Virginia in the Union: 20 U.S. Senators from Virginia in six parts
Part 1. 1789-1815: New Nation Virginia (VUS SOL Expansion and Reform)
Richard Henry Lee, Congresses 1-2, President: Washington
Stevens T. Mason, Congresses 3-8, Presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson
William B. Giles, Congresses 8-13, Presidents: Jefferson, Madison
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 bioguide.congress.gov, supplemented by Senators of the United States: A Historical Bibliography (1995).
LEE, Richard Henry, Member of the Continental Congress 1774-1779, 1784-1785 and 1787, a Delegate and a Senator from Virginia. (brother of Arthur Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, and great-grandfather of Blair Lee).
Senate Years of Service: 1789-1792. Party: Anti-Administration. Presidents: George Washington.
Born at “Stratford,” in Westmoreland County, Va., January 20, 1732. after a course of private instruction attended Wakefield Academy, England. returned in 1751. justice of the peace for Westmoreland County 1757.
Lee was a member of the House of Burgesses from 1758 to its end in 1775, when it was succeeded by the House of Delegates. He proposed ending African slave importation by imposing a heavy tax, “to end that iniquitous and disgraceful traffic within the colony.” In opposition to the Stamp Act, in 1766 he organized the Westmoreland Association. In 1768 he began promoting inter-colonial committees of correspondence and saw them initiated in the House of Burgesses in 1773. Lee was said to be one of the best orators in Virginia politics, exceeded in reputation only by Patrick Henry.
Richard Henry Lee was among the first rank of leaders in the American Revolution. He was a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses and thereafter 1774-1779. He authored the memorial of Congress to the American people in 1774, and the address of Congress to the people of Great Britain in 1775. Throughout this time he was a member of the Virginia revolutionary conventions of 1774, 1775 and 1776.
In 1776 Lee sponsored the independence resolution, “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. Lee was absent at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but returned from visiting his sick wife to sign it. In the Continental Congress, he was author of the first national Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by Congress at York, Pa., October 31, 1777.
A member of the House of Delegates when he was not in Congress in 1777, 1780 and 1785, Lee was also a colonel of the Westmoreland Militia. Lee was again a member of the Continental Congress 1784-1785 and 1787, serving as President of the Congress in 1784. As a member of the Virginia convention which ratified the Federal Constitution in 1788, Lee opposed adoption on the grounds that the powers to be granted to the Federal government was too extensive..
Elected to the United States Senate by the General Assembly, Lee served from March 4, 1789, until his resignation October 8, 1792. His primary purpose in seeking office in the new government was to ensure the passage of amendments that became the Bill of Rights. He served as President pro tempore during the Second Congress. On leaving office he retired from public life.
Richard Henry Lee died at his home, “Chantilly,” Westmoreland County, Va., June 19, 1794. His interment is in the old family burying ground at “Mount Pleasant,” near Hague, Westmoreland County, Va.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, Dictionary of American Biography. Lee, Richard Henry. The Letters of Richard Henry Lee. Edited by James Ballagh. 1911-1914. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970. Chitwood, Oliver. Richard Henry Lee, Statesman of the Revolution. Morgantown: University Library, 1967. Nagel, Paul C. The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Virginia, Mary Elizabeth. “Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Biobraphy” Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1992. Tyler, Lyon. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II , Richard Henry Lee, p. 21.
MASON, Stevens Thomson, a Senator from Virginia. (father of Armistead Thomson Mason).
Senate Years of Service: 1794-1803. Party: Democratic Republican. Presidents: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson.
Born in Chappawamsic, Stafford County, Va., December 29, 1760. attended William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.. studied law. admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Dumfries, Prince William County, Va.
Served in the Revolutionary Army as an aide to General George Washington at Yorktown, and later as a brigadier general in the Virginia Militia.
Member, State house of delegates 1783, 1794. member, State senate 1787-1790.
Delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention in 1788.
Elected to the United States Senate by the General Assembly to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Monroe, Mason was a personal friend of Thomas Jefferson and his political ally. Mason was reelected in 1797 and again in 1803 as a Democratic Republican, and served from November 18, 1794, until his death in Philadelphia, Pa., May 10, 1803.
