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[Page 71]
Washington, George, first President (q. v.).
Jefferson, Thomas, third President (q. v.).
Madison, James, fourth President (q. v.).
Monroe, James, fifth President (q. v.).
[Pages 71-73]
Harrison, William Henry, ninth President of the United States, born
at "Berkeley," Charles City county, Virginia, February 9, 1773, son of Governor Benjamin (q. v.) and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison. He made good
use of his father's excellent library, preparing himself for admission to Hampden-Sidney College,
from which he was graduated, then taking up the study of medicine in Philadelphia, under the
guardianship of Robert Morris. He was attracted by the western emigration, and desired to enter
the army, for clearing the way for emigrants, and the objections of his guardian were only
overruled through the influence of President Washington, who commissioned the young man (April,
1791) ensign in the First United States Artillery Regiment then stationed at Fort Washington (the
site of the future city of Cincinnati, Ohio), the key to the southwest region, practically in
Spanish possession and unexplored. General Wayne was attracted to him and made him lieutenant,
and he was of the detachment that built Fort Recovery, on the ground of St. Clair's defeat, and
he was commended in general orders for his "excellent performance of a perilous duty." At the
battle of the Maumee (August 20, 1794), General Wayne said of him that by his conduct and bravery
he excited the troops to press to victory." In 1795 he was promoted to captain, and placed in
command of Fort Washington.
In 1798 President Adams made him secretary of the Northwestern Territory
under Governor St. Clair, and he resigned his military commission. He was frequently acting
governor during St. Clair's absences, and resigned in October, 1799, having been elected to
Congress as one of the first two territorial delegates. In Congress he secured the subdivision of
the public lands into small tracts, in the interest of bona fide settlers, and to the
disappointment of speculators. When the territory of Indiana was formed he was appointed governor
by President Adams, and was reappointed by Jefferson and Madison. The authority granted him was
extensive; he appointed all civil officers, and all military officers under the rank of general;
and held the pardoning power; as well as supreme authority to treat with the Indians. In 1803 the
immense Louisiana territory was added to his jurisdiction. His sterling integrity was evidenced
by the fact that, with unlimited opportunities for speculation, he would not take a single foot
of public land, and he refused the proffered gift by the people of St. Louis of one-third of the
land upon which the city was subsequently laid out. When the Indians became troublesome in 1811,
he held an unsuccessful conference with them at Tippecanoe, and having reported to Washington,
was authorized to force them into submission. With one thousand regular troops and militia, he
built Fort Harrison, near the present city of Terre Haute, Indiana, and with part of the force
marched toward the Indian village. He was attacked by Tecumseh and his band, while in camp at
night, but he defeated them, and was highly complimented by the President. When the war of
1812-14 opened, the Indians sided with the British, who had taken possession of Detroit. The
Kentucky legislature commissioned Harrison major-general, though he was not a resident of the
state, and he proceeded with the troops furnished him, but was unable to reach Hull, who had
surrendered. On September 2, 1812, he was commissioned a brigadier-general, and on returning to
Vincennes he was appointed to the command of all troops in the northwest. After an active but
futile campaign, he journeyed to Cincinati to obtain supplies. He was commissioned major-general,
March 2, 1813. He held Fort Meigs against two severe attacks, and after Perry's naval victory on
Lake Erie, led his troops for an expedition into Canada, overtaking the British and Indians, in
the battle of the Thames, capturing the British force entire, and killing Tecumseh and dispersing
his band. This battle ended the war in Upper Canada, and Harrison was the popular hero. In 1813
he resigned his military commission on account of an affront from the secretary of war. He was
Indian commissioner in 1814-15, and member of Congress from Ohio, 1816-19. In Congress he
advocated a general militia bill, which was defeated, but his bill for the relief of soldiers of
the late war was passed. He was a state senator, 1820-21; was defeated for Congress in 1822, and
a presidential elector on the Clay ticket in 1824. He was elected United States senator in 1825,
succeeded Andrew Jackson as chairman of the military affairs committee, and resigned in 1828 to
accept the position of minster to Columbia, under appointment by President John Quincy Adams, but
was soon recalled through the influence of General Bolivar. He retired to his farm at North Bend,
Indiana, and served as president of the County Agricultural Association, and as clerk of the
court of common pleas at Cincinnati. He was a Jeffersonian Republican in politics, and when the
Whig party was formed in 1834, he joined it, professing states' rights views on the bank, tariff
and internal improvements. In 1835 he was nominated for President by some of the Whig
legislatures in the western and middle states, but he was defeated by Van Buren, the Democratic
nominee. He was the successful candidate and was elected four years later, after one of the most
exciting canvasses in the history of the country, in which "the log cabin," "hard cider,"
"Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," campaign cries were heard throughout the land. He was inaugurated
March 4, 1841, selected his cabinet, and on March 17 called an extra session of Congress to take
up financial questions. Not believing in the power of Congress to create corporations in the
states, he had in mind a bank of the District of Columbia, branching with state assent. The
trials of his position and the apprehension of a breach with Henry Clay, the leader of the Whigs
in Congress, brought on an attack of pneumonia, of which he died April 4. His wife had not yet
taken up her residence in the White House, and was not present at his death. His body lay
temporarily in the Congressional burying ground at Washington City, and was later removed to
North Bend, Indiana. In 1896 an equestrian statue of General Harrison was unveiled in Cincinnati,
in the presence of his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, then President. President William H. Harrison
married, in 1795, Anna, daughter of Colonel John Cleves Symmes, founder of the Miami (Ohio)
settlement, and United States judge, district of New Jersey.
