Andrew Stevenson: Democrat and Diplomat, 1785-1857 9781512819236

Table of contents :
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES
EARLY YEARS (1785–1809)
I. THE PATH TO RICHMOND AND THE BAR
LAWMAKER AND SOLDIER (1809–1821)
II. IN THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES 1809–1811
III. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AND MAJOR OF ARTILLERY 1812–1816
IV. THREE YEARS MORE AT THE BAR 1816–1819
V. RETURN TO THE LEGISLATURE 1819–1821
IN THE NATIONAL ARENA (1821–1836)
VI. FIRST YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1821–1827
VII. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE FOR SEVEN YEARS 1827–1834
VIII. A BATTLE OF POLITICS 1834–1836
MINISTER AT LONDON (1836–1841)
IX. ASSUMPTION OF DIPLOMATIC DUTIES
X. CLAIMS FOR LIBERATED SLAVES
XI. THE SLAVE TRADE AND RIGHT OF SEARCH
XII. COMMERCIAL QUESTIONS
XIII. THE NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY
XIV. THE CAROLINE CRISIS
XV. INTERLUDES
XVI. IMBROGLIOS
XVII. RETURN TO AMERICA
LATER YEARS (1841–1857)
XVIII. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN
XIX. OCCASIONAL POLITICIAN
XX. DEATH AT BLENHEIM
CONCLUSION
XXI. THE MAN AND HIS WORK
APPENDIX
CHRONOLOGY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Citation preview

ANDREW STEVENSON DEMOCRAT AND DIPLOMAT I 785-1857

From a portrait by George P. A. Healy, made in London in 1839

ANDREW STEVENSON DEMOCRAT AND DIPLOMAT 1785-1857

FRANCIS FRY WAYLAND PROFESSOR O F WAGNER

HISTORY

COLLECE

Philadelphia UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS LONDON: GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1949

Copyright 1949 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS

Manufactured

in the United States of

America

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A MAN who was a member of the Congress of the United States for thirteen years, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives during the unusually eventful and turbulent period of 1827 to 1834, and who was minister to Great Britain (1836-41) under four Presidents certainly deserves recognition in our national history. Yet Andrew Stevenson (1785-1857) has had no biographer. Such sketches of him as have been written are brief and inadequate. We may not accord him first rank as a statesman and leader of men, but he was unquestionably an imposing and influential figure in an era that produced Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Jackson, Benton, Houston, and John Quincy Adams, by whom other men of the time had to be measured. The author of this work has sought to discover and use all available material on the subject, and has exerted every effort to make the study comprehensive and accurate. Manuscripts constitute by far the greatest sources utilized, with contemporary newspapers and printed official documents as important supplemental sources. T o numerous individuals and institutions the writer is indebted for courtesies and aid extended to him during the course of his research: T o Dr. St. George L. Sioussat, Chief, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, for having suggested the subject of this biography, for lending transcripts of manuscripts in the British Museum, and for helpful criticism; to Professors Roy F. Nichols and Arthur P. Whitaker of the University of Pennsylvania for reading and criticizing this study in its original form. T o Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, 1 Dr. Thomas P. Martin, Miss Grace G. Griffin, Dr. Charles P. Powell, Mr. Donald H. Mugridge, and Mr. John J. de Porry of the Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, for giving expert assistance many times; to Dr. Hunter Miller and Mrs. Natalia Summers for making available the archives of the Department of State; and to the members of the library staff of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for efficient and obliging service. T o the following relatives of Andrew Stevenson who aided most generously in various ways: Miss Judith Braxton Colston of Cincinnati; Mrs. William Lawrence Royall, Sr., of Richmond; Miss Sally Randolph Carter of "Redlands," Charlottesville, Virginia; Mrs. Roberts Coles, also of Charlottesville; and Mr. Walter L. Coles of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. i In this case, as in all other cases hereafter, the position of the individual indicated was the one held at the time aid was given. v

vi

ANDREW STEVENSON

Also to the following, among others: Dr. Thomas P. Abernethy, University of Virginia; Major General E. S. Adams, Adjutant General, War Department, Washington; Mrs. William B. Allen, Treasure Room, Harvard College Library; Dr. Charles H. Ambler, West Virginia University; Dorothy C. Barck, Head, Reference Department, New York Historical Society; Dr. H. C. F. Bell, Wesleyan University; Dr. Samuel F. Bemis, Yale University; Mr. E. S. Bolen, Clerk, City Council, Richmond; the Rev. Dudley Boogher, Rector, St. George's Episcopal Church, Fredericksburg, Virginia; Mr. Robert L. Brunhouse, Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lester J. Cappon, Archivist, Alderman Library, University of Virginia; Mr. E. I. Carruthers, Bursar, University of Virginia; Mrs. Ralph Catterall, Curator of Prints and Manuscripts, T h e Valentine Museum, Richmond; Mr. James B. Childs, Chief, Documents Division, Library of Congress; Mr. Walter Christian, Clerk, Hustings Court, Richmond; Mr. R. W. Church, Assistant Librarian, Virginia State Library; Dr. Harry d e m ons, Librarian, Alderman Library, University of Virginia; Mr. Philip V. Cogbill, Clerk, Circuit Court of Chesterfield County, Chesterfield, Virginia; Mr. George P. Coleman, Richmond; Mr. A. H. Crismond, Clerk, Spotsylvania County, Spotsylvania, Virginia; Norman Cuthbert, Manuscripts Department, Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California. Mr. Claude M. Dean, Clerk, U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Richmond; Mr. E. Griffith Dodson, Clerk, Virginia House of Delegates; Dr. Ralph B. Flanders, New York University; Mr. C. T . Flower, Secretary, Public Record Office, London; Mr. Allyn B. Forbes, Librarian, Massachusetts Historical Society; Miss Mary F. Goodwin, Historiographer, Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, Richmond; Dr. Armistead C. Gordon, Jr., University of Virginia; Mr. Raleigh T . Green, Culpeper, Virginia; Mr. C. T . Guinn, Clerk, Culpeper County Circuit Court, Culpeper; Dr. Wilmer L. Hall, Librarian, Virginia State Library; Dr. Philip M. Hamer, T h e National Archives, Washington; Mr. Zoltan Haraszti, Keeper of Rare Books, Boston Public Library; Mr. Thomas T . H. Hill, Deputy Clerk, King William County, King William, Virginia; Mr. and Mrs. Henry Morrow Hyde of Blenheim, Albemarle County, Virginia; Mr. Philip S. Klein, Graduate School, University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Robert A. Lancaster, Jr., Corresponding Secretary, Virginia Historical Society; Mrs. Eva W. Maupin, Deputy Clerk, Circuit Court, Albemarle County, Charlottesville; Mr. J. S. Maywood, Librarian, The Times, London; Mr. Victor S. Mersch, Deputy Register of Wills and Clerk of the Probate Court, U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia; Dr. R u t h K. Nuermberger, Curator of Manuscripts, Duke University Library;

