Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (born April 21, 1809 in Mount Pleasant , Essex County , Virginia , †  July 18, 1887 in Lloyds , Virginia) was an American politician and Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the 18th speaker of the US House of Representatives .

Origin and career

Hunter was the son of James and Maria (Garnett) Hunter and was descended from a number of leading families in old Virginia. Mount Pleasant was one of those large estates, owned by the mother's family. His parents had a tutor teach him. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1829 and Winchester Law School in 1830 . His law school teacher was passionate state lawyer Henry St. George Tucker . He was also admitted to the Virginia bar in the year of his law degree.

On October 4, 1836, he married Mary Evelina Danbridge. From this marriage there were eight children. One son, Robert Jr., died while serving as Secretary of State.

Political career

Early in his political career, Hunter demonstrated his ambivalence in the fact that he first refused to join a party. Therefore he sat as a non-party from 1834 to 1835 in the House of Representatives of Virginia and from 1835 to 1837 in the Senate of Virginia . In 1837 he entered the United States House of Representatives as States' Rights Whig . In 1839 he was elected chairman of this parliament, but not re-elected in 1841. But he stayed in the House of Representatives until 1843. After becoming a supporter of John C. Calhoun and States' Rights Democrat , he lost in the 1842 election but was re-elected to the US House of Representatives in 1844. Before the end of his mandate he was elected to the US Senate and took office on March 4, 1837. During this time he repeatedly wavered in his political convictions. On the one hand he liked the role of a staunch unionist, on the other hand he had nothing against the division of the USA into northern and southern states . His voting behavior was also not fixed. Sometimes he voted with the southern interest groups, sometimes with the Republicans and the abolitionists . Hunter advocated the annexation of Texas , the Tax Act of 1857 and also the Lecompton Constitution , 1857 as a proposal for the state of Kansas to be formed . She allowed slavery and forbade the legislature to abolish it. From 1850 to 1861, Hunter was also chairman of the Senate Finance Committee . Both Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan offered him the office of Secretary of State, but he declined both times. In 1860 he applied in vain for the presidential candidacy at the 8th Democratic Congress. After losing all hopes of a compromise with the North, he supported John Cabell Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election.

Secession period

Hunter advocated secession of Virginia and resigned as a US Senator in March 1861. He was elected as a delegate for Virginia to the Provisional Confederate Congress. In this congress he was a member of the finance committee and advocated the move of the capital to Richmond . During this period he was a staunch supporter of the Confederate government. But because of its opportunistic character, this could not last. After Robert Augustus Toombs' resignation on July 25, 1861, Jefferson Davis made him his successor as Secretary of State. Hunter tried to win the support of Spain for the Confederates. In the diplomatic letters he had the principles of self-government explained from the point of view of the Confederates. During this time, Hunter was still a staunch supporter of the CS president. Nevertheless, he resigned on February 22, 1862 from his office to return to the CS Senate , into which he had been elected for Virginia. In 1864 he was re-elected. There he also acted as President pro tem on both occasions . He has served on the Conference, Finance and Foreign Affairs Committees. On the one hand, he was in favor of collecting taxes, but on the other hand, he rejected any tax increase. He was in favor of the drafting of all older and younger men into the military , but at the same time he called for generous exceptions to it. He demanded tight control of inflation, but at the same time he encouraged the printing of more and more banknotes. He was for the repeal of the Habeas Corpus Act . However, he denied the CS President the right to make unlimited use of the powers he had gained through this revocation. He vigorously advocated property confiscation laws, but opposed any arming of slaves. Ultimately, Hunter broke up with Davis over the issue of freeing slaves. On February 3, 1865 he tried together with CS Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens and the Deputy Secretary of War John Archibald Campbell at the Hampton Roads Conference to come to a mutual agreement with the North. But he waived because the war was practically won. The understanding also failed because of the “all or nothing” attitude of CS President Davis on the question of the independence of the South. After the Confederate government collapsed, Hunter surrendered on May 1, 1865 and was interned for seven months at Fort Pulaski in the port of Savannah , Georgia . During this time, the US General Benjamin Franklin Butler systematically destroyed his country estate, which also plunged Hunter's Afro-American ex-slaves, who had previously been freed from the northern states, into misery.

post war period

Upon his release, Hunter returned to devastated Essex County and resumed his practice as a lawyer. In 1874 he ran for the US Senate, but lost the election. From 1877 to 1880 he was Treasurer of Virginia and in 1886 a customs collector in the port of Tappahannock . He was drawn into a controversy with Jefferson Davis through the publication of an article in the Southern Historical Society Papers . He died on July 18, 1887 in Lloyds and was buried in the family burial ground on Elmwood near Loretto .

literature

• Jon L. Wakelyn: Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge ISBN 0-8071-0092-7
• Ezra J. Warner + W. Buck Yearns: Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress Greenwood Press, Westport, CT + London, GBR ISBN 0-8371-6124-X
• Rembert W. Patrick: Jefferson Davis and his cabinet Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1944

Web links

• Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter in the database of Find a Grave (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Robert Augustus Toombs	Foreign Minister of the Confederate July 25, 1861 - February 22, 1862	William Montague Browne