Senator Oliver Hillhouse Prince - Contact Information

Oliver Hillhouse Prince (July 31, 1782 – October 9, 1837) was an American editor, attorney, and politician who represented Georgia in the United States Senate from 1827 to 1829. Born in Connecticut, he migrated as a child with his parents to Georgia, where he was raised and spent his professional life. Coming of age on the southern frontier in the early national period, he developed interests in law, journalism, and public affairs that would shape a varied and influential career in his adopted state.

Prince’s formal education is not extensively documented, but his later work as a lawyer, editor, and legal compiler indicates a strong grounding in classical legal training and letters, likely acquired through apprenticeship in a law office rather than at a formal law school, as was common in the early nineteenth century. Growing up in Georgia, he became closely identified with the state’s political and legal development during a period of rapid expansion, contested Indian removal policies, and evolving party alignments.

Before entering national office, Prince established himself both as a journalist and as an attorney. He worked in the newspaper field in Georgia in his early years, gaining experience that would later inform his editorial leadership. At the bar, he built a reputation as a capable lawyer and legal scholar. His most enduring professional achievement in this period was the preparation of A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia, published in 1822. For some thirty years this volume was regarded as the most important and authoritative collection of Georgia’s laws, widely used by lawyers, judges, and legislators. Prince also served in the Georgia state senate, where he participated in shaping state policy and furthered his standing as a public figure.

Prince’s prominence in Georgia politics led to his selection for national office. A member of the Jackson Party, aligned with the supporters of Andrew Jackson during the formative years of the Democratic Party, he was elected United States Senator by the Georgia state legislature in 1828. His service in Congress is recorded as running from 1827 to 1829, encompassing one term in the Senate during a significant period in American history marked by intense debates over federal power, economic policy, and sectional interests. As a senator, he participated in the legislative process and represented the interests of his Georgia constituents in the upper chamber of Congress, contributing to the democratic deliberations of the era.

After completing his term in the Senate, Prince returned to Georgia and resumed his legal and literary pursuits. In 1830 he left the active practice of law to become editor of the Georgia Journal, one of the state’s leading newspapers, thereby returning to the field of journalism in which he had first worked as a young man. Through the Journal he helped shape public opinion on political and legal questions in Georgia during a time of growing partisanship and regional tension. His combined work as legislator, legal compiler, lawyer, and editor led contemporaries to describe him as “one of the brilliant figures of Georgia in the first half of the nineteenth century.”

Oliver Hillhouse Prince’s life ended tragically. On October 9, 1837, he and his wife perished in the wreck of the steamship SS Home, which was grounded near Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, during Racer’s Storm. That storm is noted as the first hurricane recorded as striking both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Their deaths at sea cut short the career of a man who had played a notable role in Georgia’s legal, political, and journalistic life during the early decades of the United States.