Virginia in the Union: 20 U.S. Senators from Virginia in six parts
Part 2. 1815-1845: Antebellum Virginia (VUS SOL Expansion and Reform)
James Barbour, Congresses 13-19, Presidents: James Madison, James Monroe
Littleton Tazewell, Congresses 18-22, Presidents: Monroe, J.Q. Adams, Jackson
William C. Rives, Congresses 22-28, Presidents: Jackson, Van Buren, W.H. Harrison, Tyler
See List of United States Senators from Virginia for a comprehensive overview of them all and how their terms overlapped in Congress. See Lists of Presidents of the United States for a comprehensive list and portraits of each president.
With the twenty longest-serving U.S. Senators, every U.S. Congress and Presidential term is represented. This gives the history-as-biography approach to history a comprehensive survey of U.S. and Virginia.
Senate years of service and political party are listed along with their corresponding Presidents in the second paragraph of each article. All initial entries come from the Biographical Directory of the Congress of the United States at congress.bioguide.gov.
BARBOUR, James, a Senator from Virginia. (brother of Philip Pendleton Barbour and cousin of John Strode Barbour).
Senate Years of Service: 1815-1825. Party: Anti-Democrat/Whig. Presidents: James Madison, James Monroe.
Born at “Frascati,” near Gordonsville, Orange County, Va., June 10, 1775. attended the common schools. deputy sheriff of Orange County. studied law. admitted to the bar in 1794 at Orange Court House.
Barbour served several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates between 1796 and 1812, serving as speaker from 1809 to 1812. While a Delegate, he advocated for Madison’s Virginia Resolutions of 1789-99. He authored Virginia’s anti-dueling law, and as Speaker, he drafted a bill for the literary fund to support public education as promoted by Governor John Tyler.
Governor of Virginia 1812-1814 for the duration of the War of 1812.
Elected as an Anti-Democrat and State Rights candidate to the United States Senate in 1814 for the term commencing March 4, 1815. Subsequently he was elected to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1815, caused by the death of Richard Brent. Barbour was reelected in 1821 and served from January 2, 1815, to March 7, 1825, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet portfolio. He served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses. chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Eighteenth Congresses), Committee on the District of Columbia (Seventeenth Congress). As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, he opposed the restriction on the admission of Missouri. John Quincy Adams compliemtned him saying the North had no man equal to either him or Henry Clay in the Senate.
After ten years in the U.S. Senate, Barbour was appointed Secretary of War by President John Quincy Adams and served from March 7, 1825, to May 26, 1828, when he resigned to accept a diplomatic position.
He was United States Minister to England from May 26, 1828, to September 23, 1829 until recalled by President Andrew Jackson.
Chairman of the Whig National Convention in 1839, which nominated Harrison and Tyler. Founder of the Orange Humane Society, established for the advancement of education of poor children.
James Barbour died in Barboursville, Orange County, Va., June 7, 1842. interment in the family cemetery.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, Dictionary of American Biography. Lowery, Charles D. James Barbour, a Jeffersonian Republican. University, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1984.
Tyler, Lyon. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II, James Barbour, p. 48.
TAZEWELL, Littleton Waller, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia. (son of HenryTazewell).
Senate Years of Service: 1824-1825. 1825-1832. Party: Jackson Republican. Jacksonian. Presidents: James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson.
Born in Williamsburg, Va., December 17, 1774. privately tutored. graduated from the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg in 1791. He studied law under John Wickham of Richmond, and was admitted to the bar in 1796, commencing practice in James City County.
Member, State house of delegates 1798-1800.
Elected to the Sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Marshall and served from November 26, 1800, to March 3, 1801. While in Congress, he supported Thomas Jefferson in the presidential election which was referred to the House, opposing Aaron Burr.
Tazewell moved to Norfolk, Va., in 1802, and made a distinguished legal career as an admiralty and criminal advocate. He consulted with Roman Catholic priests on canon law, and London merchants on trade matters. He was elected to the General Assembly 1804-1806. While he was a supporter of Jefferson and his administration in most things, he also differed in calling for war with both Britain in France. However during the Madison administration he opposed war with Britain on the grounds the administration was incompetent to wage war. Following the declaration of war with Britain in 1812, he supported the war effort. member, Virginia House of Delegates 1816-1817 where he specialized in economic and fiscal issues.
During the James Monroe asministration, Tazewell was one of the commissioners of claims under the treaty with Spain ceding Florida in 1821.
Elected in 1824 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Taylor. reelected in 1829, and served from December 7, 1824, to July 16, 1832, when he resigned. Tazewell served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Twenty-second Congress. chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Twentieth through Twenty-second Congresses). During his tenure as a U.S. Senator, he was distinguished in his role as chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He made a report on Panama, addressed the tariff issue and the piracy act. He declined appointment as Minister to Great Britain offered by President Jackson in 1829.
Delegate to the State convention in 1829-1830.
