James Coffield Mitchell (1786 – 1843) was an American politician who represented Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

.

Mitchell was born in Staunton, Virginia

Staunton, Virginia

Staunton is an independent city within the confines of Augusta County in the commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 23,746 as of 2010. It is the county seat of Augusta County....

, in March 1786 and attended the common school

Common school

A common school was a public school in the United States or Canada in the nineteenth century. The term 'common school' was coined by Horace Mann, and refers to the fact that they were meant to serve individuals of all social classes and religions....

s. He studied law, was admitted to the bar

Bar association

A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

, and practiced law. He moved to Tennessee and settled in Rhea County

Rhea County, Tennessee

Rhea County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 28,400. Its county seat is Dayton.-Geography:According to the U.S...

. From 1813 to 1817, he was the Solicitor General for the third district of Tennessee. He moved to Athens, Tennessee

Athens, Tennessee

Athens is a city in McMinn County, Tennessee, United States. It is the county seat of McMinn County and the principal city of the Athens Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the larger Chattanooga-Cleveland-Athens Combined Statistical Area. The population was 13,220 at the 2000...

, in 1817.

He was elected to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses. He served from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1829. During the Twentieth Congress, he was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Military Pensions. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election. He was judge of the eleventh circuit from 1830 to 1836. He then moved to Hinds County, Mississippi

Hinds County, Mississippi

As of the census of 2000, there were 250,800 people, 91,030 households, and 62,355 families residing in the county. The population density was 288 people per square mile . There were 100,287 housing units at an average density of 115 per square mile...

, and settled near Jackson

Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...

 around 1837. He was an unsuccessful candidate on the Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 ticket for Governor of Mississippi and for the Mississippi House of Representatives

Mississippi House of Representatives

The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi....

. He was the author of Mitchell's Justice. He died near Jackson, Mississippi, on August 7, 1843.

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