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Robert M. T. Hunter

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (April 21, 1809 – July 18, 1887) was an American lawyer, politician and planter.[1] He was a U.S. representative (1837–1843, 1845–1847), speaker of the House (1839–1841), and U.S. senator (1847–1861). During the American Civil War, Hunter became the Confederate States Secretary of State (1861–1862) and then a Confederate senator (1862–1865) and critic of President Jefferson Davis. After the war, Hunter failed to win re-election to the U.S. Senate, but did serve as the treasurer of Virginia (1874–1880) before retiring to his farm. After fellow Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States in 1884, Hunter became the customs collector for the port of Tappahannock until his death.

Robert Hunter
President pro tempore of the Confederate States Senate
In office
February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865
Preceded byHowell Cobb (President of the Provisional Congress)
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Confederate States Senator
from Virginia
In office
February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
2nd Confederate States Secretary of State
In office
July 25, 1861 – February 18, 1862
PresidentJefferson Davis
Preceded byRobert Toombs
Succeeded byWilliam Browne (Acting)
United States Senator
from Virginia
In office
March 4, 1847 – March 28, 1861
Preceded byWilliam Archer
Succeeded byJohn Carlile
14th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office
December 16, 1839 [a] – March 4, 1841
Preceded byJames Polk
Succeeded byJohn White
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 8th district
In office
March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1847
Preceded byWilloughby Newton
Succeeded byRichard L. T. Beale
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 9th district
In office
March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843
Preceded byJohn Roane
Succeeded bySamuel Chilton
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Essex County
In office
December 1, 1834 – March 4, 1837
Preceded byRichard Baylor
Succeeded byGeorge Lorimer
Personal details
Born
Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter

(1809-04-21)April 21, 1809
Loretto, Virginia, U.S.
DiedJuly 18, 1887(1887-07-18) (aged 78)
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyWhig (Before 1844)
Democratic (1844–1887)
SpouseMary Dandridge
EducationUniversity of Virginia (BA)
Winchester Law School
Signature

Early life and education edit

Born at the "Mount Pleasant" plantation near Loretto, Essex County, Virginia, to James Hunter (1774–1826) and his wife Maria (Garnett) Hunter (1777–1811), R.M.T. Hunter was descended from the First Families of Virginia.[2] His mother's father, Henry Garnett was one of the county's largest landowners,[3] her brother James M. Garnett was the U.S. congressman representing the area (and her other brother Robert S. Garnett would be within a decade). However, Maria Hunter died shortly after giving birth to William Garnett Hunter (1811-1829), when Robert M. T. Hunter was two years old, and shortly after one of his slightly elder brothers, also William Hunter, died at age 5. Educated first by private tutors, R. M. T. Hunter entered the University of Virginia when he was 17, shortly after his father's death, and became one of its first graduates.[4] While a student, Hunter became a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society, then studied law at the Winchester Law School.

Planter edit

Several generations of Hunter's family owned a considerable number of slaves, most used to farm their plantations. In 1830, R.M.T. Hunter owned 72 slaves (44 males and 26 females), and his household consisted of two white males (presumably him and an overseer).[5] A decade later, following his marriage, R. M. T. Hunter's household included himself, two young white males (presumably one his eldest son) and five white females, as well as 83 slaves.[6] In 1850, R. M. T. Hunter of Essex County, Virginia, owned at least 100 slaves.[7] In the 1860 U.S. federal census for Essex County, Virginia, U.S. Senator Hunter owned real estate worth $80,890 and personal property (including slaves) worth $92,800. The federal lists of slaves owned by R. M. T. Hunter nearly fill the majority of two pages (more than 120 persons).[8]

Political career edit

In 1830, Hunter was admitted to the Virginia bar. In 1834, he was elected to represent Essex County in the Virginia House of Delegates, succeeding Richard Baylor. R. M. T. Hunter won re-election in 1834 and 1836, but resigned upon winning election to the U.S. Congress as discussed next.[9]

