Robert M. T. Hunter

For other people named Robert Hunter, see Robert Hunter (disambiguation).

Robert Hunter
President pro tempore of the Confederate States Senate
In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865
Preceded by	Howell Cobb (President of the Provisional Congress)
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Confederate States Senator from Virginia
In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Confederate States Secretary of State
In office July 25, 1861 – February 18, 1862
President	Jefferson Davis
Preceded by	Robert Toombs
Succeeded by	William Browne (Acting)
United States Senator from Virginia
In office March 4, 1847 – March 28, 1861
Preceded by	William Archer
Succeeded by	John Carlile
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
In office December 16, 1839 – March 4, 1841
Preceded by	James Polk
Succeeded by	John White
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 8th district
In office March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1847
Preceded by	Willoughby Newton
Succeeded by	Richard Beale
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 9th district
In office March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1843
Preceded by	John Roane
Succeeded by	Samuel Chilton
Personal details
Born	Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (1809-04-21)April 21, 1809 Loretto, Virginia, U.S.
Died	July 18, 1887(1887-07-18) (aged 78) Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Political party	Whig (Before 1844) Democratic (1844–1887)
Spouse	Mary Evelina Dandridge
Alma mater	University of Virginia Winchester Law School

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (April 21, 1809 – July 18, 1887) was an American statesman born in Essex County, Virginia.

Life and career

Hunter entered the University of Virginia in his seventeenth year and was one of its first graduates. While he was a student, he became a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. He then studied law at the Winchester Law School, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar. From 1835 to 1837 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

From 1837 to 1843, and again from 1845 to 1847, Hunter was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served as Speaker of the House from 1839 to 1841, and is the youngest person ever to have held that position. From 1847 to 1861 he was in the Senate where he was chairman of the Committee on Finance from 1850 to 1861. He is credited with having brought about a reduction of the quantity of silver in the smaller coins. He was the author of the Tariff of 1857 and of the bonded-warehouse system, and was one of the first to advocate civil service reform. In 1853 he declined President Millard Fillmore's offer to make him Secretary of State.

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter

At the National Democratic Convention at Charleston, South Carolina in 1860, Hunter was the Virginia delegation's choice as candidate for the presidency of the United States, but was defeated for the nomination by Stephen A. Douglas. Hunter did not regard Lincoln's election as being of itself a sufficient cause for secession, and on January 11, 1861, he proposed an elaborate but impracticable scheme for the adjustment of differences between the North and the South. When this and several other efforts to the same end had failed, he quietly urged his own state to pass the ordinance of secession. He was expelled from the Senate for supporting secession.

From 1861 to 1862 Hunter was the Confederate States Secretary of State; and from 1862 to 1865 he was a member of the Confederate Senate, in which he was, at times, a caustic critic of the Davis administration. He was one of the commissioners to treat at the Hampton Roads Conference in 1865, and after the surrender of General Lee was summoned by President Lincoln to Richmond to confer regarding the restoration of Virginia in the Union. From 1874 to 1880 he was the treasurer of Virginia, and from 1885 until his death near Lloyds, Virginia, was collector of the Port of Tappahannock, Virginia.

Hunter in later life

Legacy

Among his works was Origin of the Late War, about the causes of the Civil War.

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

Hunter was pictured on the Confederate $10 bill.

Further reading

• Anderson, Dice Robins (1906), "Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter", The John P. Branch historical papers of Randolph-Macon College, vol. vol. 2 no. 2, pp. [4]-77 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
• 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

• Retrocession of Alexandria – A speech by R. M. T. Hunter before the U.S. House of Representatives, May 8, 1846
• United States Congress. "Robert M. T. Hunter (id: H000988)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved April 29, 2009.
• "Robert M. T. Hunter". Find a Grave. Retrieved April 29, 2009.

 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 domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)