Tazewell opposed the administration of John Quincy Adams, and supported the election of Andrew Jackson as president, although he disagreed with Jackson’s policy in the Nullification Crisis with South Carolina, although he disagreed with nullification on principle. Tazewell was vehemently against Jackson’s action removing U.S. government deposits from the Bank of the United States, and joined the Whig Party.
Governor of Virginia from 1834 until his resignation in 1836. Tazewell resigned in disgust when the General Assembly instructed Virginia’s Senators to vote to expunge the Senate censure of Andrew Jackson for removing deposits from the U.S. Bank. During his administration Virginia received $400,000 as payment for Revolutionary War claims. Widespread pressure to abolish slavery — an institution that Tazewell condemned –continued following the General Assembly debates of 1832. He retired to private life in 1836.
Littleton Waller Tazewell died in Norfolk, Va., May 6, 1860. He was interred on his estate on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, then reinterred in 1866 in Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk, Va.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online.
Dictionary of American Biography. Peterson, Norma L. Littleton Waller Tazewell. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983. Sawers, Timothy R. “The Public Career of Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1824-1836.” Ph.D. dissertation, Miami University, 1972.
Tyler, Lyon. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II, Littleton Waller Tazewell, p. 51.
National Governors Association, Past Governors bios – Virginia, Tazewell.
Garraty, John A. and Carnes, Mark C., eds. American National Biography, Vol. 21. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Library of Virginia. Littleton Waller Tazwell. Letters, 1799. Accession 40927. Personal Papers Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219. Library of Virginia, Virginia Governor, Executive Papers (1834-1836: Tazewell). Accession 42998. State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219.
Library of Virginia. Tazwell Family. Papers, 1623-1930. Accession 24194. Personal Papers Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 5. New York: James T. White & Company. Malone, Dumas, eds. Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XVIII. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943.
Peterson, Norma Lois. Littleton Waller Tazewell. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, c1983. Sawyers, Timothy R. The Public Career of Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1824-1836. Doctoral thesis submitted to Miami University, 1972. Ann Arbor: UNI, 2000 (photocopy). Smith, Margaret Vowell. Virginia, 1492-1892: A History of the Executives. Washington, D.C.: W. H. Lowdermilk & Co., 1893.
Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols. Tazewell, C.W. Jr., ed.. Governor L. W. Tazewell and the Founding of the University of Virginia. Virginia Beach, VA: C.W. Tazewell, 1983. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. II. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1998.
Virginia Biographical Dictionary, Vol, 2. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc.
RIVES, William Cabell, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia.
Senate Years of Service: 1832-1834. 1836-1837. 1837-1839. 1841-1845. Party: Jacksonian. Jacksonian. Democrat. Whig. Presidents: Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler.
Born at ‘Union Hill,’ Amherst County, Va., May 4, 1793. attended Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia and graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., in 1809. He studied law under Thomas Jefferson 1809-11, and admitted to the bar about 1814. He commenced practice in Charlottesville, Albemarle County.
Rives was a aide-de-camp to General John H. Cooke, 1814-15 during the War of 1812. Following the war, he was elected a Delegate to the Virginia convention in Staunton in August 1816 protesting the tyranny of the eastern counties of Virginia by their malapportionment in the General Assembly.
Member, State house of delegates 1817-1820 from Nelson County, and 1822-1823 from Albemarle County. Moved to ‘Castle Hill,’ Albemarle County, in 1821.
Rives was elected to the Eighteenth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1823, until his resignation in 1829.
Rives was on the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia 1828-29, and hen appointed by President Jackson as Minister to France 1829-1832. He negotiated the indemnity treaty of July 4, 1831.
Elected as a Jacksonian to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Littleton W. Tazewell and served from December 10, 1832, to February 22, 1834, when he resigned, refusing to follow General Assembly instructions to censure President Jackson for removing government deposits from the Bank of the United States. He was again elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Tyler and served from March 4, 1836, to March 3, 1839. chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses). subsequently reelected as a Whig on January 18, 1841, for the term beginning March 4, 1839, and served until March 3, 1845. chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Twenty-seventh Congress).
In 1847, Rives was chosen as the president of the Virginia Historical Society, having written “The Life and Character of John Hampden” in 1945. Rives was again Minister to France 1849-1853, appointed the second time by President Fillmore.
Member of the peace convention of February 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending civil war.
Delegate from Virginia to the Confederate Provisional Congress in Montgomery, Ala., and Richmond, Va., in April 1861.
Member of the house of representatives from Virginia in the Second Confederate Congress February 1864 to February 1865. His three volume “Life and Times of James Madison appeared 1859-1869.
William Cabell Rives died on his plantation, ‘Castle Hill,’ near Charlottesville, Va., April 25, 1868. His interment is in the private burial ground on the family estate.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, Dictionary of American Biography. McCoy, Drew R. “Legacy: The Strange Career of William Cabell Rives.” In The Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy, pp. 323-69. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Wingfield, Russell S. “William Cabell Rives.” Richmond College Historical Papers 1 (June 1915): 57-72.
Tyler, Lyon. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II, William Cabell Rives, p. 91.