Thomas Jefferson Withers

{{Short description|American politician (1804–1865)}} {{Use American English|date=March 2017}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}} '''Thomas Jefferson Withers''' (1804 – November 7, 1865) was an American politician from [[South Carolina]] who served in the [[Confederate States Congress]] during the [[American Civil War]].

== Biography == Withers was born in [[York County, South Carolina]].<ref name="Perry">{{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Ex-Governor B. F. |title=Sketch of Hon. T. J. Withers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/339394197/?terms=%22T%2BJ%2BWithers%22 |accessdate=11 May 2019 |work=Yorkville Enquirer |date=27 June 1872 |location=York, South Carolina |page=1}}</ref> In his youth he was a protege of U.S. Senator William Smith and studied at South Carolina College.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1872-06-27 |title=Sketch of Hon. J. T. Withers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/yorkville-enquirer-sketch-of-hon-j-t/164891412/ |access-date=2025-02-07 |work=Yorkville Enquirer |pages=1}}</ref> He was elected as a state court judge in 1846, to fill the vacancy left by the election of [[Andrew Butler]] to the US Senate.<ref name="Edgefield1846">{{cite news |title=Elections by the legislature |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/72221142/?terms=%22T%2BJ%2BWithers%22 |accessdate=11 May 2019 |work=Edgefield Advertiser |date=16 December 1846 |location=Edgefield, South Carolina |page=2}}</ref> He represented the state in the [[Provisional Confederate Congress]] in 1861 and signed the [[Confederate States Constitution]] although it was reported that when taking the oath to the new constitution, he refused to kiss the Bible.<ref name="Akers">{{cite news |last1=Akers |first1=Merton T. |title=Confederate States Meet. (Another In Series Of Articles On Civil War History) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/447653449/?terms=%22Judge%2BThomas%2BJ%2BWithers%22 |accessdate=11 May 2019 |work=Latrobe Bulletin |agency=UPI |date=4 February 1961 |location=Latrobe, Pennsylvania |page=14}}</ref>

Withers is also notable for the sexually explicit letters he wrote in 1826 to a college friend, future South Carolina governor [[James Henry Hammond]], with whom Withers had a homosexual relationship. The letters, which are housed among the Hammond Papers at the [[University of South Carolina|South Carolina Library]], were first published by researcher Martin Duberman in 1981, and are notable for being rare evidence of same-sex relationships in the [[antebellum United States]].<ref name=Duberman>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn-ySVOZaSQC Duberman, Martin Bauml. "'Writhing Bedfellows': 1826." ''Journal of Homosexuality'' 6, no. 1 (1981): 85-101.] Reprinted in ''The Gay Past: A Collection of Historical Essays''. Eds. Salvatore J. Licata, and Robert P. Petersen. New York: Haworth Press, 1981. {{ISBN|0-917724-27-5}}</ref><ref name="Rupp">{{cite book |last1=Rupp |first1=Leila J. |title=A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America |date=1999 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226731551 |pages=6, 50–51}}</ref>

Withers married a Miss Boykin (sister-in-law of [[Stephen Decatur Miller]], governor of South Carolina),<ref name="Perry"/> with whom he had several children.<ref name="Abbeville">{{cite news |title=Distressing Occurrence |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9860142/thomas_jefferson_withers_injured_1858/ |accessdate=11 May 2019 |work=The Abbeville Press And Banner |date=11 March 1858 |location=Abbeville, South Carolina |page=2}}</ref> Withers died at Camden in [[Kershaw County, South Carolina]],<ref name="Edgefield">{{cite news |title=Death of Judge Withers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9859911/thomas_jefferson_withers_death_1865/ |accessdate=11 May 2019 |work=Edgefield Advertiser |date=22 November 1865 |location=Edgefield, South Carolina |page=2}}</ref> and was interred at the Quaker Cemetery in the same city.

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== *[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/withers.html Political Graveyard] *{{Find a Grave|6718644}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Withers, Thomas Jefferson}} [[Category:1804 births]] [[Category:1865 deaths]] [[Category:LGBTQ people from South Carolina]] [[Category:American bisexual men]] [[Category:American bisexual politicians]] [[Category:Bisexual male politicians]] [[Category:Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]] [[Category:People from York County, South Carolina]] [[Category:People of South Carolina in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Signatories of the Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Signatories of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:South Carolina Democrats]] [[Category:South Carolina lawyers]] [[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]