U.S. congressman William Lowndes Yancey (1814-1863) was known for his unexcelled oratorical abilities as a spokesman of Southern interests.

William Yancey was born in Warren County, Ga., on Aug. 10, 1814, the son of an attorney who died in 1817. A few years later Yancey's mother married a clergyman, and the family moved to Troy, N.Y. Yancey attended Williams College, but left in 1833 without graduating and entered the law office of a strong unionist in Greenville, S.C.

Yancey became editor of the Greenville Mountaineer, a unionist paper. In 1837 he moved to Alabama, bought a sizeable plantation, and purchased two newspapers. Between 1836 and 1840 Yancey moved from ardent unionism to an equally zealous states'-rights position. He was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1841 and 1843. Twice elected to the U.S. Congress, he served from 1844 until 1846, when he resigned out of disgust at party politics. A powerful speaker, he was occasionally...