It was the late great Mr. C. E. Julian, esteemed teacher of
history at Lamar County (GA) High School, who taught me that my home county was named
for a man named L. Q. C. Lamar. I don’t think he told us that “L. Q. C.” stood
for “Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus”—but it did.
(By the way, he was actually L.Q.C. II—yep, they actually
named him after his father, who was already saddled with that name that sounded
like a law firm in a gladiator movie. Also by the way, I once asked my father, the late great Champ Ruffin, why he didn’t name me after him. He said, “You must be kidding. Would you
really want to go through life being called ‘Little Champ’?”)
I also don’t think Mr. Julian told us that John F. Kennedy devoted
a chapter to L. Q. C. Lamar in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage (1955)—but he did.
So who was Lucius (as his friends called him) Lamar?
Well, he was born in Putnam County in 1825 and educated at
Emory College, then located in Oxford, Georgia. He married the daughter of
Emory’s president. He practiced law and was elected to the Georgia legislature.
When his father-in-law became president of the University of Mississippi, Lamar
moved his family to Oxford (the one in Mississippi). He was elected to the
United States House of Representatives in 1857, but he resigned in 1860 in
order to become a member of Mississippi’s secession convention. He wrote the
state’s ordinance of secession. He was one of those leaders who were so
enthusiastic about secession they were referred to as “fire-eaters.” He served
as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate army in the early years of the war
and as a diplomat for the Confederacy during its later years.
Lamar again served as a Congressman from Mississippi from
1873 until 1877, when he was elected to the United States Senate. He later
served as Secretary of the Interior. He wound up his career of public service
as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1888 until his
death in 1893.
President Kennedy considered Lamar a “profile in courage”
because of his actions as a U.S. Senator. At least three times he acted in ways
that were contrary to the clear wishes of his constituents. In those days, it
was standard procedure for a state legislature to issue instructions to their
national representatives on how they should vote on an issue. On one major
issue, Lamar defied the instructions of the Mississippi legislature.
In 1878, while under tremendous pressure from the citizens
of his home state, he said,
The liberty of this
country and its great interests will never be secure if its public men become
mere menials to do the biddings of their constituents instead of being
representatives in the true sense of the word, looking to the lasting
prosperity and future interests of the whole country.
Imagine—an elected national figure with so much courage and
integrity, and with so much devotion to the welfare of the entire nation, that
he did what his conscience told him was right, no matter the consequences to
his career.
Lamar County should be very proud to carry the name of such
a person.
Everybody figured Lamar’s political career was over, since
his votes were condemned by almost all of Mississippi’s voters. But a funny
thing happened on Lamar’s way to political oblivion. He traveled around the
state, explaining why he did what he did. And people were so moved by his
integrity and sincerity, they reelected him.
Imagine—voters who are willing to listen to a politician,
willing to realize that, even if they don’t agree with him, he has the
country’s best interests at heart, and willing to reelect him because of his integrity
and courage.
Oh, and I have to say it one more time: imagine a national
elected official being more interested in doing what is right and best than in
protecting his or her place in office.
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