Robert M. T. Hunter

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
2nd 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
14th 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
Member of the Virginia House of Representatives
In office 1835–1837
Personal details
Born	Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter April 21, 1809 Loretto, Virginia, U.S.
Died	July 18, 1887 (aged 78) Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Nationality	American (1809–1861) Confederate (1861–1865) American (1865–1887)
Political party	Whig (Before 1844) Democratic (1844–1887)
Spouse(s)	Mary Evelina Dandridge
Alma mater	University of Virginia Winchester Law School

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (April 21, 1809 – July 18, 1887) was a Virginian lawyer and politician. 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 he was Confederate States Secretary of State (1861–1862) and then a Confederate Senator (1862–1865). After the war, he served as Treasurer of Virginia (1874–80), and customs collector in 1885 until his death.

Early life and education

Hunter was born in Loretto, Essex County, Virginia, the son of James Hunter and Maria (Garnett) Hunter.^[1] He was a maternal first cousin of both Robert S. Garnett and Richard B. Garnett. He entered the University of Virginia in his seventeenth year and was one of its first graduates.^[2] 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.

Career

In 1837, Hunter was elected U.S. Representative as a States Rights Whig. He was re-elected in 1839, and became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives – the youngest person ever to hold that office. He was re-elected again in 1841, but was not chosen Speaker. In 1843 he was defeated for re-election.

He then changed parties, becoming a Democrat. In 1845, he was again elected Representative, and in 1846 was elected U.S. Senator, taking office in 1847. He was re-elected in 1852 and 1858.

In the Senate, he became chairman of the Committee on Finance in 1850. He is credited with bringing 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

1864 CSA $10 banknote depicting R.M.T. Hunter.

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 seven of the first eight ballots, he was a very distant second to the leader, Stephen A. Douglas, and was third on the remaining 42 ballots. When the convention reconvened in Baltimore, most Southerners withdrew, including Hunter, and the nomination went to Douglas.

Hunter did not regard Lincoln's election as being of itself a sufficient cause for secession. 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.

In July 1861, Hunter was appointed Confederate States Secretary of State. He resigned on February 18, 1862, having been elected a Confederate Senator. He served in the Confederate Senate until the end of the war, and was at times President pro tem.

As a Confederate Senator, he was often a caustic critic of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Despite this friction, he was appointed by Davis as one of three commissioners sent to attempt peace negotiations in 1865, and met with President Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Conference. After Lee's surrender, Hunter was summoned by President Lincoln to confer regarding the restoration of Virginia.

When it was suggested by some Confederates that their slaves should be armed in order to win the war against the Union, Hunter vehemently opposed the move, delivering a long speech against it.^[3]

From 1874 to 1880 he was the treasurer of Virginia, and from 1885 until his death was collector of the Port of Tappahannock, Virginia. He died near Lloyds, Virginia, in 1887.

Hunter in later life

Legacy

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

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.^[4]

Hunter was pictured on the Confederate $10 bill.^[5]

References

1. http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/a/g/Rick--Waggener/GENE3-0020.html
2. 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.
3. Escott, Paul D. (1992). After Secession: Jefferson Davis and the Failure of Confederate Nationalism. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. p. 254. [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.
4. "Southeastern Shipbuilding". shipbuildinghistory.com. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
5. "Legendary Coins and Currency: Confederacy, 10 dollars, 1863". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 2011-08-11.

Further reading

• Anderson, Dice Robins (1906), "Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter", The John P. Branch historical papers of Randolph-Macon College, vol. 2 no. 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

• 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 websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.