After being educated at private academies in Charleston and England, Lowndes read law and was admitted to the bar. As a respected and important member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, he was the author of the so-called Compromise of 1808, an amendment to the state constitution that provided the upcountry with more equitable representation in the General Assembly. In 1810, he was elected to Congress where he became a leading member of the “War Hawks,” a faction of young congressmen who strongly favored a military resolution to the country’s dispute with Britain. A nationalist, he helped author the bill that created the Second Bank of the United States. With Henry Clay, William Jones Lowndes led the successful effort in the House to pass the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.