“C” is for Colhoun, John Ewing (ca.1749-1802)

“C” is for Colhoun, John Ewing (ca.1749-1802). U.S. senator. Born in Virginia, Colhoun moved with his family to the Long Canes region of the South Carolina backcountry in what is now Abbeville County. He was a captain in the militia during the Revolutionary War. He entered the General Assembly in 1779 and remained a fixture in the S.C. House of Representatives over the next two decades. In December 1800 Colhoun was elected by the General Assembly to the U.S. Senate as part of the electoral “revolution” that placed Thomas Jefferson in the presidency. Taking his seat in March 1801, he soon broke with the Jefferson administration when he sided with the Federalist opposition in supporting the preservation of an independent federal judiciary. John Ewing Colhoun's Senate service was cut short by his untimely death in 1802.