In 1836, Hunter was elected U.S. Representative as a States Rights Whig. He was re-elected in 1838, and became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives – the youngest person ever to hold that office. He was re-elected again in 1840, but was not chosen Speaker. In 1842 he was defeated for re-election, but returned in 1844. Hunter favored annexing Texas and compromise on the Oregon question (opposing the Wilmot Proviso), and led efforts to retrocede the City of Alexandria back to Virginia (removing it from the District of Columbia). After losing the 1842 election, Hunter changed parties, becoming a Democrat. In 1845, he again took the oath of office as an elected Congressman, and supported the Tariff of 1846.[10]

In 1846, the Virginia General Assembly elected Hunter U.S. Senator. He assumed office in 1847 and won re-election in 1852 and 1858. Hunter continued to support slavery and its extension: favoring extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, opposing abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia as well as any interference with its operation in any state or territory, and supported the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Senator Hunter delivered an address in Richmond supporting states’ rights in 1852, and in the 1857–58 congressional session advocated admitting Kansas under the pro-slavery Lecompton constitution.[10]

In the Senate, Hunter became chairman of the Committee on Finance in 1850. He is credited with bringing about a reduction of the quantity of silver in small silver denominations, helping push forward Senate Bill No. 271 which would eventually become the Coinage Act of 1853. Hunter also drafted and sponsored the Tariff of 1857 (which lowered duties) and creation of the bonded-warehouse system, although federal revenues were thereby reduced. He also advocated civil service reform.

In January 1860, Hunter delivered a speech in favor of slavery and the right of slaveholders to carry their slaves into the territories.[10] At the first session of the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, Hunter was a contender for the presidential nomination, but received little support except from the Virginia delegation. On the first eight ballots, he was a very distant second to the leader, Stephen A. Douglas, and was third on the remaining 49 ballots. When the convention reconvened in Baltimore, most Southerners withdrew, including Hunter, and Douglas won the party's nomination.

Hunter did not regard Lincoln's election as being of itself sufficient cause for secession. On January 11, 1861, he proposed an elaborate but impracticable scheme to adjust differences between the North and the South. When this and several other similar efforts failed, Hunter quietly urged his own state to pass the ordinance of secession in April 1861. He was expelled from the Senate for supporting secession. One scheme proposed him as president of the new Confederate government, with fellow former U.S. Senator Jefferson Davis as commander of the Confederate States Army. Voters in parts of Virginia that had not seceded elected Unionist John S. Carlile to fill the rest of Hunter's term.

American Civil War edit

 
Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter
 
1864 CSA $10 banknote depicting R.M.T. Hunter.

In July 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Hunter the Confederate States secretary of state. He resigned on February 18, 1862, after his election as a Confederate senator. Hunter served in the Confederate Senate in Richmond, Virginia, until the war's end, and was at times President pro tem. His portrait appeared on the Confederate $10 bill.[11]

As a Confederate senator, Hunter became an often caustic critic of Confederate President Davis. Despite this friction, Davis appointed Hunter as one of three commissioners sent to attempt peace negotiations in February 1865. Hunter met with President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward at the Hampton Roads Conference. However, after Lincoln refused to acknowledge the Confederacy's independence, Senator Hunter chaired a war meeting in Richmond where Confederates vowed they would never lay down their arms before achieving independence. Following Lee's surrender, President Lincoln summoned Hunter to confer regarding Virginia's restoration to the Union.

Many of Hunter's Garnett relatives became Confederate military officers, and his cousin Judge Muscoe Garnett (1808–1880) commanded the Home Guard in Essex County. Hunter's first cousins (through his mother) were career U.S. Army officers who became Confederate generals Robert S. Garnett and Richard B. Garnett, both of whom died in the conflict. His son James D. Hunter enlisted as a private in Company F, 9th Virginia Cavalry, which was organized in December 1861 with Lt. Garnett among its officers, and which was initially assigned to protect the Rappahannock River as well as the Rappahannock river port cities of Falmouth and Fredericksburg. James D. Hunter served only months before being furloughed on account of sickness in July 1862, but did participate in raids under Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and Capt. William Latane (who became a Confederate martyr as the only casualty of Stuart's vaunted ride around Union troops) and in General Lee's Seven Day offensive which ended the Union Peninsular Campaign.[12] While his eldest son R.M.T. Hunter Jr. died early in the war of disease, his second son, Robert D. Hunter, served as a staff officer in the Army of Northern Virginia and as an engineer.[13]

