During his lifetime, Brown was one of the most popular and the most influential men in Mississippi. He is considered to be the father of the public school system and of the
University of Mississippi. His rhetorical attacks on illiteracy are considered to have made a substantial contribution to the cause of education in Mississippi. He was also a
Fire-Eater and a strong advocate for the expansion of slavery. In 1858, he said: "I want a foothold in
Central America... because I want to plant slavery there.... I want
Cuba,...
Tamaulipas,
Potosi, and one or two other
Mexican States; and I want them all for the same reason - for the planting or spreading of slavery." Indeed, he went on to say, "I would spread the blessings of slavery, like the religion of our Divine Master, to the uttermost ends of the earth." To those who agreed with such views, "Albert Gallatin Brown possessed magical powers. With many learnt spells, handsome countenance surrounded by a luxuriant, flowing beard and dark-curly hair, in every sense he looked distinguished. Courageous, he was void of vanity; animated, he was persuasive; his spirit, crackerish to the extreme."
Reuben Davis, who knew him well, states in his book
Reminiscences on Mississippi and Mississippians that Brown "was the best-balanced man I ever knew.... In politics, he had strategy with-out corruption, and handled all his opponents with skill but never descended to intrigue." Brown began his political career in the
Mississippi Legislature, winning an election in 1835 to represent
Copiah County and serving as House speaker pro tempore. Brown then ran as a Democrat to represent Mississippi's single at-large district in the
US House of Representatives, winning the seat in 1839. He declined to run for reelection to Congress and was elected as a
circuit judge in 1841. He was
elected governor of Mississippi in 1843, defeating his
Whig opponent by a margin of nearly 10%, and winning reelection by a landslide in the
1845 election. Prevented by term limits from running for Governor again, he won an 1847 election to represent
Mississippi's 4th congressional district. When one of Mississippi's
US Senate seats became vacant in 1854, Brown's loyalists in the state legislature voted for him to become senator. Re-elected to the Senate in 1859, he then withdrew following Mississippi's secession from the United States in January, 1861. At the start of the
Civil War Brown raised a company of volunteer infantry, which entered service as Company H of the
18th Mississippi Infantry Regiment. Governor
John J. Pettus offered Brown a position as a general in
Mississippi's state army, but he declined, instead joining his regiment in Virginia as captain of the Confederate company he had recruited. Brown left the army in 1862 when he was elected to serve as one of Mississippi's senators in the
Confederate States Congress. He was reelected to that position and served in the Confederate Senate until the end of the war. During
Reconstruction he advocated for reconciliation, which made him unpopular in his home state. Brown never resumed public office following the war. ==Personal life==