Crawford, William Harris (1772-1834), an American politician and statesman, became a Southern leader in United States politics. His Democratic-Republican Party believed in an extreme form of states’ rights, the idea that the states retain all powers not given to the national government.
Crawford was a U.S. senator from Georgia from 1807 to 1813. He served as U.S. secretary of the treasury under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe from 1816 to 1825. In 1824, he ran for president but lost to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Crawford was born on Feb. 24, 1772, in Amherst County, Virginia. He died on Sept. 15, 1834.