When some suggested late in the war that their slaves could be armed and serve in the Confederate Army to win their freedom, Senator R.M.T. Hunter vehemently opposed the proposal with a long speech against it, but after the Virginia legislature passed a resolution to the contrary, voted as instructed but with an emphatic protest.[10][14]

Later years edit

 
Hunter in later life

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson pardoned Hunter for his activities supporting the Confederate States. He unsuccessfully ran to become U.S. Senator again in 1874, to succeed Unionist Republican John F. Lewis. However, Confederate veteran Robert E. Withers of the Conservative Party won. After that loss, Hunter accepted an appointment as the Treasurer of Virginia, serving from 1874 to 1880, when he returned to his farm. Hunter also published Origin of the Late War, about the causes of the Civil War. From 1885 until his death, he was customs collector of the Port of Tappahannock, Virginia, near his home.

He died near Lloyds, Virginia, in 1887, and was buried at the Garnett family burial ground in Loretto in Essex County.

Personal life edit

He married Mary Evelina Dandridge (1817–1893) on October 4, 1836, in Jefferson County (then in Virginia, but which became West Virginia during the American Civil War). They had sons Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter Jr. (1839–1861), James Dandridge Hunter (1844–1892), Philip Stephen Hunter (1848–1919) and Muscoe Russell Garnett Hunter (1850–1865). Their daughters (educated and unmarried) were Martha Taliaferro Hunter (1841–1909), Sarah Stephena Hunter (1846–1865), Annie Buchanan Hunter (1852–1853) and Mary Evelina Hunter 1854–1881). In 1860 and later censuses, R. M. T. Hunter's unmarried sisters Martha Fenton Hunter (1800–1866) and Jane Swann Hunter (1804–1880) and half-sister Sara (Sully) Hunter (1822–1874) also lived on the family plantation.[15][16]

Legacy edit

 
The removal of Hunter's portrait from Congress on July 18, 2020.

In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Robert M. T. Hunter was launched. She was scrapped in 1971.[17]

As a former Speaker of the House, his portrait had been on display in the US Capitol. The portrait was removed from public display in the Speaker's Lobby outside the House Chamber after an order issued by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, on June 18, 2020.[18][19]

In popular culture edit

Hunter appeared in the 2012 film Lincoln, which included the Hampton Roads Conference. He was portrayed by Mike Shiflett.

See also edit

Notelist

  1. ^ multi-ballot election; voting lasted two days (The total vacancy was over eight months; Congress simply did not work until December.)

Notes edit

  •   This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hunter, Robert Mercer Taliaferro". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 944.