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

vii

Dr. Victor H. Paltsits, Chief, Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library; Mr. Henry S. Parsons, Chief, Periodical Division, Library of Congress; Dr. Charles W. Porter, Richmond; Mr. T . D. Quinn, Department of Justice, Washington. Mr. Morgan P. Robinson, Archivist, Virginia State Library; Mr. J . K. Ruebush, Harrisonburg, Virginia; Dr. Theodore R. Schellenberg, The National Archives, Washington; Dr. Frank W. Scott, Editor in chief, D. C. Heath and Company, Boston; Dr. Clifford K. Shipton, Custodian, Harvard University Archives; Dr. Henry H. Simms, Ohio State University; Miss Julia Sully, Jr., Historian, Virginia Conservation Commission, Richmond; Dr. Earl G. Swem, Librarian, College of William and Mary; Miss Lucy T . Throckmorton, Librarian, University of Richmond; Mr. South Trimble, Clerk, U. S. House of Representatives; Mr. M. B. Watts, ClerkSecretary, Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals; Mr. William H. Whiting, Jr., Hampden-Sydney College; Eleanor S. Wilby, Librarian, Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati; Juliet F. Wolohan, New York State Library; the Hon. E. J . Woodville, Flat Run, Virginia; Mr. C. E. Wright, Department of Manuscripts, British Museum; Mr. John Cook Wyllie, Director of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Alderman Library, University of Virginia. T h e writer is also indebted to his wife, Abigail Atkins Wayland, and to his father, Dr. John W. Wayland, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, for valued criticism and suggestions. Chapter XV of this biography, with some changes, appeared as an article in Americana (January 1943), and the third section of Chapter XVI, in substantially the same form, as an article in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (January 1942). The courtesy of Dr. Winfield Scott Downs, editor-in-chief of Americana, and of Mr. Clayton Torrence, editor of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, is hereby acknowledged. Stapleton, Staten Island, New York

FRANCIS F R Y W A Y L A N D

CONTENTS Page FRONTISPIECE

From, a portrait by George P. A. Healy, made in London in 1839. Courtesy of Miss Judith Braxton Colston of Cincinnati. P R E F A C E AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

V

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES

xi

M A P : STEVENSON'S VIRGINIA

xiii

Chapter EARLY YEARS (1785-1809) I

T H E PATH TO RICHMOND AND T H E BAR

1

LA WMAKER AND SOLDIER (1809-1821) II

IN T H E VIRGINIA HOUSE O F DELEGATES

13

III

SPEAKER O F T H E HOUSE AND M A J O R O F A R T I L L E R Y

20

IV

T H R E E YEARS M O R E AT T H E BAR

36

RETURN T O T H E LEGISLATURE

44

V

IN THE VI VII VIII

NATIONAL (1821-1836)

ARENA

FIRST YEARS IN T H E HOUSE O F REPRESENTATIVES

56

SPEAKER O F T H E HOUSE F O R SEVEN YEARS

74

A B A T T L E O F POLITICS

103

A N D R E W STEVENSON

X

Chapter

Page MINISTER AT LONDON (1836-1841)

IX

ASSUMPTION O F D I P L O M A T I C DUTIES

1 12

CLAIMS FOR LIBERATED SLAVES

115

T H E SLAVE TRADE AND RIGHT OF SEARCH

121

C O M M E R C I A L QUESTIONS

131

XIII

T H E NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY

140

XIV

T H E CAROLINE CRISIS

148

XV

INTERLUDES

157

XVI

IMBROGLIOS

179

RETURN T O AMERICA

192

X XI XII

XVII

LATER

YEARS

(1841-1857) XVIII XIX XX

COUNTRY G E N T L E M A N

199

OCCASIONAL POLITICIAN

216

DEATH AT B L E N H E I M

235

CONCLUSION XXI

T H E MAN AND HIS WORK

239

APPENDIX CHRONOLOGY

251

BIBLIOGRAPHY

259

INDEX

273

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES (For further details concerning the items below, see the Bibliography.) Abn AdMem AJ AmbR AmbS Annals AS AStD BD BPL BranchHP B.U.S. CG ColesF CVaSP DAB Debates DMad DS Dsp Duke DW (en.) ExLbk FOP GB Harvard HavL HExD HL HRJ HSPa Ins JaCor JBr JBu JCC JFor JMad

