Berrien, John Macpherson

John Macpherson Berrien served as U.S. attorney general under President Andrew Jackson.

Berrien was born August 23, 1781, in New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton in 1796 and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1799. He began his judicial career in Georgia as a circuit court judge in 1810 and remained on the bench until 1821.

Berrien sat in the Georgia Senate from 1822 to 1823. From 1824 to 1829, he represented Georgia in the U.S. Senate, as a member of the Democratic Party.

"If this power is not granted by the Constitution, it is very certain, that no series of usurpation can give it a legitimate existence in that instrument."
—John Berrien

He served as U.S. attorney general from 1829 to 1831. He again served as senator from Georgia from 1841 to 1845 and from 1845 to 1852 as a member of the Whig Party.