References edit

  1. ^ Appleton's Cyclopedia of Biography Vol. III, p. 323
  2. ^ "Rick--Waggener - User Trees - Genealogy.com". www.genealogy.com. Retrieved Jun 19, 2020.
  3. ^ http://www.essexmuseum.org/archive/bulletin-vol-13.pdf 2020-08-06 at the Wayback Machine[bare URL PDF]
  4. ^ University of Virginia. A Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the University of Virginia. Second Session, Commencing February 1, 1826. Charlottesville, VA: Chronicle Steam Book Printing House, 1880, p. 10.
  5. ^ 1830 U.S. Federal Census for Essex County, Virginia pp. 37-38 of 78
  6. ^ The 1840 census for Essex County Virginia mislabels him as RWS Hunter, and used a checkbox method abandoned in later censuses. His household in 1840 included 25 persons employed in agriculture, 5 persons employed in manufacture and trade, and one professional person (presumably himself). Hunter's slaves in that 1840 census included 13 boys and 9 girls under 10 years, 9 males and 12 females aged 10 to 23, 4 males and 4 females aged 24 through 35, 14 males and 8 females aged 36 through 54, and 5 males and 5 females aged55 or above, The corresponding state census is not available online.
  7. ^ 1850 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedule for Essex County Virginia. The initial census page listing R.M.T. Hunter as owner includes 18 males aged 35 to 70 years and 5 females aged between 45 and 50 years old, although following page lists children in the opposite chronological order and the crossed-out slaveowner's name at the top of the next several pages is Richard Boyton (who owned more than 300 slaves in Essex County). The rest of Hunter's slaves are on the previous page with a number "50" but include 18 females between 35 and 15 years old (all at five-year intervals), 10 8-year-old female children, 5 5-year-old female children, and a two-year-old, one-year-old and four two-month female children, in addition to 5 two-month-old boys, a four-year-old, 5 five-year-old boys, 9 ten-year-old boys and 5 15-year-old boys and ten 25-year-old men. men
  8. ^ One page lists 65 slaves ranging from a 52 year old male and 62 year old female, to children and even infants; the following page continued by enumerating another 61 slaves he owned, ranging from a 62 year old male and 65 year old female to two infants. Although the census for Fredericksburg in neighboring Spotsylvania County shows another six slaves owned by "Taliaferro Hunter", such was another man, who soon enlisted in the Confederate army.
  9. ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1618-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 371, 375, 379 and note
  10. ^ a b c d Appleton's Cyclopedia
  11. ^ . National Museum of American History. Archived from the original on 2011-03-13. Retrieved 2011-08-11.
  12. ^ Robert Krick, 9th Virginia Cavalry (Lynchburg, Virginia Regimental History Series 1982) p. 80
  13. ^ Martha T. Hunter, A Memoir of Robert M.T. Hunter (Washington: Neale Publishing Company, 1903), 115. https://books.google.com/books?id=vLdEAAAAIAAJ&q=son%3B&pg=PA27 Robert E.L. Krick, Staff Officers in Gray : A Biographical Register of Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003),167.https://books.google.com/books?id=qKvqCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=James+D.+Hunter+C.S.+cadet&source=bl&ots=Eug65NPZvN&sig=ACfU3U3VjmWePFq8ao_LnrGxbWWj1h1Q8w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWtILXsazqAhUvhHIEHZJzBwIQ6AEwDXoECAYQAQ#v=snippet&q=james%20d.%20hunter&f=false
  14. ^ Escott, Paul D. (1992). After Secession: Jefferson Davis and the Failure of Confederate Nationalism. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. p. 254. ISBN 9780807118078. [F]or a great many of the most powerful southerners the idea of arming and freeing the slaves was repugnant because the protection of slavery had been and still remained the central core of Confederate purpose... Slavery was the basis of the planter class's wealth, power, and position in society. The South's leading men had built their world upon slavery and the idea of voluntarily destroying that world, even in the ultimate crisis, was almost unthinkable to them. Such feelings moved Senator R.M.T. Hunter to deliver a long speech against the bill to arm the slaves.
  15. ^ ancestry.com
  16. ^ 1860 U.S. Federal Census for Essex County Virginia dwelling 845 family number 819
  17. ^ . shipbuildinghistory.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-10. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
  18. ^ "Portraits of Confederate House Speakers Removed From Capitol". slate.com. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  19. ^ Snell, Kelsey (18 June 2020). "Confederate Speaker Portraits To Be Removed From The U.S. Capitol On Juneteenth". www.npr.org. Retrieved 19 June 2020.

Further reading edit

  • Anderson, Dice Robins (1906), "Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter", The John P. Branch historical papers of Randolph-Macon College, vol. 2, pp. [4]–77
  • Hunter, Martha T. (1903). A Memoir of Robert M. T. Hunter. Washington, DC: The Neale Publishing Company.
  • Hunter, Robert M. T. (1918). Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter 1826-1876. Washington: American Historical Association.
  • Patrick, Rembert W. (1944). Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 90–101.
  • Simms, Henry Harrison (1935). Life of Robert M. T. Hunter: a study in sectionalism and secession. Richmond, Va.: The William Byrd Press.

