Senator Matthias Ward

Matthias Ward (October 13, 1805 – October 5, 1861) was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, and United States Senator from Texas. He served in the Senate from 1857 to 1859, during a significant period in American history leading up to the Civil War, and contributed to the legislative process during one term in office as a representative of Texas and the Democratic Party.

Ward was born on October 13, 1805, in Elbert County, Georgia. During his youth he moved with his family to Madison County, Alabama, where he was raised. He attended an academy in Huntsville, Alabama, and, after completing his studies there, taught school while reading law. This combination of teaching and legal study provided the foundation for his later career as an attorney and public official.

After his admission to the bar, Ward migrated west to the Republic of Texas. In 1836 he settled in Bowie, Texas, where he established his legal practice and entered public life. As Texas developed politically and economically, Ward relocated within the state, moving to Clarksville, Texas, in 1845, the year of Texas’s annexation to the United States, and later to Jefferson, Texas. These moves reflected his growing involvement in regional affairs and his search for expanding professional and political opportunities on the Texas frontier.

Ward’s political career began in the Republic of Texas, where he served in the seventh and eighth congresses of the Republic, participating in the legislative deliberations of the independent Texas government. After statehood, he continued his public service as a Democrat in the Texas State Senate from 1849 to 1850. His prominence in state politics led him to seek higher office, but he experienced several electoral setbacks. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of Texas in 1851 and again for the United States Congress in 1855. In the 1855 race for Congress he campaigned on a proslavery and states’ rights platform against Lemuel D. Evans, reflecting the increasingly sectional nature of Texas and national politics in the 1850s.

Ward’s service in the United States Senate came about through appointment rather than election. Following the death of Senator J. Pinckney Henderson in 1858, Ward was appointed to fill the resulting vacancy. He entered the Senate on September 27, 1858, and served until December 5, 1859. During this period, which fell in the tense years preceding the Civil War, he participated in the democratic process at the federal level and represented the interests of his Texas constituents as a member of the Democratic Party. Although he sought to continue in the office, he failed to secure the nomination to run for the seat in the subsequent election and thus concluded his Senate service after one term in office.

In his later years, Ward remained identified with Texas and the Democratic cause, though he did not return to the United States Congress after his Senate term ended. He died on October 5, 1861, at Warm Springs, North Carolina, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War. His remains were taken to Tennessee for burial, and he was interred in the Old Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.