Edwards was born in 1788 in Gaston, North Carolina. He has attended Warrenton Academy where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1810 commencing practice in Warrenton, North Carolina.

State house of representatives edit

Edwards was member of the State house of representatives in 1814 and 1815.

Congressional career edit

Edwards served from February 7, 1816, to March 3, 1827 in the United States House of Representatives. He was elected as a Republican to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Nathaniel Macon, was reelected as a Republican to the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Congresses, elected as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, and as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress.

Edwards was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury (Eighteenth Congress), Committee on Public Expenditures (Nineteenth Congress). He declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1826 and chose to return to his plantation instead.

North Carolina Senate edit

He was a member of the State senate between 1833–1844. In 1835 he was a member of the State constitutional convention. Edwards was reelected to the State senate in 1850 and chosen its speaker.

He was president of the State secession convention in 1861.

Edwards died in Warren County, North Carolinaon December 18, 1873 interred in a private cemetery at his home, "Poplar Mount," about twelve miles from Warrenton, Warren County, North Carolina.^[1]

• Fourteenth United States Congress
• Fifteenth United States Congress
• Sixteenth United States Congress
• Seventeenth United States Congress
• Eighteenth United States Congress
• Nineteenth United States Congress

• U.S. Congress Biographical Directory entry
• North Carolina Historical Marker