External links edit

  • Retrocession of Alexandria – A speech by R. M. T. Hunter before the U.S. House of Representatives, May 8, 1846

robert, hunter, other, people, named, robert, hunter, robert, hunter, disambiguation, robert, mercer, taliaferro, hunter, april, 1809, july, 1887, american, lawyer, politician, planter, representative, 1837, 1843, 1845, 1847, speaker, house, 1839, 1841, senato. For other people named Robert Hunter see Robert Hunter disambiguation Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter April 21 1809 July 18 1887 was an American lawyer politician and planter 1 He was a U S representative 1837 1843 1845 1847 speaker of the House 1839 1841 and U S senator 1847 1861 During the American Civil War Hunter became the Confederate States Secretary of State 1861 1862 and then a Confederate senator 1862 1865 and critic of President Jefferson Davis After the war Hunter failed to win re election to the U S Senate but did serve as the treasurer of Virginia 1874 1880 before retiring to his farm After fellow Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States in 1884 Hunter became the customs collector for the port of Tappahannock until his death Robert HunterPresident pro tempore of the Confederate States SenateIn office February 18 1862 May 10 1865Preceded byHowell Cobb President of the Provisional Congress Succeeded byPosition abolishedConfederate States Senatorfrom VirginiaIn office February 18 1862 May 10 1865Preceded byConstituency establishedSucceeded byConstituency abolished2nd Confederate States Secretary of StateIn office July 25 1861 February 18 1862PresidentJefferson DavisPreceded byRobert ToombsSucceeded byWilliam Browne Acting United States Senatorfrom VirginiaIn office March 4 1847 March 28 1861Preceded byWilliam ArcherSucceeded byJohn Carlile14th Speaker of the United States House of RepresentativesIn office December 16 1839 a March 4 1841Preceded byJames PolkSucceeded byJohn WhiteMember of the U S House of Representatives from Virginia s 8th districtIn office March 4 1845 March 3 1847Preceded byWilloughby NewtonSucceeded byRichard L T BealeMember of the U S House of Representatives from Virginia s 9th districtIn office March 4 1837 March 3 1843Preceded byJohn RoaneSucceeded bySamuel ChiltonMember of the Virginia House of Delegates from Essex CountyIn office December 1 1834 March 4 1837Preceded byRichard BaylorSucceeded byGeorge LorimerPersonal detailsBornRobert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter 1809 04 21 April 21 1809Loretto Virginia U S DiedJuly 18 1887 1887 07 18 aged 78 Alexandria Virginia U S Political partyWhig Before 1844 Democratic 1844 1887 SpouseMary DandridgeEducationUniversity of Virginia BA Winchester Law SchoolSignature Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Planter 3 Political career 4 American Civil War 5 Later years 6 Personal life 7 Legacy 8 In popular culture 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External linksEarly life and education editBorn at the Mount Pleasant plantation near Loretto Essex County Virginia to James Hunter 1774 1826 and his wife Maria Garnett Hunter 1777 1811 R M T Hunter was descended from the First Families of Virginia 2 His mother s father Henry Garnett was one of the county s largest landowners 3 her brother James M Garnett was the U S congressman representing the area and her other brother Robert S Garnett would be within a decade However Maria Hunter died shortly after giving birth to William Garnett Hunter 1811 1829 when Robert M T Hunter was two years old and shortly after one of his slightly elder brothers also William Hunter died at age 5 Educated first by private tutors R M T Hunter entered the University of Virginia when he was 17 shortly after his father s death and became one of its first graduates 4 While a student Hunter became a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society then studied law at the Winchester Law School Planter editSeveral generations of Hunter s family owned a considerable number of slaves most used to farm their plantations In 1830 R M T Hunter owned 72 slaves 44 males and 26 females and his household consisted of two white males presumably him and an overseer 5 A decade later following his marriage R M T Hunter s household included himself two young white males presumably one his eldest son and five white females as well as 83 slaves 6 In 1850 R M T Hunter of Essex County Virginia owned at least 100 slaves 7 In the 1860 U S federal census for Essex County Virginia U S Senator Hunter owned real estate worth 80 890 and personal property including slaves worth 92 800 The federal lists of slaves owned by R M T Hunter nearly fill the majority of two pages more than 120 persons 8 Political career editIn 1830 Hunter was admitted to the