![Photo Caption: A twentieth-century portrait of Gov. John Murphy by Maltby Sykes. [Alabama Department of Archives and History]](https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/alabama-heritage-wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/10124414/John-Murphy.png)
John Murphy was born in Robeson County, North Carolina, in 1785, but he grew up in South Carolina, where he went to preparatory school. He attended South Carolina College in Columbia and became acquainted with future Alabama politicians John Gayle and James Dellet. After graduating in 1808, he worked for ten years as clerk in the South Carolina state senate.
In 1818 Murphy moved to Monroe County in southwest Alabama and established a cotton plantation. Chosen as a delegate to the 1819 state constitutional convention, he served on a committee of fifteen that drafted the initial state constitution and made it one of the most democratic in the nation. Murphy was elected to the state legislature in 1820 and 1822. A close ally of Gov. Israel Pickens, Murphy supported the creation of the state bank, an effort to spread adequate capital and credit among the people. The Pickens faction denounced its opponents as the “Royal Party” and as “aristocrats,” and they were so popular that Murphy was twice elected governor without opposition when he ran in 1825 and 1827.
Murphy served his four years in office in Tuscaloosa, the state’s capital at this time. His most significant achievement was facilitating the creation of the University of Alabama. The legislature had voted to create a state university before Murphy became governor, but it had not properly funded or moved the project forward. Murphy pushed through the necessary legislation that led to the location of the university in Tuscaloosa and the beginning of construction. The university opened its doors to students in 1831.
Murphy was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson in the presidential election of 1828, and like Jackson, he had little use for the Bank of the United States (BUS). Murphy learned that the BUS intended to build a branch in Mobile and that some north Alabamians wanted a Huntsville branch. Acutely aware that the BUS would create possibly ruinous competition for the state bank, Murphy argued that the Alabama institution supplied the state with sufficient financing. He rallied members of Alabama’s congressional delegation in opposition to the federal branch bank, but they failed, and the BUS came to Mobile. This was a bitter disappointment for Murphy, and as expected, the BUS badly damaged the state bank.
Murphy was an opponent of the so-called “Tariff of Abominations,” but because of his support for Andrew Jackson, he refused to join the extremists who supported South Carolina’s efforts to defy the federal law. This moderate position cost him a seat in Congress after he left the governorship in 1831, but in 1833 Murphy defeated his former South Carolina classmate James Dellet for a congressional seat. Murphy did not seek re-election in 1835, but he did seek another term in Congress in 1839. In a very close election, Dellet, the Whig nominee, defeated Murphy, who was running as a Democrat. Murphy spent his final years on his plantation, where he died on September 21, 1841.
Photo Caption: A twentieth-century portrait of Gov. John Murphy by Maltby Sykes. [Alabama Department of Archives and History]
This article was first featured in Alabama Heritage magazine Issue 117.
About the Author
Samuel L. Webb, a native of York, Alabama, holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama School of Law and a PhD in history from the University of Arkansas. He taught history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1988 to 2009 and is now an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama.
