Representative Micajah Thomas Hawkins

Micajah Thomas Hawkins (May 20, 1790 – December 22, 1858) was an American farmer, militia officer, and Democratic politician who served five terms as a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina from 1831 to 1841. He was born near Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina, in 1790, into a family with notable political connections; he was a nephew of Benjamin Hawkins, a prominent U.S. senator and Indian agent, and of Nathaniel Macon, a long-serving member of Congress and influential North Carolina statesman. Raised in this environment, Hawkins was introduced early to public affairs and the political life of his state.

Hawkins received his early education at Warrenton Academy, a leading local institution that educated many future North Carolina leaders. He subsequently attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he pursued the classical and general studies typical of the period. After completing his education, he returned to Warren County and engaged in agriculture as a practicing farmer, establishing himself in the rural economy that formed the backbone of his region’s social and political structure.

Hawkins entered public life in the early nineteenth century through service in the North Carolina General Assembly. He was first elected to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1819 and was re-elected in 1820, representing his constituents in the lower house of the state legislature. He then advanced to the North Carolina State Senate, where he served from 1823 to 1827. In addition to his legislative duties, Hawkins was active in the North Carolina militia, in which he rose to the rank of major general, reflecting both his standing in the community and his role in the state’s military organization during the antebellum period.

Hawkins’s state-level experience and family political heritage helped propel him to national office. He was elected to the Twenty-second Congress as a Jacksonian, later aligning with the Democratic Party, in a special election to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Representative Robert Potter. Taking his seat on December 15, 1831, he was subsequently re-elected to four full terms, serving continuously in the U.S. House of Representatives from December 15, 1831, to March 3, 1841. As a member of the Democratic Party representing North Carolina, Micajah Thomas Hawkins contributed to the legislative process during five terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history marked by the presidencies of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, debates over federal power, economic policy, and the expansion of the nation. He declined to be a candidate for re-election in 1840 and, upon the expiration of his final term, returned to North Carolina.

After leaving Congress, Hawkins resumed his agricultural pursuits near Warrenton, continuing his work as a farmer while remaining engaged in public affairs. He re-entered state politics and again served in the North Carolina State Senate in 1846, demonstrating the continued confidence of his constituents in his leadership. Later, he held executive responsibility as a member of the North Carolina Council of State from 1854 to 1855, participating in the advisory body that assisted the governor in the administration of state government.

Micajah Thomas Hawkins died near Warrenton, North Carolina, on December 22, 1858. He was buried in the vicinity of his birthplace and longtime home, closing a life closely tied to the political and agricultural life of North Carolina in the first half of the nineteenth century.