Graves was born in 1856 in Willington, South Carolina to General James Porterfield Graves and Katherine Floride Townes. He was related to the Calhoun family, a prominent family in 18th and 19th-century American politics, and was the great-grandnephew of John C. Calhoun, who served as Vice President of the United States from 1825 until 1832. He served as a presidential elector for Florida in 1884 and for Georgia in 1888. He was an Atlantan. In 1903, Graves made a statement defending lynching: "The problem of the hour is not how to prevent lynching in the South, but the larger question: How shall we destroy the crime which always has and always will provoke lynching? The answer which the mob returns to this vital question is already known. The mob answers it with the rope, the bullet, and sometimes, God save us! with the torch. And the mob is practical; its theory is effective to a large degree. The mob is today the sternest, the strongest, and the most effective restraint that the age holds for the control of rape."
1908 vice presidential candidacy
The newly formed Independence Party decided to hold a national convention in Chicago, Illinois. Graves was nominated as one of the candidates for president on July 27. The first ballot saw a tally of 396 votes for Thomas L. Hisgen, 213 for Graves, 200 for Milford W. Howard, 71 for Reuben R. Lyon, and 49 for William Randolph Hearst. A second ballot brought Hisgen to the doorstep of nomination, gathering 590 votes, compared to 189 for Graves and 109 for Howard. Only in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 29 did Hisgen go over the top, winning the nomination. Graves was subsequently chosen as the party's nominee for vice president. In the general election, the Independence Party ticket received 82,574 votes, coming in fifth place. They performed best in Massachusetts, where they received 4.2% of the popular vote. Following the general election defeat, the Independence Party quickly faded away into obscurity, although they were fielding candidates in New York until 1914.
Graves married Mattie E. Simpson on April 17, 1878, and Anne E. Cothran on December 30, 1890. He had two daughters, Mrs. Frederick Tompkins and Anne Graves; and three sons, John Temple Graves Jr., James de Graffenried Graves, and Cothran Calhoun Graves. He died in Washington, D.C. on August 8, 1925, at the age of 68.