Fourth Earl of Aberdeen (in correspondence references) Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, C. F. Adams, ed. Andrew Jackson (in correspondence references) Ambler, C. H., Thomas Ritchie Ambler, C. H., Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861 Annals of the Congress of the United States Andrew Stevenson (in correspondence references) Ames, H. V., ed., State Documents on Federal Relations Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927 Public Library of the City of Boston The John P. Branch Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College, W. E. Dodd and C. H. Ambler, eds. Bank of the United States Congressional Globe Coles, W. B., The Coles Family of Virginia Calendar of Virginia State Papers, W. P. Palmer, ed. Dictionary of American Biography, Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds. Register of Debates in Congress Dolly Madison (in correspondence references) U. S. Department of State Despatches (diplomatic correspondence) Duke University Library Daniel Webster (in correspondence references) Enclosure (in diplomatic correspondence) Executive letterbook Foreign Office Papers Great Britain Harvard College Library Haverford College Library House Executive Document, U. S. Congress Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, Calif. Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States Historical Society of Pennsylvania Instructions (diplomatic correspondence) Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, J . S. Bassett, ed. John Brockenbrough (in correspondence references) James Buchanan (in correspondence references) Joseph C. Cabell (in correspondence references) J°hn Forsyth (in correspondence references) James Madison (in correspondence references) xi

xii JRth JTy JWS LC LT MassHS Niles NotesFB NotesTB NYHS NYPL Plm PrM

ANDREW STEVENSON

John Rutherfoord (in correspondence references) John Tyler (in correspondence references) John White Stevenson (in correspondence references) Library of Congress London Times Massachusetts Historical Society Niles' Weekly (National) Register Notes from the British Legation (diplomatic correspondence) Notes to the British Legation (diplomatic correspondence) New York Historical Society New York Public Library Third Viscount Palmerston (in correspondence references) Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897, J. D. Richardson, comp. PRO Public Record Office, London RE Richmond Enquirer RR Richard Rush (in correspondence references) RSi Richard Singleton (in correspondence references) SCS Sarah Coles (the second Mrs. Andrew) Stevenson (in correspondence references) SCS Letters Mrs. Stevenson's letters on Queen Victoria in the Century Magazine SD Senate Document, U. S. Congress SJ Journal of the Senate of the United States StLbk Andrew Stevenson letterbook ThR Thomas Ritchie (in correspondence references) TyLT Tyler, L. G., The Letters and Times of the Tylers TyQ Tyler's Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine USStat The Statutes at Large of the United States of America UVa The Alderman Library, University of Virginia VaActs Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia VaHJ Journal of the House of Delegates of Virginia VaHS Virginia Historical Society VaM Virginia Magazine of History and Biography VaSJ Journal of the Senate of Virginia VaSL Virginia State Library VB Martin Van Buren (in correspondence references) VisM Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia WG Washington Globe WMQ William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine WNI Washington National Intelligencer WU Washington Union

I THE PATH TO RICHMOND AND THE BAR S T E V E N S O N was born in a notable period of American history. In the year 1785 the United States of America was experiencing the difficulties and uncertainties attendant upon the establishment of a new and independent government. Economic, financial, political, and diplomatic problems baffled the Continental Congress, representing as it did, under the Articles of Confederation, a loose league of sovereign states extremely jealous of their rights and reluctant to cooperate sufficiently to insure the creation of a strong central government. T h e times were critical for the new nation. Its government, lacking essential powers, was the suppliant of the states. Its paper currency was worthless; its commerce, interstate and foreign, was impeded by irksome restrictions; its diplomats abroad were frequently embarrassed by failure in their negotiations. In the year 1785, when Richard Henry Lee was president of the Congress, Thomas Jefferson was dispatched as minister to Paris to replace the venerable Franklin, and John Adams was appointed first envoy to the Court of St. James. It was in this same year, when Patrick Henry was serving his second term as governor of the Old Dominion, that Andrew Stevenson was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, where his father, the Reverend James Stevenson, was rector of St. Mark's Parish. 1 According to the inscription on his tombstone at Enniscorthy, Albemarle County, Virginia, the date of his birth was March 23, 1785. 2

ANDREW

Concerning the paternal forebears of Andrew Stevenson earlier than his father, the writer has been unable to obtain any information that seems to be dependable. He has found no original records of any sort bearing on the subject. According to one secondary account, James Stevenson, the father of Andrew, was the son of Francina Augustina Frisby and William Stevenson of Chestertown, Maryland, the son of William Stevenson of Lancashire, England. According to another account, however, this was not the case.3 James Stevenson was apparently of English and Scottish ancestry. His son Andrew, while American minister in London, stated on Edgar Woods, Albemarle County in Virginia, p. 319. 2 Certain printed sketches give it as January 21, 1784: see DAB, X V I I (1935), 630-31, and BD, p. 1568. 3 Cf. J . R. Stevenson, Thomas Stevenson of London, England, and His Descendants, p. 145, with G. A. Hanson, Old Kent: The Eastern Shore of Maryland, p. 84. 1

1

2

ANDREW STEVENSON

one occasion that his "Scotch feeling and pride" sprang from his partial Scottish lineage.4 On his maternal side Andrew Stevenson was descended from the Littlepages, who were of English origin. According to the genealogist Hayden, the first known Littlepage of Virginia was Richard, who received land in New Kent County in 1660. He was sheriff of New Kent and vestryman of St. Peter's Parish. He was a large landowner in his county, as was his son Richard, also a vestryman of St. Peter's Parish. Colonel James Littlepage, who represented the third generation of his family in Virginia, was the son of Richard, Jr. Although at the time a resident of New Kent County, James served as the first clerk of Louisa County. He was a slaveholder and large landowner in the counties of New Kent, Louisa and Orange. As a young man he accompanied Thomas Lee and William Beverley, official representatives of Governor William Gooch of Virginia, on a mission in 1744 to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where they conferred with commissioners of Maryland and Pennsylvania in treating with the Six Nations of the Iroquois. In 1764 he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses from Hanover County. A son of James Littlepage, John Carter, was a member of the Virginia Convention of 1788, which ratified the Federal Constitution; subsequently he was attorney general of Virginia.5 Frances Arnett Littlepage, a daughter of James Littlepage by his first wife (reputedly a Miss Carter), was the mother of Andrew Stevenson.8 She married James Stevenson in January 1772,7 at which time he was rector of Berkeley Parish in Spotsylvania County. Bishop William Meade of Virginia referred to her as "a lady of fine intellectual endowments," 8 and the Reverend Philip Slaughter called her a woman of "fine intelligence and culture." 9 The fascinating, dashing General Lewis Littlepage was an uncle of Andrew Stevenson. His romantic adventures as a young man in the court circles of Madrid and Versailles, as soldier in different European armies, as statesman and diplomat at Warsaw and St. Petersburg, and as friend of King Stanislaus of Poland, Lafayette of France, and Tsarina Catherine of Russia, we may assume, fired the imagination of his youthful nephew in Virginia.10 By Littlepage's last will and testament, probated after his death at Fredericksburg in July 1802, he left to his half sister, Frances * AS to Dr. T . Cleland, March 19, 1840, StLbk, LC; WNl, Sept. 15, 1838; RE, Nov. 16, 1838; R . T . Green, Notes on Culpeper County, Virginia, Part I, 21. » H. E. Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, pp. 397-400. »Ibid., p. 401. i WMQ, 1st series, I X , 239 (April 1901). « William Meade. Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia, II, 71. » Green, op. cit., l'art I, 21. io Hayden, op. cit., pp. 402-20.