During his tenure, John Jay negotiated the “Jay Treaty” with Great Britain, and it was ratified in secret session by narrowly the two-thirds Constitutional majority required for ratification. Although the Senate forbade its publication, Mason first gave the Aurora newspaper an abstract of the treaty, and later a complete copy. In the subsequent controversy, he was applauded by the Republicans and attacked by the Federalists.
His interment is in the family burying ground at “Raspberry Plain” in Loudoun County, Va.
Bibliography: Congressional Biographical Directory online, Dictionary of American Biography. Tyler, Lyon. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II , Stevens T. Mason, p. 50.
GILES, William Branch, a Representative and a Senator from Virginia. Member of Congress: 1790-98, 1801-1803.Senate Years of Service: 1804-1804. 1804-1815. Party: Democratic Republican. Presidents: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison.
Born near Amelia Court House, Amelia County, Va., August 12, 1762. pursued classical studies and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1781. He studied law at the College of William and Mary and was admitted to the bar and practiced in Petersburg, Va., 1784-1789.
Giles was elected to the First Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Theodorick Bland, and reelected to the Second and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from December 7, 1790, to October 2, 1798, when he resigned. At first Giles was a Federalist, but at the administration’s proposal for a United States Bank, he joined the Republicans. Giles attacked Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton for corruption and peculation, moving resolutions to censure Hamilton for arbitrary assumption of authority. Giles actively opposed Jay’s Treaty in the House, and opposed the proposed declaration of war with France.
While a member of the House of Delegates 1798-1800, Giles strongly supported the Virginia Resolutions. He was elected as a Democratic Republican to the Seventh Congress (March 4, 1801-March 3, 1803), and also served as one of his party’s presidential electors in 1801.
Giles was appointed on August 11, 1804, to the United States Senate as a Democratic Republican to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1803, caused by the resignation of Abraham B. Venable, and took his seat on November 5, 1804. resigned on December 4, 1804, and was subsequently elected on December 4, 1804, to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1799, caused by the resignation of Wilson C. Nicholas. was reelected in 1804 and 1811, and served successively in the two classes from August 11, 1804, to March 3, 1815, when he resigned. Giles was a floor leader for the Democratic Republicans in the Senate, and was notable in his opposition to the Madison administration. Giles was one of the ablest parliamentarians of his time. An accomplished debater, he was compared tihe Charles James Fox.
Giles was a member of the House of Delegates 1816-1817. In 1818 he published a series of letters in the Richmond Enquirer signed “A Constituent” opposing efforts to advance public education. In 1824 Giles wrote an open letter antagonizing President James Monroe and Henry Clay by opposing independence movements in South America and in Greece, and opposing the tariff. An unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1825 when he was defeated by John Randolph, Giles returned to the General Assembly 1826-1827.
Governor of Virginia 1827-1830. During his tenure as governor, Giles strongly opposed protective tariffs. was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1829 and 1830. He was again elected Governor in 1830 by the General Assembly, but declined.
William Branch Giles died on his estate nine months after leaving office at his home, ’Wigwam,’ near Amelia Court House, Amelia County, Va., December 4, 1830. interment in a private cemetery on his estate.
Bibliography
Congressional Biographical Directory online, American National Biography. Dictionary of American Biography. Anderson, Dice. William Branch Giles: A Study in the Politics of Virginia and the Nation from 1790 to 1831. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1965. Giunta, Mary A. “The Public Life of William Branch Giles, Republican, 1790-1815.” Ph.D. dissertation, Catholic University, 1980.
Tyler, Lyon. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II William Branch Giles, p. 50.
Anderson, Dice Robins. William Branch Giles: A Study in the Politics of Virginia and the Nation from 1790 to 1830. Gloucester, MA: P. Smith, 1965 (c1914).
Garraty, John A. and Carnes, Mark C., eds. American National Biography, Vol. 22. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Giunta, Mary A. The Public Life of William Branch Giles: Republican, 1790-1815. Thesis submitted to Catholic University of America, 1980. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Xerox University Microfilms, 1980, System 000165125.
Johnson, Allen and Malone, Dumas, eds. Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. VII. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943.
Library of Virginia, Virginia Governor, Executive Papers (1827-1830: Giles). Accession 42310. State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219.
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 5. New York: James T. White & Company.
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
Tyler, Lyon Gardiner. Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. II. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1998.
Virginia Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc.