Representative James Xavier McLanahan

James Xavier McLanahan (May 17, 1809 – December 16, 1861) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served two terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 16th congressional district from 1849 to 1853. His congressional service took place during a significant period in American history, as he participated in the national legislative process and represented the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents in the years immediately preceding the sectional crises of the 1850s.

McLanahan was born on May 17, 1809, near Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, to William and Mary (Gregg) McLanahan. He came from a politically prominent Pennsylvania family. He was the grandson of Andrew Gregg, who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania, and he was a second cousin of Andrew Gregg Curtin, who later became Governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War. This family background placed him within an established tradition of public service and political engagement in the Commonwealth.

McLanahan pursued his education at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an institution that produced many lawyers and public officials in the early nineteenth century. He graduated in 1827. After completing his collegiate studies, he read law under George Chambers, a distinguished attorney who later served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and as a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Under Chambers’s tutelage, McLanahan received a thorough grounding in the law. He was admitted to the bar in 1837 and commenced the practice of law in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, establishing himself as a practitioner in the region.

McLanahan’s political career began at the state level. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate, where he served as a senator for the 14th district from 1841 to 1842. He then represented the 18th district in the State Senate from 1843 to 1844. In these roles he participated in shaping state legislation during a period of economic development and political realignment in Pennsylvania, building a reputation that would support his later election to national office.

In 1848, McLanahan was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-first Congress, representing Pennsylvania’s 16th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was reelected to the Thirty-second Congress, serving continuously from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1853. During his two terms in Congress, he contributed to the legislative process at the federal level at a time marked by debates over territorial expansion, slavery, and the Compromise of 1850. In the Thirty-second Congress he held a position of particular responsibility as chairman of the United States House Committee on the Judiciary, where he played a role in overseeing and shaping legislation related to the federal judicial system and legal affairs. He did not seek renomination in 1852, concluding his service in the House at the end of his second term.

After leaving Congress, McLanahan resumed the practice of law. He returned to his legal career, drawing on his extensive experience in both state and national government. In his later years he continued to be identified with the Democratic Party and with the legal profession that had formed the foundation of his public life.

James Xavier McLanahan died in New York City on December 16, 1861, at the age of 52. His death came in the first year of the American Civil War, a conflict that would deeply involve the state and national institutions in which he and his family had long been active.