Poinsett, Joel Roberts (1779–1851)

US cabinet member and diplomat. President Madison sent him as a special agent to observe and deal with independence movements in Latin America (1810–15). He was a member of the US House of Representatives (Democrat, South Carolina; 1821–25) and the first US ambassador to Mexico (1825–29), where his machinations made him highly unpopular. He opposed the nullification movement in South Carolina (1830–32). All his life he had hoped for a military career but the closest he came was when President Van Buren named him secretary of war (1837–41). A man of wide interests, he was happy to return to his estate in South Carolina. He opposed the Mexican War and the secession movement that began to emerge in the South after 1847.

He was born in Charleston, South Carolina. After studying medicine and languages in Britain, he travelled widely (1801–08). An amateur botanist, he developed a plant that he brought back from Mexico and it was named after him, the poinsettia.