James Phelan Sr.
James Phelan Sr. (October 11, 1821 – May 17, 1873) was a senator in the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War from the state of Mississippi.John Phelan married Mary Sluigan, of Cloncons Castle, King's County, and came to the United States in 1793, at the age of twenty-four.He was admitted to the bar in 1846, moved to Mississippi in 1849, and settled in Aberdeen, where he soon established a large practice.In 1863, he introduced what was called the "Crucial bill of the Confederacy," which was a proposition to confiscate all the cotton in the South, paying for it in Confederate bonds, and using it as a basis for a foreign loan.After 1864, Phelan served as judge advocate till the end of the war, when he settled in Memphis, Tennessee, and practised law in a firm formed with Henry T. Ellett in that city until his death.