US Congressman. Born in Inglewood, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, he was an 1819 graduate of the College of William and Mary and from 1821 maintained a law practice in Boydton. He later purchased an estate in the area, which he called "Wheatland". Bewteen 1822 and 1852 he served 14 terms in the State House of Delegates (three of them as Speaker), and was a member of the State Constitutional Conventions in 1829, 1830, and 1850. Throughout his legislative career Goode was active in debates on slavery, advocating gradual emancipation, and this stance impacted his fortunes on the national stage. His first run for the US House of Representatives (1832) ended in defeat. In 1840 he was elected as a Democrat to represent Virginia's 4th District in the Twenty-Seventh Congress, serving from 1841 to 1843, but was subsequently not renominated by his party. Only during the 1850s, with Congress bitterly divided between North and South, abolitionists and pro-slavers, were Osborne's moderate views more welcome to that body. He won election to the Thirty-Third and three succeeding Congresses, serving from 1853 until his death in Boydton. He died before taking his seat in the Thirty-Sixth Congress and would not see the issue decided by the Civil War. A cenotaph in his memory was erected at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.
US Congressman. Born in Inglewood, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, he was an 1819 graduate of the College of William and Mary and from 1821 maintained a law practice in Boydton. He later purchased an estate in the area, which he called "Wheatland". Bewteen 1822 and 1852 he served 14 terms in the State House of Delegates (three of them as Speaker), and was a member of the State Constitutional Conventions in 1829, 1830, and 1850. Throughout his legislative career Goode was active in debates on slavery, advocating gradual emancipation, and this stance impacted his fortunes on the national stage. His first run for the US House of Representatives (1832) ended in defeat. In 1840 he was elected as a Democrat to represent Virginia's 4th District in the Twenty-Seventh Congress, serving from 1841 to 1843, but was subsequently not renominated by his party. Only during the 1850s, with Congress bitterly divided between North and South, abolitionists and pro-slavers, were Osborne's moderate views more welcome to that body. He won election to the Thirty-Third and three succeeding Congresses, serving from 1853 until his death in Boydton. He died before taking his seat in the Thirty-Sixth Congress and would not see the issue decided by the Civil War. A cenotaph in his memory was erected at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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