William Lowndes Yancey - Public Office

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Yancey was increasingly interested in politics as his personal politics moved towards the most radical wing of the Southern Democratic Party. Influenced most by Dixon Hall Lewis, Yancey fell into a social and political circle that included political leaders of the state such as Thomas Mays, J. L. M. Curry, John A. Campbell, and John Gill Shorter. In April 1840, Yancey started a weekly campaign newsletter that supported Democrat Van Buren over Whig Harrison in the presidential election while emphasizing that slavery should now be the most important political and economic concern of the South. While still not a secessionist, Yancey was also no longer an unconditional unionist.

He was elected in 1841 to the Alabama House of Representatives, in which he served for one year. In March 1842, Yancey sold his newspaper because of increasing debt (throughout his career as an editor he faced the problem of many fellow editors — obtaining and collecting on subscriptions), and he opened a law practice instead. In 1843, he ran for the Alabama Senate and was elected by a vote of 1,115 to 1,025. His special concern in this election was the effort being made by Whigs to determine apportionment in the state legislature based on the "federal ratio" of each slave counting as three-fifths of a person. Currently only whites were counted and the change would benefit the Whigs who generally were the largest slaveholders. This division between large slaveholders and yeomen Alabamans would continue through the Alabama secession convention in 1861.

In 1844, Yancey was elected to the United States House of Representatives to fill a vacancy (winning with a 2,197 to 2,137 vote) and re-elected in 1845 (receiving over 4,000 votes as the Whigs did not even field a candidate). In Congress, his political ability and unusual oratorical gifts at once gained recognition. Yancey delivered his first speech on January 6, 1845, when he was selected by the Democrats to respond to a speech by Thomas Clingman, a Whig from North Carolina, who had opposed Texas annexation. Clingman was offended by the tone of Yancey’s speech and afterwards Yancey refused to clarify that he had not intended to impugn Clingman’s honor. Clingman challenged Yancey to a duel, and he accepted. The exchange of pistol fire occurred in nearby Beltsville, Maryland; neither combatant was injured.

In Congress, Yancey was an effective spokesman in opposing internal improvements and tariffs and supporting states’ rights and the start of the Mexican-American War. More and more, he subscribed to conspiracy theories regarding Northern intentions while helping to provide ammunition for those Northerners who were starting to believe in a slaveholders’ conspiracy. In 1846, however, he resigned his seat, partly for financial reasons, and partly because of his disgust with the Northern Democrats, whom he accused of sacrificing their principles for economic interests.