Representative Albert Galliton Harrison

Albert Galliton Harrison (June 26, 1800 – September 7, 1839) was a three-term United States Representative from Missouri, a member of the Democratic Party, and a slaveholder. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his Missouri constituents from the mid-1830s until his death in office in 1839.

Harrison was born on June 26, 1800, in Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky. Little is recorded about his early childhood, but he came of age in the early national period, when Kentucky was a growing frontier state and westward expansion was reshaping the young republic. His upbringing in this environment likely influenced his later interest in land issues and western development, which became central themes in his professional and political life.

Harrison pursued higher education at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the leading institutions of the region in the early nineteenth century. He graduated in 1820, a period when Transylvania was known for training many future political and legal figures from the western states. Following his graduation, Harrison studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law in his native Mount Sterling. His legal training and early practice provided the foundation for his subsequent public service and political career.

In 1827, Harrison moved west to Fulton, Missouri, reflecting the broader migration patterns of Americans seeking opportunity in the expanding western territories and states. He quickly became involved in public affairs. In 1828, he served as a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point, a body charged with overseeing and advising on the academy’s operations and standards. From 1829 to 1835, he was a member of the commission to settle land titles arising from Spanish grants, a critical responsibility in Missouri and surrounding areas where land claims predating U.S. sovereignty required legal clarification. This work placed him at the center of complex questions of property, sovereignty, and settlement in the trans-Mississippi West.

Harrison entered national politics as a supporter of President Andrew Jackson and the Jacksonian wing of the Democratic Party. In 1832, he was elected as a Jacksonian Democratic Representative from Missouri to the Twenty-fourth Congress, serving from March 4, 1835, to March 3, 1837. He was subsequently re-elected as a Democratic Representative to the Twenty-fifth Congress, serving from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1839, and then to the Twenty-sixth Congress, in which he served from March 4, 1839, until his death on September 7, 1839. Over the course of these three terms in office, he contributed to the legislative process during a period marked by debates over banking, federal power, westward expansion, and slavery. As a Democratic representative of a slave state and a slaveholder himself, Harrison’s service in Congress reflected the political and social tensions of the era, particularly in a rapidly developing western state like Missouri.

Albert Galliton Harrison died in office six months into his third term on September 7, 1839, in Fulton, Missouri, at the age of 39. His death cut short a congressional career that had coincided with formative years in Missouri’s and the nation’s political development. His remains were interred in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., a resting place for many members of Congress who died while serving.

Harrison’s legacy in Missouri is reflected in the places named in his honor. Harrison County, Missouri, bears his name, as does the town of Harrisonville in Cass County, Missouri, commemorating his role as one of the state’s early congressional representatives. His name also appears in historical compilations of members of the United States Congress who died in office between 1790 and 1899, underscoring his place in the institutional history of the national legislature.