Representative Alfred Moore Gatlin

Alfred Moore Gatlin (April 20, 1790 – February 23, 1841) was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina during the early national period of the United States. He was born in Edenton, North Carolina, on April 20, 1790, in a region that was an important political and commercial center of the state in the post-Revolutionary era. Little is recorded about his immediate family background, but his subsequent education and professional career indicate that he was raised in circumstances that afforded him access to advanced schooling and entry into the legal profession.

Gatlin pursued classical studies at New Bern, North Carolina, a prominent coastal town that served as a cultural and political hub in the state. His classical education would have included Latin, Greek, rhetoric, and moral philosophy, subjects considered essential for public life and the practice of law in the early nineteenth century. He continued his formal education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the earliest public universities in the United States, and graduated in 1808. His graduation at a relatively young age placed him among the educated elite of North Carolina at a time when higher education was still uncommon.

After completing his studies, Gatlin read law and entered private practice as a lawyer. Although specific details of his legal career are sparse, his admission to the bar and work in private practice reflected the typical path for ambitious young men seeking influence in public affairs in the early republic. As a practicing attorney, he would have been engaged in the legal and commercial disputes of a growing state, gaining experience that prepared him for elective office and participation in national politics.

Gatlin’s national political career began with his election as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1823, to March 3, 1825. The designation “Crawford Republican” identified him with the faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that supported William H. Crawford of Georgia in the presidential election of 1824, during a period when the old party system was fracturing and new political alignments were emerging. Representing North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives, Gatlin participated in the legislative process at a time marked by debates over internal improvements, tariffs, and the evolving balance of power between the federal government and the states. During his single term in Congress, he took part in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents within this shifting political landscape.

In 1824, Gatlin was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Nineteenth Congress, bringing his brief tenure in national office to a close on March 3, 1825. His defeat occurred amid the broader realignment of American politics that followed the contentious presidential election of 1824 and the gradual dissolution of the unified Democratic-Republican Party. Although he did not return to Congress, his service during one term placed him among those North Carolinians who helped shape federal policy in the years between the War of 1812 and the rise of Jacksonian democracy.

Following his congressional service, Gatlin returned to private life, presumably resuming his legal practice and remaining engaged in the civic and professional affairs typical of former members of Congress, although the surviving record of his later activities is limited. At some point thereafter he relocated to Florida, which had become a U.S. territory in 1821 and was attracting settlers, professionals, and officeholders as its institutions developed. He spent his final years in Tallahassee, the territorial capital, suggesting that he may have been drawn there by professional opportunities or political connections in the growing Southern frontier.

Alfred Moore Gatlin died on February 23, 1841, in Tallahassee, Florida. He was interred in St. John’s Episcopal Cemetery in Tallahassee, reflecting both his residence there at the end of his life and his connection to the Episcopal tradition that was influential among many members of the Southern professional class. His career, though relatively brief on the national stage, illustrates the path of an early nineteenth-century Southern lawyer who moved from classical education and legal practice into the evolving world of American party politics and congressional service during a formative period in the nation’s history.