Troup was born during the American Revolution at McIntosh Bluff, on the Tombigbee River in what is now Alabama (then a part of the Province of Georgia).

Troup's plantation, Valdosta (sometimes spelled Val d'Osta), was named after the Valle d'Aosta alpine valley in Italy.

He negotiated the controversial Treaty of Indian Springs on February 12, 1825,[3] with his first cousin William McIntosh, a mixed-blood Creek chief.

He threatened an attack on Federal troops if they interfered with the treaty and challenged President John Quincy Adams,[5] who conceded and allowed Troup to seize the remaining Creek land in Georgia.

Despite the recentness of the War of 1812, Troup maintained that the United States should pursue a positive relationship with Great Britain.

Troup always referred to the British in familial terms ("our cousins", "fraternal relations with England" our "sister nation") and believed that since Britain and America shared common roots, the two countries would "ultimately reunite in some form" although he believed the United States would and should "remain forever independent from, though no less loving towards, England.

"[7] The European country remained most hostile to was France, Troup was very critical of both the French revolution, particularly the Reign of Terror as well as the subsequent Bourbon restoration government.

[8] Upon the expiration of his second term as governor, Troup returned to the Senate in 1829 as a Jacksonian Democrat, where he served on the Committee on Indian Affairs.