Charles F. Mercer

Charles F. Mercer

Charles Fenton Mercer (born June 16, 1778 in Fredericksburg , Virginia , †  May 4, 1858 in Alexandria , Virginia) was an American politician . Between 1817 and 1839 he represented the state of Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Charles Mercer was a nephew of John Francis Mercer (1759-1821), who was governor and congressman for the state of Maryland . Another uncle was James Mercer (1736–1793) who was a delegate to the Continental Congress . He was also a cousin of Congressmen Robert S. Garnett (1789-1840) and James M. Garnett (1770-1843). He attended Princeton College . After completing a law degree and being admitted to the bar in 1802, he began to work in this profession.

Mercer settled in 1803 where the village of Aldie was later formed. In 1804 he obtained the right to build a dam and a water mill on the Little River and had a mill built between 1807 and 1809 . During the British-American War of 1812 he served in various units of the state troops of Virginia and rose to brigadier general. Politically, he joined the Federalist Party . Between 1810 and 1817 he was a member of the Virginia House of Representatives . From 1828 to 1833 he was President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company .

In the congressional election of 1816 , Mercer was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the eighth constituency of Virginia , where he succeeded Joseph Lewis on March 4, 1819 . After eleven re-elections, he could remain in Congress until his resignation on December 26, 1839 . In the 1820s he became an opponent of the future US President Andrew Jackson . He supported President John Quincy Adams and first became a member of the short-lived National Republican Party and then the Whig Party, founded in 1835 . In 1829 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the Virginia Constitution. From 1831 to 1839 Mercer was chairman of the Roads and Canals Committee. He was also one of the initiators of the establishment of the state of Liberia , where former slaves were to be released into freedom. In 1836 he was Vice President of the Virginia Colonization Society . Since President Jackson took office in 1829, there has been heated debate inside and outside of Congress about its policies. It was about the controversial enforcement of the Indian Removal Act , the conflict with the state of South Carolina , which culminated in the nullification crisis , and the banking policy of the president. From 1823 Charles Mercer represented the 14th district of his state.

In 1842, Mercer became vice president of the National Society of Agriculture . He died on May 4, 1858 near Alexandria.

supporting documents

1. ↑ James W. Moody, Jr. et al .: National Register of Historic Places nomination form ( English , PDF, 1.3 MB) Virginia Department of Historic Resources. June 3, 1970. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 2, 2013. 

Web links

• Charles F. Mercer in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Charles F. Mercer in the database of Find a Grave (English)