[Pages 73-75]
Tyler, John, son of John Tyler, first governor of that name, and
Mary Armistead, his wife, was born at "Greenway," Charles City county, Virginia, March 29, 1790.
He attended first an "old field school" till 1802, when he was sent to Williamsburg and entered
the grammar school of William and Mary College. At fifteen years of age he entered the college,
and graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1807. In 1809, before attaining his majority, he was admitted
to the bar, and in 1811 took his seat in the house of delegates as a representative from Charles
City county. He was a firm supporter of Mr. Madison and the war with Great Britain, and was
captain for a short time of a company of volunteers. In 1816 he was elected to Congress to fill a
vacancy caused by the death of Hon. John Clopton, and served till 1821. In 1823 he was returned
to the house of delegates, and the next year he was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the
United States senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Taylor, of Caroline county.
In December, 1825, he was made governor of Virginia, and served from December 1, 1825, to March
4, 1827, when he took his seat in the United States senate, defeating John Randolph, of Roanoke.
In this body he advocated states' rights and strict construction views, and voted for Jackson as
President in 1828. When Jackson issued his proclamation in 1832 against South Carolina,
describing the Union as a consolidated nation, Mr. Tyler withdrew his support, and joined the
opposition party, which in 1834 became known as the Whig party. He opposed the so-called "force
bill," and his was the only vote cast against its passage. He suggest to Clay the principles of
the compromise tariff, by which civil war was averted in 1833. In 1836 he was nominated for the
vice-presidency as the champion of states' rights, but was not elected at this time. On the other
hand, he did not believe in nullification, nor in the South Carolina doctrines on the subject of
slavery. He condemned Calhoun's "gag" resolutions against all petitions and motions relating in
any way to the abolition of slavery as inexpedient and in 1832 as chairman of the senate
committee proposed a code for the District of Columbia, one section of which prohibited the slave
trade in the district. In 1838 he was president of the Virginia Colonization Society. In 1839 he
was reëlected to the house of delegates, and the same year had a contest with William C.
