Langdon Cheves had a bit of a rough start in life, but he managed to pull himself up and become quite the influential man in the early 1800s.

Despite the fact that few people have heard of him, Cheves was an active member of the House of Representatives, and managed to make the best of bad situations. When the 1810 embargo on European goods had the effect of collapsing rice and cotton prices, Cheves was able to channel the voters’ dissatisfaction into returning him to Congress. He was considered a War Hawk as 1812 rolled around and still managed to get re-elected.

Cheves was in the House of Representatives when Henry Clay was appointed Speaker, but while they generally followed similar attitudes, Clay and Cheves had a falling out over the seizure of merchants’ bonds during the War of 1812 and he found himself stripped of all committee assignments, Unfortunately for Clay, when he was asked to negotiate peace with Britain in 1824 he had to resign his position, and Cheves found himself elected Speaker. Cheves essentially went from Worst To First in the space of a year.

After leaving Congress, Cheves returned to his law practice but found himself appointed the presidency of the Bank of the United States, a position he held for longer than he’d planned because the Board of Directors had a hard time finding his replacement when he wanted to retire. After leaving the bank, he returned to South Carolina to become a rice planter and continued to engage in public debate, at one point arguing against South Carolina seceding from the Union unilaterally, believing in Southern unity.

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