Joel Roberts Poinsett

December 12, 2013 by staff

Joel Roberts Poinsett, Joel Roberts Poinsett (March 2, 1779 – December 12, 1851) was an American physician and diplomat. He was the first U.S. agent in South America, a member of the South Carolina legislature and the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico (the United States did not appoint ambassadors until 1896), a U.S. Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, and a cofounder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts (a predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution), as well as the eponym of Poinsett County, Arkansas; Poinsett Highway, Poinsett Bridge, and Poinsett State Park in South Carolina; Lake Poinsett in South Dakota; and the poinsettia, a popular Christmas plant.

Born in 1779 in Charleston, South Carolina to a wealthy physician, Dr. Elisha Poinsett, and his wife Katherine Ann Roberts, he was educated in Connecticut and Europe, gaining expertise in languages, the law and military affairs.

In 1800 Poinsett returned to Charleston hoping to pursue a military career. His father did not want his son to be a soldier. Hoping to entice his son to settle into the Charleston aristocracy, Dr. Poinsett had his son study law under Henry William DeSaussure, a prominent lawyer of Charleston. Poinsett was not interested in becoming a lawyer, and convinced his parents to allow him to go on an extended tour of Europe in 1801. DeSaussure sent with him a list of law books including Blackstone’s Commentaries and Burn’s Ecclesiastical Law, just in case young Poinsett changed his mind regarding the practice of law.