Rives for the United States senate, when a deadlock prevented election. Soon after he was
unanimously nominated by the Whig convention at Harrisburg (December, 1839) as vice-president,
and was elected to that office. When President William Henry Harrison died a month after taking
office, April 4, 1841, Mr. Tyler, pursuant to the constitution, became President. The Whig party
was a conglomerate party and consisted of Northern National Republicans and Southern Democrats,
who had left the Democratic party because of the nationalistic views of Andrew Jackson, as
expressed in his proclamation in 1832, against South Carolina, and in other measures. The Whig
convention at Harrisburg did not adopt any platform, and throughout the election campaign in 1840
the Whigs posed as champions of states' rights, and Mr. Clay, their great leader, declared the
old measures of bank, tariff and internal improvements all "obsolete questions." Nevertheless,
among the first measures of the Whigs was a bank bill, which President Tyler, in perfect
agreement with his previous course as senator, vetoed. This brought about a rupture between the
President and his party, and the entire cabinet resigned, with the exception of Daniel Webster,
who did not approve the dictation of Mr. Clay. The President, undisturbed, filled his cabinet
with states' rights Whigs, and though afterwards he received little support in Congress from
either Democrats or Whigs, signalized his administration by achievements of far-reaching
importance. Chief among these was the treaty of Washington with Great Britain, setting the
northeastern boundary and the question of the visitation of American ships; and the annexation of
Texas. Instead of state and individual credit stricken down, as at the commencement of his
administration, the treasury exhausted, and numerous defaulters, exactly the reverse was the
condition of affairs at the end of his term. There was but one defaulter during his
administration, and he for the very small sum of fifteen dollars. After leaving the white House,
Mr. Tyler retired to his home, "Sherwood Forest," in Charles City county, Virginia, where he
lived for fifteen years the life of a Virginia planter, surrounded by every comfort. In 1857 he
was orator at the Jamestown celebration, and in 1859 was made chancellor of William and Mary
College, for which he had been rector of the board of managers for many years. In 1860 the
condition of the country called him from his retirement. He recommended a peace conference, and
was president of that which assembled at Washington in February, 1861. He was also a member of
the state convention, which met in Richmond in January, 1861, and was peace commissioner to
President Buchanan. When he saw that the northern states were opposed to any compromise on the
slavery question, he voted in the state convention for secession. This body soon after elected
him a delegate to the provisional congress of the Confederate States at Montgomery, Alabama.
Later, in November, 1861, he was elected by the people of the Richmond district to the
Confederate house of representatives, but died before he took his seat. His death occurred in
Richmond, January 18, 1862. A great public funeral witnessed the interment of his remains in
Hollywood Cemetery. He married twice, (first) Letitia Christian, of New Kent county, Virginia,
and (second) Julia Gardiner, of New York, and left issue by each marriage. Jefferson Davis used
the following language concerning him: "As an extemporaneous speaker, I regarded him as the most
felicitous among the orators I have known." Henry S. Foote spoke of his "high-bred politeness,
and his "entire freedom from hauteur or assumption." Alexander H. Stephens wrote that "his state
papers compared favorably with those of an y of his predecessors;" while Charles Dickens, in his
"American Notes," giving an account of a call upon him in 1842, said: "I thought that in his
whole carriage and demeanor he became his station singularly well."
[Pages 75-77]
Taylor, Zachary, twelfth President of the United States, was born
near Orange county, Virginia, November 24, 1784. He was a son of Colonel Richard Taylor and Sarah
Strother, his wife, daughter of William Strother, of Stafford county. Colonel Richard Taylor, his
father, was a grandson of James Taylor, who emigrated to Virginia from Carlisle, England, in
1682. He served in the revolutionary war; was major of the Ninth Virginia Regiment in 1778, and
lieutenant-=colonel of the same in 1779. He removed to Kentucky in 1785 and resided in Jefferson
county, and was a member of the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1792, and a member of the
Kentucky legislature under this constitution. He was a presidential elector in 1813, 1817, 1821
and 1825, and was also United States collector for Kentucky. He engaged in many of the conflicts
with the Indians, and was severely wounded in 1792 near Eton, Ohio, in the battle between General
Adams' command and the Indians under Little Turtle.
In this environment Zachary Taylor had few advantages outside of the home
circle and a tutor, Elisha Ayers. His home, however, was enlivened by guests from the best
families of Virginia, induced to settle in Kentucky by granters of wild lands given to her
revolutionary soldiers. Colonel Taylor's home was a stockade of logs, and capable of being easily
defended against the Indians. Here his sons met military men, whose stories aroused a martial
spirit. Zachary was commissioned first lieutenant in the Seventh United States Infantry in 1808.
