a request the Whigs rejected. The 13 Democrats in the state senate, who became known as the "Immortal Thirteen," refused to allow a joint session of the legislature (where Whigs, who controlled the House, would have a numerical majority) to choose the replacement senators, and Tennessee thus had no representation in the U.S. Senate for most of 1842 and 1843. Though the government was mostly gridlocked by the Immortal Thirteen during Jones's first term, it did manage to enact debt reform legislation in 1842. In the election of 1843, Polk canvassed the state extensively in hopes of taking back the governor's office, but he was again unsuccessful. Furthermore, Whigs gained control of the state senate, ending the "Immortal Thirteen" gridlock, and two Whigs were appointed to the state's U.S. Senate seats. Jones's second term saw the establishment of a state school for the blind in Nashville and a school for the deaf in Knoxville. In 1843, Nashville, which had been serving as the temporary capital of the state for years (as had several other places before it), was officially selected as the state's permanent capital. The cornerstone for the Tennessee State Capitol was laid while Jones was still governor. U.S. Senate and later life Jones did not seek a third term, choosing instead to accept an offer to become president of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. He was an elector for Zachary Taylor in the U.S. presidential election of 1848. In 1851, the state legislature chose Jones to replace Hopkins L. Turney in the U.S. Senate. Jones supported Winfield Scott in the presidential election of 1852, but afterward began to drift apart from the Whig Party, which was imploding over the issue of slavery. In 1854, he railed against northern Whigs for refusing to support the Kansas-Nebraska Act. After the collapse of the Whig Party, Jones refused to join the American Party with other southern Whigs, and supported James Buchanan in the 1856 presidential election. He endorsed Stephen Douglas in the election of 1860. After serving in the United States Senate, Jones retired to his farm near Memphis, where he died. He was interred in the city's Elmwood Cemetery. See also List of governors of Tennessee References External links Tennessee State Library & Archives, Papers of Governor James Chamberlain Jones, 1841-1845 The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture 1809 births 1859 deaths Governors of Tennessee Members of the Tennessee House