THE PATH TO RICHMOND

3

Stevenson, £100 of Virginia currency, and to his nephew, Andrew Stevenson, $1000. James Stevenson acted as a witness to his will and as an executor of his estate. 11 James Stevenson was a figure of prominence among the Anglican clergy of Virginia in the eighteenth century, a man of strong character and high principles, and an effective pulpit orator whose sermons showed literary excellence. Entering the ministry as a young man, he spent most of his life as rector of various parishes in Virginia. In March 1768, when about thirty years of age, he made application to the vestry of Camden Parish in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, for "A Title to Orders" for that parish. On March 25 he received from the vestry a title to orders in the form of a resolution, by which it was agreed to receive him as minister after his ordination, upon the condition that he prove acceptable to the parish. 12 Because there were no resident Anglican bishops in British North America, he was obliged to journey to England, where he was ordained a priest in the Established Church and licensed for the plantations of Virginia on September 29, 1768, by Richard Terrick, Bishop of London, in the chapel of the palace at Fulham in Middlesex. 13 On October 11 he received the King's bounty of £ 2 0 sterling, a subsidy granted since 1690 to ordained clergymen of the Established Church who undertook the voyage to America.14 Upon his return he was received on July 14, 1769, by the vestry of Camden Parish as their first resident minister. As organized in 1767, this parish then embraced in its area the present-day counties of Pittsylvania, Henry, and Patrick, and the southern half of Franklin. T h e ministerial work of this frontier country in the Virginia piedmont required great physical endurance, since the clergyman spent much of his time in the saddle.15 After serving Camden Parish for one year, Mr. Stevenson resigned to become the first rector of Berkeley Parish, formed in 1770 from St. George's Parish in Spotsylvania County. 16 He served as rector of Berkeley Parish from 1770 until 1780. During the Revolution he remained loyal to the American cause.17 On November 13, 1777, he preached an impressive sermon at the Mattapony Church in commemoration of the surrender of Burgoyne's army at Saratoga the preceding month. " I n point of sentiment and literary execution," Green observes, ". . . [the sermon] is ex11 Ibid., p. 402 n. 12 M. C. Clement, History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia, pp. 116-17. is Green, op. cit., Part I, 21. 1 4 G. M. Brydon, " T h e Clergy of the Established Church in Virginia and the Revolution," VaM, XLI (1933), 18, 301. is Clement, op. cit., pp. 118, 120. io Meade, op. cit., II, 73. i? Brydon, op. cit., p. 301.

4

ANDREW STEVENSON

cellent, and gives us a pleasing illustration of the piety and patriotism of one of our old colonial ministers." 18 In February 1780, the Reverend Edward Jones resigned as rector of St. Mark's Parish in Culpeper County, and the vestry advertised for a minister. James Stevenson applied for the charge. In April the vestry "met at the glebe" and agreed to receive him as rector; accordingly it ordered "that the sheriff collect of each tithe in the parish five pounds of tobacco, or in money at the rate of 25 per hundred." Resigning as minister of Berkeley Parish, Mr. Stevenson accepted the rectorship of St. Mark's, which constituency he served from April 1780 to January 1794.1® In May 1785, after the United States had won independence from Great Britain, a convention composed of clergymen and laymen met in the state capitol at Richmond for the purpose of organizing the Protestant Episcopal Church for the Diocese of Virginia. 20 In that first diocesan assembly James Stevenson, as rector, and James Pendleton, as layman, represented St. Mark's Parish. T h e convention, in session seven days, framed and adopted a body of rules for the "order, government, and discipline" of the church. It divided the state into districts, the ministers of each district forming a "presbytery." T o perform in some measure the functions of a resident bishop, not appointed in Virginia until 1790, it designated a clergyman to visit in each district and preside over its presbytery. Mr. Stevenson was made visitor for the district composed of the parishes of St. Mark's, St. George's, Bromfield, and Berkeley. 21 Andrew Stevenson spent the first nine years of his life in Culpeper County, during which time his father was rector of St. Mark's Parish. T h e county, at one time part of the estate of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, had been formed in 1749 from the county of Orange, and in Stevenson's boyhood embraced the present-day counties of Culpeper, Madison, and Rappahannock. 22 Watered by the Rappahannock and Rapidan and covered with a deep-red, fertile soil, the prevailing occupation of its inhabitants was agriculture. In July 1749 the youthful George Washington had been commissioned by the president and masters of William and Mary College as surveyor of the county. Early in the American Revolution Culpeper became distinguished for the services of its gallant minutemen. 23 In 1791, while Stevenson was a mere lad, William Wirt began his practice of law in is Green, op. cit., Part I, 21. i s / b i d . , p. 19; Meade, op. cit., II, 81. 20 E. L. Goodwin, The Colonial Church in Virginia, pp. 105-2S. 21 Green, op. cit., Part 1,19-20. 22 M. P. Robinson, Virginia Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation, 48, 59, 66, 204. 28 Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia, p. 237.

pp.

