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Joel Roberts Poinsett | |
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| 15th United States Secretary of War | |
| In office March 7, 1837 – March 4, 1841 | |
| President | Martin Van Buren (8th), |
| Preceded by | Lewis Cass |
| Succeeded by | John Bell |
| United States Minister to Mexico | |
| In office June 1, 1825 – October 17, 1829 | |
| President | John Quincy Adams (6th), Andrew Jackson (7th), |
| Preceded by | James Wilkinson (1757-1825), (Envoy, 1816-1825) |
| Succeeded by | Anthony Butler (Acting) |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 1st district | |
| In office March 4, 1821 – March 7, 1825 | |
| Preceded by | Charles Pinckney |
| Succeeded by | William Drayton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joel Roberts Poinsett March 2, 1779 Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A. |
| Died | December 12, 1851 (aged 72) Stateburg, South Carolina, U.S.A. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Mary Izard Pringle Poinsett |
| Parents |
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| Education | University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom) Royal Military Academy, (Woolwich, England, United Kingdom) |
Joel Roberts Poinsett (March 2, 1779 – December 12, 1851) was an American physician, botanist, politician, and diplomat. He was the first U.S. agent in South America, a member of the South Carolina Legislature in the South Carolina State Capitol, at the state capital town of Columbia, and later a United States Representative (congressman) in the U.S. House of Representatives (the lower chamber of the Congress of the United States), serving 1821-1825. He was appointed by 6th President, John Quincy Adams as the first United States Minister to Mexico (ambassador), He replaced U.S. Army General James Wilkinson (1757-1825), who had been in the Royal Spanish colony of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (of Mexico) as an envoy for a decade, 1816-1825. Minister Poinsett served 1825-1829. (continuing into the first year of the successor Andrew Jackson presidential administration). Mexico had recently declared its independence in 1821, and formed a new brief provisional government then later as the First Mexican Empire (1823-1824), (Mexico), from the Kingdom of Spain and its longtime colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain, in the Americas portion of the world-wide Spanish Empire. He served to represent the American government during his term to the subsequent another Mexican provisional interim government and then following the First Mexican Republic regime in a tumultuous period of their history in their capital city of Mexico City.
Poinsett was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson during the early to mid-19th century in favor of his policies of Jacksonian democracy. He was Unionist leader in South Carolina during that state's threatened refusal to accept and enforce certain federal laws and tariff levies on imported goods in the earlier secessionist rebellion of the Nullification Crisis of the 1830s. Jackson threatened in return to subdue by military force if necessary the rebellious southern "Palmetto State", during the presidential administration of 7th President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845, served 1829-1837).
Poinsett was subsequently appointed 15th U.S. Secretary of War in the Presidential Cabinet under Jackson's successor, 8th President, Martin Van Buren (1782-1862, served 1837-1841), of New York state, supervising the U.S. Department of War and it's military forces of the United States Army.
He was a co-founder of the earlier National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts in the 1840s, (a predecessor of the modern Smithsonian Institution, endowed by James Smithson (1765-1829, a British scientist - chemist / mineralogist), and its system of museums and cultural / scientific agencies in Washington, D.C. and New York City).