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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—VirginiaHUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro
(1809—1887)
Senate Years of Service:
1847-1861
Party:
Democrat
HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia; born at “Mount Pleasant,” near Loretto, Essex County, Va., April 21, 1809; tutored at home; graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1828; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1830 and commenced practice at Lloyds; member, State general assembly 1834-1837; elected as a States-Rights Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1843); Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Twenty-sixth Congress; unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Twenty-eighth Congress; elected to the Twenty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1847); chairman, Committee on the District of Columbia (Twenty-ninth Congress); elected to the United States Senate in 1846; reelected in 1852 and 1858 and served from March 4, 1847, to March 28, 1861, when he withdrew; expelled from the Senate in 1861 for support of the rebellion; chairman, Committee on Public Buildings (Thirtieth through Thirty-second Congresses), Committee on Finance (Thirty-first through Thirty-sixth Congresses); delegate from Virginia to the Confederate Provincial Congress at Richmond; Confederate Secretary of State 1861-1862; served in the Confederate Senate from Virginia in the First and Second Congresses 1862-1865 and was President pro tempore on various occasions; was one of the peace commissioners that met with President Abraham Lincoln in Hampton Roads in February 1865; briefly imprisoned at the end of the Civil War; State treasurer of Virginia 1874-1880; collector for the port of Tappahannock, Va. 1885; died on his estate ‘Fonthill,’ near Lloyds, Va., on July 18, 1887; interment in ‘Elmwood,’ the family burial ground, near Loretto, Va.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography
; Fisher, John E. “Statesman of a Lost Cause: The Career of R.M.T. Hunter, 1859-1887.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 1966; Moore, Richard Randall, “Robert M.T. Hunter and the Crisis of the Union, 1860-1861.” Southern Historian
13 (Spring 1992): 25-35.
Ambler, Charles Henry, ed. Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter, 1826-1876
. 1918. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.
Anderson, D.R. “Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter.” John P. Branch Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College
2 (June 1906): 4-77.
Anderson, James LaVerne. “Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter.”Virginia Cavalcade
18 (Autumn 1968): 9-13.
Anderson, James L., and Mary F. Crouch, eds. Papers of R.M.T. Hunter, 1817-1887.
University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, 1967. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1989. Microfilm. 13 reels and guide.
Anderson, James L., and W. Edwin Hemphill. “The 1843 Biography of John C. Calhoun: Was R.M.T. Hunter Its Author?” Journal of Southern History
38 (August 1972): 469-74.
Calhoun, John C. [R.M.T. Hunter, presumed author]. Life of John C. Calhoun, Presenting a Condensed History of Political Events from 1811 to 1843.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1843.
Crow, Jeffrey J. “R.M.T. Hunter and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861: A Southern Plan for Reconstruction.” West Virginia History
34 (April 1973): 273-90.
Fisher, John Eugene. “The Dilemma of a States’ Rights Whig: The Congressional Career of R.M.T. Hunter, 1837-1841.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
81 (October 1973): 387-404.
___. “Statesman of a Lost Cause: R.M.T. Hunter and the Sectional Controversy, 1847-1887.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, 1968.
Hitchcock, William S. “Southern Moderates and Seccession: Senator Robert M.T. Hunter’s Call for Union.” Journal of American History
59 (March 1973): 871-84.
Hunter, Martha T. A Memoir of Robert M.T. Hunter
. Washington: Neale Publishing Co., 1903.
Moore, Richard Randall. “In Search of a Safe Government: A Biography of R.M.T. Hunter of Virginia.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 1993.
___. “Robert M.T. Hunter and the Crisis of the Union, 1860-1861.” Southern Historian
13 (Spring 1992): 25-35.
Simms, Henry Harrison. Life of Robert M.T. Hunter: A Study in Sectionalism and Secession
. Richmond: William Byrd Press, 1935.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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