Editing Howell Cobb (section)

===Congressman===
{{Further|Presidency of John Tyler|Presidency of James K. Polk|28th United States Congress|29th United States Congress|30th United States Congress}}

[[File:Lucy May Stanton, Howell Cobb, 1912, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives.jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[Lucy May Stanton]], ''Howell Cobb'', 1912, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives]]

Cobb was elected as [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] to the [[28th Congress|28th]], [[29th Congress|29th]], [[30th Congress|30th]] and [[31st Congress]]es. He was chairman of the [[U.S. House Committee on Mileage]] during the 28th Congress, and [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives]] during the [[31st Congress]].

He sided with President [[Andrew Jackson]] on the question of [[Nullification Crisis|nullification]] (i.e. compromising on import tariffs), and was an effective supporter of President [[James K. Polk]]'s administration during the [[Mexican–American War]]. He was an ardent advocate of extending [[slavery]] into the [[Historical regions of the United States|territories]], but when the [[Compromise of 1850]] had been agreed upon, he became its staunch supporter as a Union Democrat.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Brooks|first1=R. P.|title=Howell Cobb and the Crisis of 1850|journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review|date=December 1917|volume=4|issue=3|pages=279–298|doi=10.2307/1888593|jstor=1888593}}</ref> He joined Georgia Whigs [[Alexander Stephens]] and [[Robert Toombs]] in a statewide campaign to elect delegates to a state convention that overwhelmingly affirmed, in the [[Georgia Platform]], that the state accepted the Compromise as the final resolution to the outstanding slavery issues. On that issue, Cobb was elected [[governor of Georgia]] by a large majority.