent battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. In the Confederate Senate, he remained a strong proponent of states' rights.
At the end of the war, Orr was elected governor and served from 1865 until the passage of a new state constitution in 1868.
In 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Orr as Minister to Russia in a gesture of post-Civil War reconciliation.
Orr died in St. Petersburg, Russia shortly after arriving to begin his service as Minister. He was interred in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Anderson, South Carolina.