Henry Stuart Foote (1804-1880) bucked the tide of public opinion as an opponent of secession and the expansion of slavery in Civil War-era Mississippi.

The career of Henry Stuart Foote is a profile in political courage--or at the very least, political stubbornness. For Foote swam against the tide of public opinion and defied the wishes of the political establishment in opposing southern secession and the expansion of slavery in the years before the outbreak of the Civil War. Serving Mississippi as its senator, governor, and even, paradoxically, as a representative of the Confederate Congress, Foote argued consistently for peace and against the inevitability of war between the states. His stubbornness in political convictions was an outgrowth of his personal character, which was marked by a propensity to engage in feuds and duels with his rivals.

Henry Stuart Foote was born in Fauquier County, Virginia on February 28, 1804. His parents...