Virginia bar In 1834 he was elected to represent Essex County in the Virginia House of Delegates succeeding Richard Baylor R M T Hunter won re election in 1834 and 1836 but resigned upon winning election to the U S Congress as discussed next 9 In 1836 Hunter was elected U S Representative as a States Rights Whig He was re elected in 1838 and became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives the youngest person ever to hold that office He was re elected again in 1840 but was not chosen Speaker In 1842 he was defeated for re election but returned in 1844 Hunter favored annexing Texas and compromise on the Oregon question opposing the Wilmot Proviso and led efforts to retrocede the City of Alexandria back to Virginia removing it from the District of Columbia After losing the 1842 election Hunter changed parties becoming a Democrat In 1845 he again took the oath of office as an elected Congressman and supported the Tariff of 1846 10 In 1846 the Virginia General Assembly elected Hunter U S Senator He assumed office in 1847 and won re election in 1852 and 1858 Hunter continued to support slavery and its extension favoring extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean opposing abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia as well as any interference with its operation in any state or territory and supported the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Senator Hunter delivered an address in Richmond supporting states rights in 1852 and in the 1857 58 congressional session advocated admitting Kansas under the pro slavery Lecompton constitution 10 In the Senate Hunter became chairman of the Committee on Finance in 1850 He is credited with bringing about a reduction of the quantity of silver in small silver denominations helping push forward Senate Bill No 271 which would eventually become the Coinage Act of 1853 Hunter also drafted and sponsored the Tariff of 1857 which lowered duties and creation of the bonded warehouse system although federal revenues were thereby reduced He also advocated civil service reform In January 1860 Hunter delivered a speech in favor of slavery and the right of slaveholders to carry their slaves into the territories 10 At the first session of the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston South Carolina Hunter was a contender for the presidential nomination but received little support except from the Virginia delegation On the first eight ballots he was a very distant second to the leader Stephen A Douglas and was third on the remaining 49 ballots When the convention reconvened in Baltimore most Southerners withdrew including Hunter and Douglas won the party s nomination Hunter did not regard Lincoln s election as being of itself sufficient cause for secession On January 11 1861 he proposed an elaborate but impracticable scheme to adjust differences between the North and the South When this and several other similar efforts failed Hunter quietly urged his own state to pass the ordinance of secession in April 1861 He was expelled from the Senate for supporting secession One scheme proposed him as president of the new Confederate government with fellow former U S Senator Jefferson Davis as commander of the Confederate States Army Voters in parts of Virginia that had not seceded elected Unionist John S Carlile to fill the rest of Hunter s term American Civil War edit nbsp Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter nbsp 1864 CSA 10 banknote depicting R M T Hunter In July 1861 Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Hunter the Confederate States secretary of state He resigned on February 18 1862 after his election as a Confederate senator Hunter served in the Confederate Senate in Richmond Virginia until the war s end and was at times President pro tem His portrait appeared on the Confederate 10 bill 11 As a Confederate senator Hunter became an often caustic critic of Confederate President Davis Despite this friction Davis appointed Hunter as one of three commissioners sent to attempt peace negotiations in February 1865 Hunter met with President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H Seward at the Hampton Roads Conference However after Lincoln refused to acknowledge the Confederacy s independence Senator Hunter chaired a war meeting in Richmond where Confederates vowed they would never lay down their arms before achieving independence Following Lee s surrender President Lincoln summoned Hunter to confer regarding Virginia s restoration to the Union Many of Hunter s Garnett relatives became Confederate military officers and his cousin Judge Muscoe Garnett 1808 1880 commanded the Home Guard in Essex County Hunter s first cousins through his mother were career U S Army officers who became Confederate