Hanson, Alexander Contee 1786–1819

Alexander Contee Hanson, Jr. was born on February 27, 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland to Alexander Contee Hanson, Sr. and Rebecca Howard. He was the grandson of John Hanson who was a delegate to the Continental Congress and signed the Articles of Confederation, as well as serving as the 9th President of the Continental Congress. Alexander Hanson was educated at local private schools until he attended St. John’s College in Annapolis in 1802. Afterward, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1803. He married Priscilla Dorsey on June 25, 1805 and they had several children, but only one lived to have heirs. Alexander Hanson was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1811 to 1815 and was elected to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses as a Federalist, serving from March 4, 1813 until his resignation in 1816. He was elected as a Federalist to the U.S. Senate to fill the seat left by the resignation of Robert G. Harper and served in that office from December 20, 1816 until his death. Hanson founded and edited a publication called The Federalist Republican Newspaper, a Federalist newspaper that was extreme in its Federalist views and often admonished and denounced the administration. On June 22, 1812, four days after the War had been declared, a mob that was angry with his publication and the extreme views published within, raided and destroyed his Baltimore office. He went on to publish the paper from another building in late July and another mob seriously injured him and killed James McCubbin Lingan, a military officer who came to Hanson's defense. He finally moved the paper to Georgetown in Washington D.C. where he was finally left alone. Later, he moved to Rockville, Maryland from where he was elected to his seats in both Congress and the Senate. Alexander Hanson, Jr. died on April 23, 1819 at his estate of Belmont near Elkridge, Maryland, having never fully recovered from the injuries sustained from the mob attacks, and is buried in his family burial ground.