On June 18, 1810, he married Margaret, daughter of Major Walter Smith, United States Army, a
planter of Calvert county, Maryland, and his wife lived with him on the frontier where the army
was engaged in defending the settlers against the Shawnee Indians. He was promoted captain,
November 30, 1810, and in April, 1812, was ordered to Fort Harrison, above Vincennes, where his
company strengthened the stockade against an Indian assault. The attack was made on September
4-5, 1812. by a large force, who, with small loss to the garrison, were repelled, and in October,
Captain Taylor was reinforced by General Hopkins. He was brevetted major for his gallant defence,
and given command in an expedition against an Indian camp at the headwaters of the Wabash. In
1814 he was commissioned major, and his battalion made a successful demonstration against the
Indians, supported by British troops at Rock river, which put an end to hostilities. Peace having
been declared, the army was reduced to ten thousand men, and Major Taylor was offered a captain's
commission, which he declined, and his resignation was accepted. Soon after he was reinstated as
major, and again took up military life. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the First Infantry
in 1819 and given command of Fort Snelling, the extreme northwestern post. He built Fort Jessup,
Louisiana, in 1822, and served in the southwest until 1824, when he was sent to Louisville on
recruiting service, and to Washington, D. C., as a member of the board of officers of which
Winfield Scott was chairman, to determine the organization of the state militia. He was at Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, 1827-28, and at Fort Snelling, 1829-32. He was promoted colonel April 4, 1832,
and transferred to the First Infantry and assigned to the command of Fort Crawford, Wisconsin,
which he completed, and soon after joined General Atkinson in his campaign against Black Hawk,
resulting in the battle of Bad Axe, which closed the Indian troubles, Black Hawk soon after
surrendering to Colonel Taylor. In 1836 Colonel Taylor was ordered to Florida, and on December
25, 1837, fought the battle of Okeechobee, defeating the Cherokees and receiving the brevet of
brigadier-general. In 1838 he was given command in Florida and in 1840 of the Southern division
of the Western department. He removed his family to a plantation near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
July 4, 1845, when it became necessary to defend Texas against the Mexicans, he marched with
fifteen hundred men to Corpus Christi. His orders being to maintain the Rio Grande as the
boundary, he awaited reinforcements, and on March 8, 1846, he advanced to the river opposite
Matamoras and established Fort Brown. Besides defending the fort, he had a skirmish near
Matamoras, April 19; fought the battle of Palo Alto, May 8, and Resaca de la Palma, May 99; had a
second skirmish before taking possession of Matamoras, May 18; was breveted major-general, May
28, and commissioned, June 29; fought the battle of Monterey, September 21-23, receiving the
capitulation of the place on the 24th, and granting an armistice of eight weeks, for which action
he was severely criticized by Secretary Marcy. The combat at San Pasqual occurred December 6, and
the skirmish at San Bardino, December 7, 1846. When the government had sent General Scott to
capture the Mexican capital by the Vera Cruz route, General Taylor was subject to his orders, and
his campaign by way of Saltillo, across the plains, which he had proposed to the government at
Washington, was practically closed, as he could not depend on any support should the exigencies
of the campaign demand his troops at Vera Cruz. Taylor was ordered to Victoria, where he turned
over his troops, save only an escort, to General Scott, to take part in the siege of Vera Cruz,
and he returned to Monterey by way of Agua Nueva, beyond Saltillo. He was joined by General Wool,
and on February 23-24 they fought the battle of Buena Vista, with four thousand five hundred and
fifty men against Santa Anna's army, twenty-two thousand strong. At the battle, on the second
day, he was urged not to continue the fight against such fearful odds, but eh said,"My wounded
are behind me; I will never pass them alive." He defeated the Mexicans, and decimated the army of
Santa Anna. This battle closed his career as a soldier, and he returned home in November, 1847.
He received three medals from Congress, and three swords from the state legislatures. "old Rough
and Ready," now the national hero, was taken up by the Whigs as a candidate for the presidency.
The Native American party had offered him the nomination for President, but put no candidate in
the field. The Democrats met in Baltimore, May 22, 1848, and nominated General Lewis Cass for
President, and William O. Butler for Vice-President, and the Whig national convention met at
Philadelphia, June 7, 1848, and on the fourth ballot nominated General Zachary Taylor, of
Louisiana, for President, and Millard Fillmore was nominated for Vice-President. In the election,
the Taylor and Fillmore electors received 1,360,101 popular votes; the Cass and Butler electors
1,220,544, and the Van Buren and Adams Freesoil ticket 291,262. The electoral college gave Taylor
and Fillmore 163 votes, and 127 to Cass and Butler. On March 4, 1849, General Taylor was
inaugurated. In his message to Congress he recommended the admission of California to the Union,
but did not favor the admission of either Utah or Mexico. On July 4, 1850, he attended the
ceremonies of laying the cornerstone of the Washington monument, but the heat of the day brought
upon him choler morbus, which caused his death, in the presence of his wife, his daughter,
Elizabeth, and her husband, Colonel Bliss, his brother, Colonel Taylor, and family, and Jefferson
Davis and family, Vice-President Fillmore and his cabinet. He died at the White House,
Washington, July 9, 1850.