generals Robert S Garnett and Richard B Garnett both of whom died in the conflict His son James D Hunter enlisted as a private in Company F 9th Virginia Cavalry which was organized in December 1861 with Lt Garnett among its officers and which was initially assigned to protect the Rappahannock River as well as the Rappahannock river port cities of Falmouth and Fredericksburg James D Hunter served only months before being furloughed on account of sickness in July 1862 but did participate in raids under Gen J E B Stuart and Capt William Latane who became a Confederate martyr as the only casualty of Stuart s vaunted ride around Union troops and in General Lee s Seven Day offensive which ended the Union Peninsular Campaign 12 While his eldest son R M T Hunter Jr died early in the war of disease his second son Robert D Hunter served as a staff officer in the Army of Northern Virginia and as an engineer 13 When some suggested late in the war that their slaves could be armed and serve in the Confederate Army to win their freedom Senator R M T Hunter vehemently opposed the proposal with a long speech against it but after the Virginia legislature passed a resolution to the contrary voted as instructed but with an emphatic protest 10 14 Later years edit nbsp Hunter in later lifeIn 1867 President Andrew Johnson pardoned Hunter for his activities supporting the Confederate States He unsuccessfully ran to become U S Senator again in 1874 to succeed Unionist Republican John F Lewis However Confederate veteran Robert E Withers of the Conservative Party won After that loss Hunter accepted an appointment as the Treasurer of Virginia serving from 1874 to 1880 when he returned to his farm Hunter also published Origin of the Late War about the causes of the Civil War From 1885 until his death he was customs collector of the Port of Tappahannock Virginia near his home He died near Lloyds Virginia in 1887 and was buried at the Garnett family burial ground in Loretto in Essex County Personal life editHe married Mary Evelina Dandridge 1817 1893 on October 4 1836 in Jefferson County then in Virginia but which became West Virginia during the American Civil War They had sons Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter Jr 1839 1861 James Dandridge Hunter 1844 1892 Philip Stephen Hunter 1848 1919 and Muscoe Russell Garnett Hunter 1850 1865 Their daughters educated and unmarried were Martha Taliaferro Hunter 1841 1909 Sarah Stephena Hunter 1846 1865 Annie Buchanan Hunter 1852 1853 and Mary Evelina Hunter 1854 1881 In 1860 and later censuses R M T Hunter s unmarried sisters Martha Fenton Hunter 1800 1866 and Jane Swann Hunter 1804 1880 and half sister Sara Sully Hunter 1822 1874 also lived on the family plantation 15 16 Legacy edit nbsp The removal of Hunter s portrait from Congress on July 18 2020 In 1942 a United States Liberty ship named the SS Robert M T Hunter was launched She was scrapped in 1971 17 As a former Speaker of the House his portrait had been on display in the US Capitol The portrait was removed from public display in the Speaker s Lobby outside the House Chamber after an order issued by the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on June 18 2020 18 19 In popular culture editHunter appeared in the 2012 film Lincoln which included the Hampton Roads Conference He was portrayed by Mike Shiflett See also editList of United States senators expelled or censuredNotelist multi ballot election voting lasted two days The total vacancy was over eight months Congress simply did not work until December Notes edit nbsp This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Hunter Robert Mercer Taliaferro Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 13 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 944 References edit Appleton s Cyclopedia of Biography Vol III p 323 Rick Waggener User Trees Genealogy com www genealogy com Retrieved Jun 19 2020 http www essexmuseum org archive bulletin vol 13 pdf Archived 2020 08 06 at the Wayback Machine bare URL PDF University of Virginia A Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the University of Virginia Second Session Commencing February 1 1826 Charlottesville VA Chronicle Steam Book Printing House 1880 p 10 1830 U S Federal Census for Essex County Virginia pp 37 38 of 78 The 1840 census for Essex County Virginia mislabels him as RWS Hunter and used a checkbox method abandoned in later censuses His household in 1840 included 25 persons employed in agriculture 5 persons employed in manufacture and trade and one professional person presumably himself Hunter s slaves in that 1840 census included 13 boys and 9 girls under 10 years 9 males and 12 females aged 10 to 23 4 males and 4 females aged 24 through 35 14 males and 8 females aged 36 through 