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5

Culpeper. T h e framing and adoption of the Constitution of 1787, its ratification by the Virginia Convention of 1788, the establishment of the new federal government under President Washington, the rise of the first political parties, and the controversies resulting from Hamilton's financial program were events that transpired while Stevenson was a youth in Culpeper. Andrew had at least four sisters and five brothers. His sisters were Sarah, Ann, Elizabeth, and Nancy; his brothers were Robert, James, Carter Littlepage, Edward, and Lewis. His eldest sister Sarah became the wife of the Reverend J o h n Woodville, 24 a native of England, who succeeded his father-in-law in 1794 as rector of St. Mark's Parish. 25 His eldest brother Robert married Frances Towles,- 9 and resided for a number of years in Lewisburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). 27 Ann and Elizabeth were sisters near in age to Andrew. 28 Elizabeth was among those who perished in the burning of the Richmond T h e a t e r on December 26, 1811.29 James became a doctor of medicine; he died in New Orleans in August 1817. Edward was lost at sea. Lewis and Carter Littlepage were probably namesakes of their illustrious uncle, General Lewis Littlepage. Carter Littlepage became a prominent lawyer of Fredericksburg, and served for several sessions as representative of Spotsylvania County in the Virginia House of Delegates. 80 Early in 1794 James Stevenson removed his family from Culpeper to Fredericksburg, where he served as rector of St. George's Parish until July 1805, when he resigned because of ill health. He was chosen minister on January 6, 1794, by unanimous vote of the Fredericksburg inhabitants, "assembled at the market place." 31 He exchanged parishes with his son-inlaw, J o h n Woodville, who left St. George's to go to St. Mark's. 82 While he was rector of St. George's Parish, two charity schools, one for boys and one for girls, were established in Fredericksburg for the education of the poor. T o those institutions he was a subscriber, 88 along with Benjamin Day, Charles Yates, Fontaine Maury, and others. 34 In 1802 he addressed the See the will of James Stevenson in Will Book F, pp. 12-14, Culpeper Co. Records, Culpeper, Va. z» Green, op. cit., Part I, 26-27. =« Will Book F, pp. 12-14, Culpeper Co. Records. 27 Green, op. cit., Part I, 73. =8 Will Book F, p. 332, Spotsylvania Co. Records, Spotsylvania, Va. 29 RE, Jan. 2, 1812. so Hayden, op. cit., p. 401; E. G. Swem and J. W. Williams, A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, p. 432. 31 Green, op. cit., Part I, 20. 32 Meade, op. cit., II, 70, 81. 33 Will Book F, pp. 12-14, Culpeper Co. Records. 34 J. T . Goolrick, Historic Fredericksburg, p. 184.

6

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Masons of Fredericksburg upon the occasion of the anniversary of St. J o h n the Evangelist. 3 5 W h e n the Stevenson family removed thither in 1794, Fredericksburg was an important trading, manufacturing, and cultural center of eastern Virginia. It was the seat of government for Spotsylvania County, formed in 1720 while Alexander Spotswood was lieutenant governor of Virginia. Near by were the settlement of Germanna, and Spotswood's iron mines. Strategically situated at the falls of the Rappahannock, the town was the natural meeting place of boat and wagon. Its merchants traded tobacco, flour, and grain up and down the river, and to the West Indies and European countries. 3 6 I t had been the home of the American Revolutionary leaders, J o h n Paul J o n e s and Hugh Mercer. Across the Rappahannock lay "Ferry F a r m , " the boyhood home of George Washington. J a m e s Monroe, J o h n Marshall, J o h n T a y l o r of Caroline, Bushrod Washington, and W i l l i a m W . Hening had been licensed there as lawyers. T h e Lees, the Lewises, and the Mercers were prominent in the town's civic affairs. 37 T o supplement the cultural environment of his home, young Stevenson received formal schooling at the Fredericksburg Academy, where the humanities, English, and mathematics were taught by competent scholars. Established under an act of 1783 of the Virginia legislature and situated on the site of the old Fredericksburg gun factory, 3 8 the academy had acquired by 1790 a widespread reputation as a classical school, under the direction of T h o m a s H . Hanson and "the Rev. Mr. R y a n , " a graduate of T r i n i t y College, D u b l i n . 3 8 Among the original trustees of the academy were Richard Henry Lee, Henry Lee, J r . , William Fitzhugh, and Edmund Pendleton. 4 0 In 1790 J a m e s Mercer, judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals, was president of the institution. 4 1 T h e following year the Reverend Mr. Woodville, who had served as private tutor in the Stevenson family, took charge of the academy. He was professor of the humanities. Among his pupils was his youthful and precocious brother-in-law, Andrew Stevenson. 4 2 Young Stevenson continued his education at William and Mary College, then under the presidency of the Reverend James Madison (a cousin of President Madison), 4 3 who was elected in 1790 the first bishop of the Protests Green, op. cit., Part I, 20. 3« S. Ouinn, History of the Citx of Fredericksburg, p. 58. " Journal of Southern History', IV, 234 (May 1938). 38 \V. W. Hening, ed., Statutes at Large, Being a Collection X I , 204-5. Ouinn, of), cit.. pp. 193-90. 4" Hening. ed., Statutes, X I , 201-5. « WMQ, 1st series, X V I I , 216-18 (Jan. 1909). 42 Green, op. cit., Part I, 22, 26-27. «3 WMQ, 1st series. VIII, 221 (April 1900).

of the Laws of

Virginia,

T H E PATH T O RICHMOND

7

tant Episcopal Church for the Diocese of Virginia. An article in the William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine lists Stevenson as a graduate of the institution, 4 5 distinguished as the alma mater of Jefferson, Monroe, Edmund Randolph, and J o h n Marshall. Evidence indicates that he must have attended W i l l i a m and Mary in the late 1790's. 46 44

