Representative Nathaniel Greene Foster

Nathaniel Greene Foster (August 25, 1809 – October 19, 1869) was an American politician, lawyer, military officer, jurist, and Baptist minister who represented Georgia in the United States House of Representatives in the mid-nineteenth century. He was born near Madison in Morgan County, Georgia, on August 25, 1809, into a region that was then part of Georgia’s developing agricultural interior. Details of his family background and early youth are sparse, but his subsequent education and professional career indicate that he was raised in circumstances that allowed for formal schooling and entry into the learned professions.

Foster pursued higher education at the University of Georgia in Athens, one of the state’s principal institutions of learning. He graduated in 1830 with a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree. Following his graduation, he read law in the customary manner of the period, preparing for admission to the bar through apprenticeship and independent study rather than through a formal law school. In 1831 he was admitted to the state bar of Georgia and commenced the practice of law in Madison, Morgan County, where he established himself as an attorney and entered public life in a community that would remain his home for the rest of his life.

In addition to his legal work, Foster had an early record of military service. During the Seminole War, he served as the captain of a company of men, reflecting both local prominence and a willingness to participate in the armed conflicts that marked the expansion of the United States in the Southeast during that era. His combination of legal training and military experience contributed to his growing reputation in Georgia and prepared him for subsequent roles in public office.

Foster’s formal public career began in the state judicial system. On March 3, 1838, he was elected solicitor general of the Ocmulgee circuit, a significant prosecutorial office in the Georgia courts. He served in that capacity until his resignation on October 3, 1840. That same year, he entered legislative service when he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. He advanced quickly in state politics and was elected to the Georgia Senate, serving there from 1841 through 1843. After several years focused on his legal practice and local affairs, he returned to the state senate and was re-elected to that body in 1851 and 1852, underscoring his continued influence in Georgia’s political life.

Foster moved onto the national stage in the 1850s. In the congressional elections of 1854, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a member of the American Party, commonly known as the Know-Nothing Party, which was then a significant force in national politics with its nativist and anti-immigrant platform. He served one term in Congress, sitting in the Thirty-fourth Congress from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1857, representing Georgia during a period of intensifying sectional conflict in the years leading up to the Civil War. While serving in Congress, Foster also underwent a notable personal and vocational transition: during his term he became an ordained pastor in the Baptist Church, adding religious leadership to his established roles as lawyer and legislator.

After the conclusion of his congressional service, Foster returned to Georgia and resumed his legal career. In the aftermath of the Civil War, during the Reconstruction era, he again assumed judicial responsibilities in the state court system. On September 30, 1867, he was appointed or elected as a judge of the Ocmulgee circuit, the same circuit in which he had earlier served as solicitor general. He held this judicial office until 1868, when he resigned due to poor health. His resignation marked the end of a long public career that had spanned military service, state legislative leadership, national office, and the judiciary, as well as his work in the Baptist ministry.

Nathaniel Greene Foster died on October 19, 1869, in Madison, Morgan County, Georgia. He was interred in Madison Cemetery in that city. His life and career reflected the intertwined legal, political, military, and religious currents of nineteenth-century Georgia, and he is remembered as a figure who served his state in multiple capacities over several decades.