John Rhea (ca. 1753–1832) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee, 1803–15 and 1817–23. A native of Ireland, he served on the American side during the Revolutionary War and later became an attorney. Rhea represented Sullivan County in the North Carolina legislature, supported the United States Constitution in 1789 at the second North Carolina ratification convention, and helped draft the first constitution of Tennessee in 1796. After statehood he served in the Tennessee legislature, 1796–97. During James Monroe’s administration, Rhea found himself embroiled in controversy when Andrew Jackson justified his 1818 invasion of Florida by alleging that Monroe had sanctioned that action via a letter to him from Rhea. Rhea regularly sent TJ his circular letters to his constituents, but TJ’s only letter to Rhea during his retirement was a letter of introduction in which he mistook Rhea’s first name (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, 20 vols. description ends ; Princetonians description begins James McLachlan and others, eds., Princetonians: A Biographical Dictionary, 1976–90, 5 vols. description ends , 1776–1783, pp. 293–6 [maintaining that the man of this name who attended the College of New Jersey was not the congressman]; Heitman, Continental Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April, 1775, to December, 1783, rev. ed., 1914 description ends , 464; Jackson, Papers description begins Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 1980– , 6 vols. description ends , 4:165–8; Richard R. Stenberg, “Jackson’s ‘Rhea Letter’ Hoax,” Journal of Southern History 2 [1936]: 480–96; TJ to Rhea, 22 Sept. 1815).