T h e town of Williamsburg, where the college is located, had been the political, social, and cultural center of Colonial Virginia during the eighty years it had been the seat of government. In his Travels, written in 1795, Weld gives the population of the village as about twelve hundred. " T h e society in it," he wrote, "is thought to be more attractive and mofe genteel at the same time than any other place of its size in America." 47 T h e removal of the state capital to Richmond in 1779, however, had caused the town to decline somewhat in population and prosperity, but it still remained an important center of thought and activity. Duke of Gloucester Street, with the college buildings at one end, the old state capitol at the other, and bordered by Bruton Parish Church, the county and city courthouse, the Raleigh T a v e r n , and the quaint octagonal powder magazine, was reminiscent of Colonial and Revolutionary times. A short distance away were historic Jamestown and Yorktown. A spirit of skepticism and liberalism pervaded the atmosphere of William and Mary at the close of the eighteenth century. It resulted from the influence of French rationalism and from the revised curricula of study introduced in 1779 through the influence of T h o m a s Jefferson. Bishop Madison lectured on political economy, natural philosophy, and chemistry, St. George T u c k e r on law, Robert Andrews on mathematics, J a m e s McClurg on medicine, Charles Bellini on modern languages, and J o h n Bracken on classical languages. 4 8 T h e teachings of these scholars perceptibly influenced the thinking of the students, among whom in this period were Joseph C. Cabell, W i l l i a m Brockenbrough, J o h n Hartwell Cocke, Peyton Randolph, R o b e r t Stanard, Henry St. George Tucker, Philip P. Barbour, Chapman Johnson, B e n j a m i n W . Leigh, and Winfield Scott, 4 9 with all of whom Stevenson was associated during the course of his political life. Jefferson's political theories and the R e p u b l i c a n doctrines found ready adherents in both faculty and students. Bishop Madison became so decided in his beliefs that he referred to heaven as a " R e p u b l i c , " rather « L . G. Tyler, Williamsburg, The Old Colonial Capital, p. 174. is WMQ, 1st series, VII, 9 (July 1898). There are no records that show the exact time of his attendance. No matriculation book for the period prior to 1827 is known to be extant. WMQ, 2d series, III, 159 (July 1923). Tyler, op. cit., p. 86. « WMQ, 1st series, IV, 107 (Oct. 1895); X X , 57-59 (July 1911); 2d series, X I V , 306-7 (Oct. 1934); Tyler, Williamsburg, pp. 178-80. History of William and Mary College (Richmond, 1874), pp. 98-103.

8

ANDREW STEVENSON

than as a kingdom. All those associations and influences molded the political opinions of the young and impressionable Stevenson, who readily accepted the doctrines of the Jeffersonian Republicans and remained true to them throughout his career. Party feeling in Virginia became intense in the period 1796-1800 as the result of the pro-British attitude of the Adams Administration, the strained relations with France, and the enactment by the Federalist Congress of the Alien and Sedition Laws. Thomas Jefferson recorded that he had never before seen such bitterness of party feeling. 51 Open insults to distinguished Republicans and Federalists, scathing newspaper criticism, and occasional duels by sword and pistol showed the spirit of the time. 52 In Fredericksburg the Republicans adopted resolutions in May 1798, condemning the policies of the Administration, while the friends of Adams, including James Stevenson, signed an address to the President, expressing approval of his conduct. 58 Students of William and Mary, in celebrating July 4, 1798, derided Adams by parading an effigy of him through the streets of Williamsburg. Meanwhile, the city of Richmond, taking measures to protect by force, if necessary, the rights of the state against federal usurpation, purchased large quantities of arms and ammunition, established a state armory, and organized volunteer companies, notably the Light Infantry Blues. 54 50

T h e Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and the Report of 1800, denouncing the Alien and Sedition Acts as "palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution," were a vigorous assertion of the doctrine of state sovereignty and the compact theory of the Constitution. "Those resolutions and that report," wrote John Marshall to Joseph Story, "constitute the creed of every politician, who hopes to rise in Virginia; and to question them . . . is deemed political sacrilege." 55 This was particularly true in the case of Andrew Stevenson who, in asserting his state-rights opinions in later years, frequently harked back to the cherished Republican "principles of '98 & "99," and to Madison's elaborate report of 1800, in defense of them. While still a very young man, Stevenson went to Richmond, where he began to prepare himself for a legal career. In September 1800, when only fifteen, he was assisting Adam Craig in his duties as clerk of the Henrico County Court. 5 8 Craig, who had served as a major under Washington in the Revolution, was probably the foremost clerk of his day in Rich«o WMQ, 1st series, VIII, 159 (Jan. 1900). « VaM, X X I X . 174 (April 1921). 52 Ibid., pp. 174-75. bs Quinn, op. cit., pp. 230-34. m VaM, X X I X , 174-77 (April 1921). »s A. J. Beveridge, Life of John Marshall, IV, 576-77. 5« CVaSP, IX, 174; RE, Feb. 3,1857.