[Page 81]
Blair, John, (q. v.)
[Pages 81-83]
Marshall, John, was born in Germantown, Fauquier county, Virginia,
September 24, 1755, son of Colonel Thomas (q. v.) and
Mary Isham (Keith) Marshall, the eldest of fifteen children. He received his early instruction
from Mr. James Thompson, a private tutor, and attended the classical academy of the Messrs.
Campbell, in Westmoreland county, Virginia. He studied law, but at the outbreak of the
revolutionary war he joined a company of volunteers and, as lieutenant, took part in the action
at Great Bridge, in Norfolk county. His company was subsequently reorganized and became a part of
the Eleventh Regiment of Virginia troops, which was ordered to join Washington's army in New
Jersey. He was promoted captain of a company in May, 1777; was engaged in the battles of
Monmouth, Brandywine and Germantown, and accompanied Washington to Valley Forge, December 19,
1777. In 1779 he was present at the capture of Stony Point by General Anthony Wayne and
subsequently covered the retreat of Major Lee after his attack on the enemy's post at Paulus'
Hook, August 19, 1779. He was ordered to return to Virginia to take charge of the militia which
was then being raised by the state, and he repaired to Williamsburg, Virginia. While waiting for
the troops he attended, for a few months in 1780, a course of law lectures by Chancellor Wythe,
of the College of William and Mary, and the same year was admitted to the bar at Williamsburg.
Despairing of the organization of state militia, he joined the small force under Baron Steuben
for the defence of the state. In 1781 he resigned his commission and entered upon the practice of
law in Fauquier county. He early attained prominence at the bar; was a delegate to the Virginia
house of delegates in 1782; removed his law office to Richmond, Virginia; was elected a member of
the state executive council and was commissioned a general in the newly organized state militia.
He continued to represent Fauquier county in the legislature till 1787, and then represented
Henrico county. He was engaged in the celebrated case of Ware vs. Hilton, involving the
British debt question, tried in the Circuit Court of the United States at Richmond before Chief
Justice John Jay, the attorneys for the American debtors being Patrick Henry, Alexander Campbell,
James Irvine and John Marshall. He was married, January 3, 1783, to Mary Willis, daughter of
Jacqueline and Rebecca L. (Burwell) Amber. He became a Federalist, and was a member of the
constitutional convention of Virginia, which met at Richmond, June 2, 1788, where he favored the
adoption of the Federal constitution. He declined the cabinet position of attorney-general, and
also a foreign mission tendered him by President Washington; was again a delegate to the house of
burgesses, 1788-91, and practiced law at Richmond, 1791-97. Upon the withdrawal of James Monroe
as resident minister to France, and the appointment of Charles C. Pinckney as his successor, the
French government became hostile to the United States, and in 1797 ordered United States Minister
Pinckney to quit the French territory and he went to Amsterdam and thence to New York. This
occasioned great indignation in the United States; and an extra session of Congress was convened
and a special mission to France was instituted composed of Marshall, Pinckney and Gerry as joint
envoys with orders to "demand redress and reparation from France." They arrived in Paris, October
4, 1797, and were treated with due civility. The French directory would not acknowledge the
commissioners, but Talleyrand suggested through secret agents that an amicable settlement of
affairs could be made by the modification of President Adams' speech to Congress in which he had
denounced the French government, and the payment of the sum of $250,000 by the American
government. To this proposition the committee replied that no such concession would be made and
refused to have further intercourse with the agents. The preparations for a war with France were
actively begun by the Adams administration and Washington was made lieutenant-general of the
United States forces then being raised. Marshall and Pinckney left France, while Gerry, who was a
Republican and was supposed by the directory to favor the payment of tribute rather than fight,
was compelled to remain in Paris by threats of an immediate declaration of war if he left, but
when he was urged to enter into negotiations after the withdrawal of his colleagues he refused to
do so. Marshall arrived in New York, June 17, 1798, and was received with great enthusiasm, and a
public banquet was given to him by both houses of Congress It was at this dinner that the famous
reply of Pinckney to the French directory in 1796 "Millions for defence but not one cent
for tribute" was used as a toast. Marshall immediately resumed his law practice in
Virginia and declined the appointment of justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
tendered him by President Adams, September 26, 1798. he was a Federal representative in the Sixth
Congress, 1799-1801; and gained the favor of President Adams by his speech in the case of
