Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Cheves, Langdon 1776-1857

Statesman; born in Abbeville District, S. C., Sept. 17, 1776. Admitted to the bar in 1800, he soon became eminent as a lawyer and as a leader in the State legislature, which he entered in 1808. He was attorney-general of the State, and was a member of Congress from 1811 to 1816, zealously supporting all war measures introduced. When, in 1814, Henry Clay was sent to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain, he succeeded the Kentuckian as speaker of the House, which place he held for a year, his casting vote defeating a bill for the rechartering of the United States Bank. The bank was rechartered in 1816; and when in trouble in 1819 Cheves was appointed president of its directors, and by his great energy and keen judgment it was saved from dissolution. He became chief commissioner under the treaty of Ghent for settling some of its provisions. He was a public advocate of disunion as early as the year 1830, but opposed nullification (q. v.). He died in Columbia, S. C., June 25, 1857.