T H E PATH TO RICHMOND

9

mond. In the period 1782-1808, he was clerk not only of the Henrico County Court, but also of the Hustings Court and Common Council of Richmond, and of the General Assembly and the General Court of Virginia. 5 7 His home and office were in "a very small Dutch-roofed house" at the northwest corner of Nineteenth and Grace streets, Richmond. "Here Andrew Stevenson took his first lessons in legal lore." 5 8 While copying records under Craig, he obtained a subsistence and "laid the foundation for that superstructure which afterwards made him conspicuous at the bar." 8 8 In 1800 Richmond was the first city of Virginia. In 1779 it had become the state capital, where the General Assembly met annually from December to March. Its population in 1800 was nearly six thousand inhabitants.* 0 Situated on a group of hills at the falls of the James River, it was the manufacturing and trading center for a large area of the Virginia tidewater and piedmont. Its music halls, theaters, private libraries, and newspapers made it the social and intellectual center of a cultured planter aristocracy. Prominent residents of the city in that period were Edward Carrington, J o h n Harvie, J o h n Ambler, Bushrod Washington, J o h n Marshall, George Wythe, Edmund Randolph, William Wirt, George Hay, and Philip N. Nicholas. 8 1 In political sentiment the city in 1800 was, according to Professor Ambler, "a Federalist stronghold,"" 2 since many of the leading citizens were soldiers or officers of the Revolutionary army who, for the most part, remained loyal to Washington and Hamilton in their efforts to establish a strong central government. T h e party revolution of 1800-1801, marked by the defeat of the Federalists and the election of Jefferson as President, was duly celebrated by the Republicans of Richmond, prominent among whom were George Hay, Dr. William Foushee, Alexander McRae, and Philip N. Nicholas. 08 T h e triumph was regarded at Richmond as a clear vindication of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and the Report of 1800, which had served the purpose of a party platform in the campaign. Into this party spirit Stevenson entered heartily. 4 4 In the years 1800-1805 Stevenson continued to assist Adam Craig in the clerical duties of his various offices. After copying records under Craig at the Henrico County Court, he qualified on March 14, 1803, as deputy »t WMQ, 2d series, XI, 159-60 (April 1931); F. Johnson, Memorials Clerks, pp. 211, 328. 68 Samuel Mordecai, Richmond in By-Gone Days, p. 105. ™ RE, Feb. 3, 1857. «o Henry Howe, op. cit., p. 308. «i Mordecai, op. cit., pp. 64-80, 135-52; AmbR, pp. 14-16. oiAmbR, p. 17. «3 VaM, X X I X , 178 (April 1921). «< AmbS, pp. 79-80.

of Old

Virginia

10

ANDREW STEVENSON

clerk of the Hustings Court of the city of Richmond, 6 0 of which Craig was the first clerk. In the same period he assisted Craig in his duties as clerk of the Common Hall (Common Council) of the city of Richmond. In 1804-05 he served as clerk of the C o m m o n Hall, succeeding Craig in that office. T h e last ordinance attested by him in that capacity was one passed by the Common Hall u n d e r date of November 18, 1805. H e was succeeded as clerk of the Common Hall by George Chisman. 0 6 After studying law in connection with his clerical duties, Stevenson, at the age of twenty, was admitted to the bar in Richmond in the fall of 1805. Virginia lawyers in that day were generally licensed by the judges of the General Court, who would sign the certificate after examining the applicant. T h e judges of that court at the time Stevenson was licensed were J o h n Tyler, Sr., Richard Parker, Joseph Prentis, E d m u n d Winston, William Nelson, Paul Carrington, Jr., Archibald Stuart, and Francis T . Brooke. 67 O n December 2, 1805, he qualified as attorney at law in the Henrico County Court upon presenting his license to the justices: Hezekiah Henley, William Mayo, William S. Smith, George Savage, and T h o m a s H . Prosser. 6S Among the lawyers practicing before that court in that period were Philip N. Nicholas, George Tucker, Peyton Randolph, Fitzhugh Braxton, J o h n Gamble, and W . Y. Dejarnette. 6 0 O n December 10, 1805, he qualified as attorney before the Hustings Court of the city of Richmond, at which time William Duval was mayor; Edward Carrington, general recorder; a n d David Lambert, Anderson Barret, William Richardson, and Alexander Quarrier, aldermen. 7 0 Stevenson was a tall, erect, vigorous young man of pleasing personality. His patrician features gave him a handsome appearance. His buoyant disposition, his wit and anecdotes, made him popular a m o n g his associates. I n dealing with his fellow citizens he was frank, yet shrewd and tactful. H e was a person of ardent feelings, impulsive speech, and firm convictions. As speaker and debater he showed unusual talent. 7 1 Because of his abilities a n d personal qualities, he soon developed a successful legal practice. According to his "Proces Book," he handled during his first two years as attorney 331 cases, one half of which were before the Henrico County Court, one f o u r t h before the Hustings Court of Richmond, and the remainder before the county and circuit courts of «6 M i n u t e Book No. S, Hustings Court Records, City Hall, R i c h m o n d . ««Record Book, 1793-1806, Common Council Records, City Hall, R i c h m o n d . «7 William Brockenbrough, Virginia Cases, or Decisions of the General Court Virginia, II, xi-xii. «a Order Book, 1802-1806, Henrico Co. Records, Richmond. «»Ibid. 70 Minute Book No. 3, Hustings Court Records. n RE, Feb. 3, 1857; C. W. Gooch to VB, [1835], Van Buren MSS, X X I I , LC.

