Alexander Martin

Alexander Martin (1740 -- 10 November 1807) was the Federalist governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1782 to 1784 and from 1789 to 1792.

Martin was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), graduating with an B.A. degree in 1756 and an M.A. in 1759. He moved to North Carolina around 1761 and became a practicing attorney in Guilford County.

In 1774, Martin was elected to the Colonial Assembly in North Carolina; he fought in the Continental Army at the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. He was dismissed from the army for cowardice int the battle of Germantown in 1777 and returned to North Carolina, where he served in the North Carolina Senate during periods from 1778 to 1782, in 1785, and from 1787 to 1788.

In 1782, the General Assembly elected him North Carolina Governor; he served until 1785. Martin was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was elected Governor by the legislature once again in 1789, 1790, and 1791.

Martin was elected to the United States Senate and served there for a single term from 1793 to 1799. As an Anti-Federalist member of Congress, he opposed the Jay Treaty but supported the Alien and Sedition Acts. Also an advocate for education, Martin served on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1790 until his death in 1807.

The General Assembly refused to appoint him to a second term in the U.S. Senate; Martin then retired to his North Carolina farm. He did return to politics during the last years of his life, serving from 1805 to 1807 as Speaker of the North Carolina Senate