Alexandre Mouton, the sixth child of Jean Mouton and Marie Martha Bordat was born 19 November 19 1804 at his family's plantation on Bayou Carencro in Attakapas County [Lafayette Parish]. In 1826, he married Celia Rousseau of Opelousas. They had five children before Celia died. In January 1842 he married Emma Kitchell Gardner, and they had six children. Mouton died on 12 February 1885 in Vermilionville [Lafayette]. He is interred in St. John's Cemetery, Lafayette, Louisiana.

Mouton graduated from Georgetown College, Washington, DC, in 1820. He was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1825 after studying law under Charles Antoine and Edward Simon of St. Martinville. After practicing law for a few years, Mouton turned his attention to the cultivation of cotton and sugar cane at Ile Côpal Plantation near Vermilionvile, which his father had given him.

Mouton was in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1826 to 1832, serving as speaker the last two years. He was in the U. S. Senate from 1837 until 1842. He was Governor of Louisiana from 1843 to 1846, the first democratically elected governor of the state. He also served as chairman of the Louisiana Secession Convention in 1861.