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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—VirginiaJohn LETCHER
(1813-1884)
LETCHER, John, a
Representative from Virginia; born in Lexington, Rockbridge County,
Va., March 29, 1813; attended private rural schools and
Randolph-Macon College; was graduated from Washington Academy (now
Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., in 1833; studied
law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Lexington,
Va., in 1839; editor of the Valley Star from 1840 to 1850; delegate
to the State constitutional convention in 1850; elected as a
Democrat to the Thirty-second and to the three succeeding
Congresses (March 4, 1851-March 3, 1859); was not a candidate for
renomination in 1858, having become a candidate for Governor;
Governor of Virginia 1860-1864; prominent in the organization of
the peace convention that met in Washington, D.C., February 8,
1861, in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war;
discouraged secession, but was active in sustaining the ordinance
passed by Virginia April 17, 1861; after the war and the expiration
of his term as Governor resumed the practice of law in Lexington;
member of the State house of delegates 1875-1877; member of the
board of visitors of the Virginia Military Institute 1866-1880 and
served as president of the board for ten years; again resumed the
practice of law in Lexington, Va., where he died on January 26,
1884; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery.
Bibliography
Boney, F.N. John Letcher of Virginia; The Story of
Virginia’s Civil War Governor. University, Ala.:
University of Alabama Press, 1966.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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