Weldon Nathaniel Edwards

{{short description|American legislator (1788–1873)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Weldon Nathaniel Edwards | image = Weldon N. Edwards.jpg | office = 31st President pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate | term_start = 1850 | term_end = 1852 | predecessor = Andrew Joyner | successor = Warren Winslow | state_senate1 = North Carolina | term1 = 1850 | term_start2 = 1833 | term_end2 = 1844 | state3 = North Carolina | district3 = {{ushr|NC|6|6th}} | term_start3 = February 7, 1816 | term_end3 = March 3, 1827 | predecessor3 = Nathaniel Macon | successor3 = Daniel Turner | state_house4 = North Carolina | term_start4 = 1814 | term_end4 = 1815 | birth_date = January 25, 1788 | birth_place = Gaston, North Carolina, U.S. | death_date = December 18, 1873 | death_place = Warren County, North Carolina, U.S. | party = Jacksonian (since 1825) | other_party = Democratic-Republican (until 1825) | alma_mater = | occupation = Politician | spouse = | children = | relatives = }} '''Weldon Nathaniel Edwards''' (January 25, 1788 – December 18, 1873) was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina (1816 – 1827).

==Early life== Edwards was born in 1788 in Gaston, North Carolina. He has attended Warrenton Academy where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1810 commencing practice in Warrenton, North Carolina.

==Political career== ===State house of representatives=== Edwards was member of the State house of representatives in 1814 and 1815.

===Congressional career=== Edwards served from February 7, 1816, to March 3, 1827 in the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Republican to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Nathaniel Macon, was reelected as a Republican to the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Congresses, elected as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, and as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress.

Edwards was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury (Eighteenth Congress), Committee on Public Expenditures (Nineteenth Congress). He declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1826 and chose to return to his plantation instead.

===North Carolina Senate=== He was a member of the State senate between 1833–1844. In 1835 he was a member of the State constitutional convention. Edwards was reelected to the State senate in 1850 and chosen its speaker.

He was president of the State secession convention in 1861.

==Death== Edwards died in Warren County, North Carolina on December 18, 1873 and was interred in a private cemetery at his home, "Poplar Mount," about twelve miles from Warrenton in Warren County.<ref name="NCPEDIA">{{cite web|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/edwards-weldon-nathaniel|title=Nathaniel Weldon Edwards|author=McFarland, Daniel M.|year=1986|website=NCPEDIA|accessdate=November 5, 2019|archive-date=December 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213212554/https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/edwards-weldon-nathaniel|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000083 U.S. Congress Biographical Directory entry] * [http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?sp=Markers&sv=E-100 North Carolina Historical Marker]

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state = North Carolina | district = 6 | before = Nathaniel Macon | after = Daniel Turner | years = 1816–1827 }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Weldon Nathaniel}} Category:1788 births Category:1873 deaths Category:People from Gaston, North Carolina Category:Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives Category:North Carolina state senators Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States representatives from North Carolina Category:Jacksonian United States representatives from North Carolina Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:19th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly