Born near Nashville, Tennessee on March 17, 1798, he went to Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

He moved to Louisiana and became a planter residing at Wyoming Plantation; he was also interested in the newspaper business.

[1] He unsuccessfully ran for Louisiana Governor in 1834, He was defeated by Whig candidate Edward D. White.

He once "threatened to cut a colleague’s throat ‘from ear to ear.’"[2] On separate occasions, he drew a Bowie knife on and raised a cocked pistol at the anti-slavery congressman Joshua R.

His remains were interred in Grace Episcopal churchyard in St. Francisville, Louisiana.