Nathaniel A. Ware
The details surrounding the life of Nathaniel A. Ware (1780 or 1789-1854) are rather uncertain. It appears, however, that Ware was born near Abbeville, South Carolina on August 16, 1780. He seems to have been a schoolteacher in South Carolina for some period of time, while studying and perhaps even practicing the law. He would eventually journey to the Mississippi Territory in 1811, where he would become an attorney. In the following year, he would join the United States militia to take part in the War of 1812, and would eventually be promoted to the rank of Major. Ware would then be elected as a member of the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives of the Mississippi Territory, serving at different times between 1813 and 1817. This was in the period prior to the territory being admitted into the Union. During this time, Ware would also serve as the secretary of the territory, and for a period between 1815 and 1816, Ware would also serve as the acting Governor. He would then attempt a run at Congress after Mississippi’s admission to the Union, but this proved unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Ware had apparently gained a considerable amount of wealth due to his dealings in land speculation.
It appears that Ware sold his land in Mississippi around 1820, but it is difficult to know the exact nature of his movements beyond this point. For a period in 1822, Ware would serve in Florida as the commissioner for the adjudication of land claims. He would then reside in Philadelphia for some time, and this is presumably when he became acquainted with the ideas of the American Protectionists. In October 1823, Ware would be made a member of the American Philosophical Society, which was located in Philadelphia. During this time, the Society’s membership also included the likes of Tench Coxe, Samuel Jackson, as well as Mathew and Henry C. Carey. Sometime after, it appears that Ware relocated to Texas, and sought to establish a cotton manufacturing plant, but this venture never materialized. Ware would later appear in Cincinnati, Ohio, and there is also some evidence that he may have lived in France for a year. It then seems that Ware returned to the South, first in Natchez, Mississippi, then in Texas. It appears that he was a banker during his time in Mississippi, and then a plantation owner during his later years in Texas.
​
Ware wrote at least four books during his life, but it is difficult to know the exact number because he published under pseudonyms. His main work was his economics treatise, Notes on Political Economy. This appeared in 1844 under the pseudonym “a southern planter.” The following year, his next work appeared under the title An Exposition of the Weakness and Inefficiency of the Government of the United States of North America. Then in 1846, he wrote A Treatise on the Natural Method of Education. Later in 1848, Ware would produce a novel entitled Harvey Belden: Or a True Narrative of Strange Adventures. Although no portraits or images of Ware have survived, a biographical sketch of Ware’s wife, Catharine Ann Warfield, contains a graphic description of this fascinating and obscure economist:
​
​
"[He was] a man of profound learning and well versed in science… but a man full of eccentricities and naturally very shy and reserved in character… He was a philosopher… a fine scholar, with a pungent, acrid wit, and cool sarcasm, which made him both feared and respected… He was a handsome man, his features marked – his nose aquiline, his mouth small and compressed, his eyes of bright blue, his complexion pure and fair as a young girl’s, his cheeks freshly colored, his brow white as lily – a very venerable looking man."
In 1854, Nathaniel A. Ware would contract yellow fever and would pass away in Galveston, Texas.