* Was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Athens, Ga., in 1836
* [[solicitor general]] of the western judicial circuit of Georgia 1837-1841
* Elected as a [[Democrat]] to the Twenty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1843-– March 3, 1851)
* Chairman, Committee on Mileage (Twenty-eighth Congress)
* [[Speaker of the House of Representatives]] (Thirty-first Congress)
* [[Governor]] of Georgia 1851-1853
* Elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1855-– March 3, 1857)
* [[Secretary of the Treasury]] in the Cabinet of President [[James Buchanan|Buchanan]] and served from March 6, 1857, to December 10, 1860, when he resigned
* Chairman of the convention of delegates from the [[Civil War|seceded States]] which assembled in [[Montgomery]], Ala., on February 24, 1861, to form a [[Confederacy|Confederate Government]]