54 and 5 males and 5 females aged55 or above The corresponding state census is not available online 1850 U S Federal Census Slave Schedule for Essex County Virginia The initial census page listing R M T Hunter as owner includes 18 males aged 35 to 70 years and 5 females aged between 45 and 50 years old although following page lists children in the opposite chronological order and the crossed out slaveowner s name at the top of the next several pages is Richard Boyton who owned more than 300 slaves in Essex County The rest of Hunter s slaves are on the previous page with a number 50 but include 18 females between 35 and 15 years old all at five year intervals 10 8 year old female children 5 5 year old female children and a two year old one year old and four two month female children in addition to 5 two month old boys a four year old 5 five year old boys 9 ten year old boys and 5 15 year old boys and ten 25 year old men men One page lists 65 slaves ranging from a 52 year old male and 62 year old female to children and even infants the following page continued by enumerating another 61 slaves he owned ranging from a 62 year old male and 65 year old female to two infants Although the census for Fredericksburg in neighboring Spotsylvania County shows another six slaves owned by Taliaferro Hunter such was another man who soon enlisted in the Confederate army Cynthia Miller Leonard The Virginia General Assembly 1618 1978 Richmond Virginia State Library 1978 pp 371 375 379 and note a b c d Appleton s Cyclopedia Legendary Coins and Currency Confederacy 10 dollars 1863 National Museum of American History Archived from the original on 2011 03 13 Retrieved 2011 08 11 Robert Krick 9th Virginia Cavalry Lynchburg Virginia Regimental History Series 1982 p 80 Martha T Hunter A Memoir of Robert M T Hunter Washington Neale Publishing Company 1903 115 https books google com books id vLdEAAAAIAAJ amp q son 3B amp pg PA27 Robert E L Krick Staff Officers in Gray A Biographical Register of Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press 2003 167 https books google com books id qKvqCQAAQBAJ amp pg PA167 amp lpg PA167 amp dq James D Hunter C S cadet amp source bl amp ots Eug65NPZvN amp sig ACfU3U3VjmWePFq8ao LnrGxbWWj1h1Q8w amp hl en amp sa X amp ved 2ahUKEwjWtILXsazqAhUvhHIEHZJzBwIQ6AEwDXoECAYQAQ v snippet amp q james 20d 20hunter amp f false Escott Paul D 1992 After Secession Jefferson Davis and the Failure of Confederate Nationalism Baton Rouge Louisiana Louisiana State University Press p 254 ISBN 9780807118078 F or a great many of the most powerful southerners the idea of arming and freeing the slaves was repugnant because the protection of slavery had been and still remained the central core of Confederate purpose Slavery was the basis of the planter class s wealth power and position in society The South s leading men had built their world upon slavery and the idea of voluntarily destroying that world even in the ultimate crisis was almost unthinkable to them Such feelings moved Senator R M T Hunter to deliver a long speech against the bill to arm the slaves ancestry com 1860 U S Federal Census for Essex County Virginia dwelling 845 family number 819 Southeastern Shipbuilding shipbuildinghistory com Archived from the original on 2011 10 10 Retrieved 2009 12 16 Portraits of Confederate House Speakers Removed From Capitol slate com 19 June 2020 Retrieved 19 June 2020 Snell Kelsey 18 June 2020 Confederate Speaker Portraits To Be Removed From The U S Capitol On Juneteenth www npr org Retrieved 19 June 2020 Further reading editAnderson Dice Robins 1906 Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter The John P Branch historical papers of Randolph Macon College vol 2 pp 4 77 Hunter Martha T 1903 A Memoir of Robert M T Hunter Washington DC The Neale Publishing Company Hunter Robert M T 1918 Correspondence of Robert M T Hunter 1826 1876 Washington American Historical Association Patrick Rembert W 1944 Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press pp 90 101 Simms Henry Harrison 1935 Life of Robert M T Hunter a study in sectionalism and secession Richmond Va The William Byrd Press External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert M T Hunter nbsp Wikisource has original works by or about Robert M T Hunter Retrocession of Alexandria A speech by R M T Hunter before the U S House of Representatives May 8 1846United States Congress Robert M T Hunter id H000988 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved April 29 2009 Portals nbsp American Civil War nbsp Biography nbsp Politics nbsp Virginia Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Robert M T Hunter amp oldid 1178445110, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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