Thomas, Jesse Burgess (1777–1853)

US Democrat senator. Appointed a federal judge in the new Illinois Territory (1809–18), he then became one of the new state's first two senators (1818–29). He proposed the amendment calling for the admission of Maine and Missouri but prohibiting slavery above 36° 30' that became part of the Missouri Compromise Bill (1820).

Thomas was born in Sheperdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia). He settled in Indiana Territory in about 1803 and held several offices while working to separate Illinois as an independent territory. After leaving the Senate, he moved to Ohio and saw service in the Black Hawk War (1832) and managed his wife's extensive property there; he committed suicide less than two years after her death.