Biography:
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar was born in Eatonton, Georgia to a family of landed aristocrats. He attended school in Georgia and graduated from Emory College in 1845. After reading law for two years, Lamar passed the bar in 1847.
After an unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat, Lamar moved to Mississippi where he settled on a plantation and resumed law practice. He was a strong states' rights advocate and was elected to Congress in 1857.
Lamar served in the Confederacy but his commission as colonel was cut short by an attack of apoplexy. As a special envoy to Russia on behalf of the Confederate States, Lamar managed to attend diplomatic briefings in Europe.
After the War, Lamar urged reconciliation. He was pardoned and reelected to Congress. Lamar resigned from the Senate in 1885 to serve as Grover Cleveland's secretary of the interior. Two years later, Cleveland selected Lamar as the first ex-Confederate to serve on the nation's highest tribunal.
