Thompson, Waddy (Sept. 8, 1798 - Nov. 23, 1868), congressman from South Carolina and diplomat, was born in Pickensville, south of the present town of Easley, S. C., the son of Waddy Thompson, a distinguished lawyer and a successful local politician, and Eliza (Blackburn) Thompson, both natives of Virginia. He was the uncle of Hugh Smith Thompson [q.v.]. Young Waddy was graduated from South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina, in 1814. He afterward studied law in the private offices of two South Carolina lawyers and was admitted to the bar in 1819. After practising for five years in Edgefield, where he married Emmala Butler, the daughter of William Butler, 1759-1821 [q.v.] and the sister of Andrew and Pierce M. Butler [qq.v.], he removed to Greenville. In 1826 the Greenville District elected him to the state legislature and he served in that body until 1830, when he retired because he was not in accord with the Union sentiment of his constituency. He was then chosen by the legislature as solicitor for the Western District. Opposed to the tariffs of 1824 and 1828, he became an ardent Nullifier and was made a brigadier-general in the forces organized to defend his state against Federal interference, an office that he held until 1842. In 1835 he was the successful Whig candidate to fill the vacancy in Congress caused by the death of Warren R. Davis, and he continued to represent the Greenville District in that capacity until 1841 despite the vigorous opposition of John C. Calhoun, who had gone over to the Democratic party and wished to carry the state with him. Although no candidate announced against Thompson for the campaign of 1840, he decided to retire from the political arena.

Early in 1842, however, the Whig administration appointed him as minister to Mexico. His appointment to the post might have appeared unwise, for his career in Congress had been conspicuous for his hostility to John Quincy Adams with respect to antislavery petitions, and for his advocacy first of the recognition and then of the annexation of Texas. Nevertheless, his mission met with a considerable degree of success. He obtained the release of some three hundred prisoners, citizens of the United States in the main, who had been captured during the desultory war between Mexico and Texas; made some progress in the settlement of claims; persuaded the Mexican government not to exclude American immigrants from California; obtained minor commercial concessions; and at one time set in motion negotiations that appeared to promise the peaceful acquisition of California. He won the respect and friendship of the Mexicans and returned to the United States in 1844 an ardent friend of Mexico. Two years later he published his Recollections (1846) of his mission, a calm, judicious volume still cited by historians.

Returning to Greenville he resumed his legal practice and accumulated a small fortune in South Carolina and Florida real estate. After the death of his first wife, he married in 1851 Cornelia Jones of Wilmington, N. C., who with their one son survived him. Soon after 1852 he built on the top of Paris Mountain, really a hill about 2,000 feet above sea level, a luxurious house equipped with almost every known convenience and filled with books, paintings, and curios. He might have reëntered politics, if he had not been too honest to trim his sails to the popular breeze. Disapproving the war with Mexico and doubting the expediency of secession, he preferred to retire to private life. As the result of the Civil War, he lost his fortune. Early in 1867 he removed to Madison, Fla., where he still owned a plantation. His death occurred during a visit to Tallahassee.