Jonathan Robins. He was appointed secretary of state in the reorganized cabinet of President
Adams, May 12, 1800. During his administration of state affairs, the treaty with France was
ratified. While serving as secretary of state, he was appointed chief justice of the United
States to succeed Chief Justice Ellsworth, resigned, and took the oath of office, February 4,
1801. For one month he acted as both secretary of state and chief justice a unique case of
the combination in one person of executive and judicial offices. It was before Marshall as chief
justice that the celebrated trial of
Aaron Burr was held and a verdict of acquittal was rendered. He was a member of the Virginia
state convention of 1829 and spoke with great earnestness on the matter of changing the manner of
appointment of the judges and magistrates of the commonwealth and the length of their term of
office. Although opposed to a high protective tariff, he did not approve of nullification. by his
decisions in the Supreme Court he greatly strengthened the hands of the Federal government. He
was the author of a "Life of Washington" (5 vols., 1804-07), written and published at the request
of Washington's family, but he was a better judge than historian, and the work has never been
popular. The first volume was afterward published separately under the title of "A History of the
American Colonies" (1824) and the entire work was subsequently revised and condensed into two
volumes in 1832. The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on him by the College of New
Jersey in 1802, by Harvard in 1806, and by the University of Pennsylvania in 1815. He was a
member of the American Philosophical Society; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. On February 4, 1901,
the Supreme Court of the United States, with the aid and support of the President and Congress,
celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the day on which he took his seat for the first time
in the Supreme Court of the United States, and by common consent all judicial business throughout
the country ceased, and state, city and county bar associations held appropriate exercises, as
did colleges, law and public schools. His health began to decline at the opening of the session
of the Supreme Court in 1835, although he presided throughout the session. He died in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1835. His ability as a judge consisted in his almost
supernatural power of distinguishing at a glance the very point on which the controversy
depended. He was not always correct in his decision, but there can be but one opinion as to his
rapid, resistless and astonishing penetration.
[Page 83]
Washington, Bushrod, was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia,
June 5, 1762, the son of John Augustine, younger brother of George Washington; was graduated from
William and Mary College in 1778, and read law in Philadelphia in James Wilson's office. In
1780-81 he served in Colonel J. F. Mercer's troop, which was disbanded after the siege of
Yorktown. He practiced at home, at Alexandria and at Richmond; was a member of the house of
delegates in 1787, and of the convention which ratified the Federal constitution; and from
December 20, 1798, was a judge of the United States Supreme Court, receiving his appointment from
President Adams. he was of "small and emaciated frame, and countenance like marble," but eminent
for learning and ability. He published "Reports of the Virginia Court of Appeals, 1790-96," in
two volumes (1798-99),and of the "United States Court for the Third Circuit. 1803-27," in four
volumes (1826-29). partly edited by R. peters; these, in the opinion of his biographer, did him
but imperfect justice. At the organization of the Colonization Society in June, 1817, he became
its president. As the general's favorite nephew, he inherited Mount Vernon, which afterward
passed to R. E. Lee, through the Custis family. He died November 26, 1829. His life, by H.
Binney, was privately printed in 1858.
[Pages 83-84]
Barbour, Philip Pendleton, was born in Orange county, Virginia, May
25, 1783, the son of Colonel Thomas Barbour. He received his early education at the schools in
his native county, read law, and was sent by his father to Kentucky to settle some land claims,
in which he was unsuccessful, and was thereafter left to make his own way in the world. He was
admitted to the bar, practiced law, and subsequently studied at William and Mary College. From
1812 to 1814 he was a member of the legislature, and from 1814 to 1821 a member of Congress from
Virginia, when he became speaker of the house of representatives. In 1825 he resigned his
position, and was appointed judge of the eastern district of Virginia. He was in Congress again
from 1827 to 1830, was president of the Virginia constitutional convention and chairman of the
judiciary committee, and in 1831 was president of the Philadelphia free trade convention. In 1836
President Jackson appointed him an associate judge of the Supreme Court of the United States.
While in Congress he opposed all appropriations for public improvements, and all import duties.
He died in Washington, D. C., February 25, 1841.