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Higher Office(s) Served: Representative, Senator

GABRIEL MOORE was born in 1785 in Stokes County, North Carolina. He studied law at the University of North Carolina and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1810. Moore moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1810 and settled in Huntsville where he practiced law and entered politics. He was a member of the Mississippi and then the Alabama Territorial House of Representatives where he served as speaker in 1817. He was a member of the Alabama Constitutional Convention (1819) and a member of the Alabama Senate (1819-1820), serving as president in 1820. He also served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1821-1829). Moore ran unopposed and was elected Alabama's fifth governor on August 3, 1829. He was sworn into office on November 25, 1829. During his term, a constitutional amendment passed that placed a six-year term limit on the justices of the Alabama Supreme Court. The first railroad was charted, and the construction of the Tennessee River canal in the Muscle Shoals area began. The Treaty of Dancing Creek was also negotiated. Moore opposed the establishment of the U.S. Bank, advocated the graduated sale of public lands, urged a revision of the penal code, and worked for the building of a state penitentiary. He also was a strong advocate of the University of Alabama, which was preparing to open its doors. Moore, who was considered one of the most capable and colorful of the early governors, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1831. He resigned his governor seat on March 3, 1831, to serve in the U.S. Senate. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1831 to 1837. Moore moved to Caddo, Texas, in 1843, where he died a year later.

Sources:

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States 1789-1978, Vol.1, Westport, Ct; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.