Walter Terry Colquitt (December 27, 1799May 7, 1855) was a lawyer, circuit-riding Methodist preacher, and politician. Born in Virginia, he later moved with his family to Georgia, where he grew up. He graduated from Princeton College, "read the law", and passed the bar. Later he was elected as United States Representative, and then by the Georgia state legislature as US Senator from the state. Life and career Born in Monroe in 1799 in Halifax County, Virginia, Colquitt moved as a child with his parents to Mount Zion in Carroll County, Georgia. He attended Princeton College and studied law, gaining admission to the bar in 1820 at the age of 21. He began his law practice that year in Sparta, Georgia. Later that year, Colquitt was commissioned as a brigadier general of the state militia, also at the age of 21. Colquitt moved to the village of Cowpens in Walton County, where he practiced law. He was elected judge of the Chattahoochee circuit in 1826, and was re-elected three years later. He was licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1827, and practiced as a circuit-riding preacher. He became extremely popular in central and south Georgia, mostly for his strong support of states' rights at a time when the state tried to deal directly with the Native American tribes who occupied extensive territory there. The state was trying to force them to cede land for the benefit of white settlers, but only the federal government was authorized constitutionally to make treaties with the Native Americans and deal with them officially. Colquitt was said to be able to make a stump speech, try a court case and plead another at the bar, christen a child, preach a sermon, and marry a couple - all before dinner. He was elected as a member of the Georgia Senate in 1834 and 1837. In 1838, after Indian Removal had been underway for several years in Georgia and the Southeast by the federal government, Colquitt was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress, serving from March 4, 1839, to July 21, 1840, when he resigned. He changed parties, affiliating with the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Van Buren Democrat to the Twenty-seventh Congress. Newly available seats were open in the election, due to the resignations of Julius C. Alford, William Crosby Dawson, and Eugenius A. Nisbet. Marriages and family Colquitt married Nancy Holt after