George Mortimer Bibb (October 30,1776 –April 14,1859) was an American lawyer and politician and the seventeenth United States Secretary of the Treasury. He was chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and twice represented Kentucky as a senator in Congress,serving from 1811 to 1814 and from 1829 to 1835.
While a wealthy man,he claimed to have faced significant financial difficulties from losses in the Panic of 1837.[3]
Following the death of his father,the Reverend Richard Bibb Sr.,George Bibb advised his brother on how to carry out his father's instructions in his will to emancipate his slaves. George Bibb did so despite his personal pro-slavery views.[3]
However,he did not emancipate his own slaves,believing that free blacks were "a nuisance to society." At the time of Bibb's death,his body servant Willis was auctioned in Washington DC,near the White House.[4]
In 1811,he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky and served until 1814 when he again returned to Lexington to work as a lawyer. He moved to Frankfort,Kentucky in 1816 and sided with the New Court faction in the Old Court-New Court controversy in the 1820s. He was again named Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1827,serving for a year.[2]
He was re-elected to the United States Senate in 1829 and served as a Jacksonian Democrat through 1835. During the 21st Congress he was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Post Office and Post Roads. While in the Senate,he was a strong advocate for pro-slavery views.[3] In 1834,he was the sole Democratic member of the Senate to vote in support of the censure of President Andrew Jackson.[5]
He was in his late sixties when he assumed his Treasury position,dressing "in antique style,with kneebreeches." Bibb's Annual Report on the State of the Finances for 1844 consisted of an elaborate compilation of statistics detailing the financial history of the nation since 1789. In addition,he presented a solid argument for the establishment of a "sinking fund," accumulated through regular deposits and used to pay the interest and principal on the national debt. Bibb advocated using Treasury surplus revenue from customs and internal revenue collection to supply the sinking fund. Such a fund had been used effectively to reduce the deficit from 1789 to 1835,but Bibb was unable to revive it.
He was an active Freemason. He was the first master of Russellville Lodge No. 17,in Russellville,Kentucky,and was master of Hiram Lodge No. 4,in Frankfort,Kentucky. He was also past master of Lexington Lodge No. 1,in Lexington,Kentucky,and served as secretary in 1804. In 1804 he was grand master of Kentucky.[6]
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