of

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11

New Kent, King William, and Hanover. In 1806 his eases totaled 151; and in 1807, 180. T h e suits involved chiefly civil matters: many concerned the collection of debts; some, battery and trespass; and others, trover and slander. I n 1807 he handled in the Henrico County Court a suit of Charles Lynch against Aaron B u r r for damages of $2,000 "on protested bill exchange." 72 Having been admitted to practice before ccrtain "inferior and superior courts" of the commonwealth, Stevenson on J u n e 4, 1807, qualified as counsel before the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, in the presence of Judges Peter Lyons, president, William Fleming, Spencer Roane, and St. George T u c k e r . 7 3 Among the attorneys then practicing before that court of last resort for civil cases in Virginia were Daniel Call, George Hay, J o h n W i c k h a m , Peyton Randolph, George K. Taylor, W i l l i a m W . Hening, B e n j a m i n Botts, W i l l i a m Wirt, Philip N. Nicholas, W i l l i a m Munford, and William C. Williams. 7 4 It seems quite probable that Stevenson qualified as counsel before the United States District and Circuit Courts at Richmond. No rolls of the attorneys who did qualify before those courts in the period prior to 1863, however, are extant. 7 5 T h e r e is no record of his admission to practice before the U n i t e d States Supreme Court at Washington, although the records of such admission are not complete. 7 6 Of intense interest to Stevenson as a young lawyer was the trial in the Federal Circuit Court at R i c h m o n d of the conspirator Aaron Burr from May to September 1807. Prior to the trial Burr, although accused of treasonable designs in the American Southwest in collusion with the notorious James Wilkinson, was royally "wined and dined" at R i c h m o n d in the homes of the " T e r t i u m Quids" and Federalists. 77 T h e intense excitement and interest aroused by the case attracted to the Virginia capital distinguished visitors from various parts of the Union, among whom was Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Chief Justice J o h n Marshall, the great expounder of Federalist principles and a political antagonist of President Jefferson, presided at the trial. T h e acquittal of the accused was regarded by the in72 Sec "Proces Book," 1805-1807, in the Stevenson MSS, LC. All of the court records of this period for New Kent and Charles City counties and a large part of those for Hanover and King William counties were destroyed during the Civil War. 7 3 Order Book No. 5, p. 370, Supreme Court of Appeals Records, Richmond. " W. W. Hening and William Munford, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1806-1810, I-IV, passim. Clerks of the U. S. ^District and Circuit Courts at Richmond, Va., to the author, Aug. 17, 1938. T . D. Quinn, Dept. of Justice, Washington, to the author, July 9, 1938. " AmbR, pp. 37-41. T h e Republican faction led by John Randolph was nicknamed the "Tertium Quids" ("third somethings") because they were neither Federalists nor Administration Republicans.

12

ANDREW STEVENSON

censed Republicans as an outrageous perversion o£ justice. 78 O n February 16, 1809, Stevenson, now recognized as a successful young lawyer of Richmond, married Mary Page White of King and Queen County, Virginia. 79 Miss White was descended from a family line long prominent in the political, legal, and ecclesiastical life of the Old Dominion. She was the daughter of John White and his wife, Judith Braxton.* 0 J o h n White, who while a student at William and Mary College had received in 1775 the last of the Botetourt medals, awarded annually for excellence in philosophy and the classics,81 was the son of the Reverend Alexander White, a prominent Anglican clergyman of Virginia in the eighteenth century. 82 Judith Braxton was the daughter of Judith Robinson and Carter Braxton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a leading member of the Virginia bar. George Braxton and Christopher Robinson, fathers of Carter Braxton and Judith Robinson, had been members of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Robert Carter, known in Virginia Colonial history as "King Carter," because of his wealth and power, was an ancestor of J u d i t h Braxton and Mary Page White. 83 In the same year, 1809, Stevenson's father, who had retired from the ministry in 1805 because of ill health, died in Culpeper, Virginia, at St. Mark's rectory, then occupied by his son-in-law, John Woodville. T h e last family residence of James Stevenson, prior to his removal to Culpeper, had been Hopewell, a country estate in Spotsylvania County, near Fredericksburg. 84 In his last years he had been an invalid, stricken with paralysis. 85 His will was proved at the Culpeper court on October 16, 1809,88 and under it his son Andrew acted as attorney and trustee. 87 78 Nathan Schachner, Aaron Burr, A Biography, pp. 396-448; R. A. Brock, Virginia and Virginians, 1606-1888, I, 102. J« Fredericksburg Virginia Herald, Feb. 25, 1809. »o Hayden, op. cit., p. 401. si WMQ, 1st series, V, 70 (July 1896); VaM, XXVII (1919), xi. These gold medals, established in 1770 by Lord Botetourt, then governor of Virginia, were the first collegiate prizes offered in the United States. Tyler, Williamsburg, p. 158. 82 Hayden, op. cit., p. 401; Meade, op. cit., I, S79. ss WMQ, 1st series, XVIII, 182 (Jan. 1910); R. L. Morton, "Carter Braxton," DAB, II (1929), 609. 8 < Abstracts of Augusta County Records, Lyman Chalkley, ed., II, 177; Green, op. cit., Part I, 21. ss Green, op. cit., Part I, 20-21. se Will Book F, p. 14, Culpeper Co. Records. SJ Order Book, 1810-11, p. 517, Henrico Co. Records.

II IN THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES 1809-1811 ON MARCH 21, 1809, the columns of the recently established Enquirer, the Republican newspaper edited by Thomas Ritchie, announced Andrew Stevenson's candidacy for the Richmond city seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. 1 William Wirt, the incumbent, had declined to run for reelection in the approaching state elections. Stevenson's announcement followed a similar one by Alexander McRae, prominent Richmond lawyer and former lieutenant governor of the state. 2 T h e Richmond electorate in the April polls gave to Stevenson, who had just turned twenty-four, a clear majority of votes over his older and more experienced opponent; the final ballot stood: Stevenson, 104; McRae, 70.3 In his political opinions Stevenson had "ever been a most decided Republican." A firm believer in the doctrine of state-rights and in a strict construction of the Federal Constitution, he strongly supported the Presidential policies and governmental theories of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, of both of whom he was an ardent admirer and devoted disciple. He asserted with vigor his belief in the principles of free government and free representation. 4 When the General Assembly convened in regular annual session on December 4, 1809, Stevenson took his seat as the representative of the Virginia capital in the House of Delegates in which he served, with the exception of two and one half sessions, until 1821. On the opening day the House, with 174 members present, elected James Barbour of Orange County its speaker, and heard the annual message of the governor, J o h n Tyler, Sr., on the state of the commonwealth. 6 On the second day, December 5, Speaker Barbour in announcing his appointments, named Stevenson to two of the foremost standing committees: that for courts of justice and that of privileges and elections. 8 1 RE, March 21, 1809. 2 Ibid., March 10, 1809. 3 Ibid., April 11, 1809. *Ibid., March 26, 1811. » VaHJ, 1809-10, pp. 3, 5-9; RE, Dec. 5, 1809. « VaHJ, 1809-10, p. 9.

13

14

ANDREW STEVENSON

Governor Tyler gave first place in his annual message to the grave state of affairs then existing between the United States on the one hand and Great Britain and France on the other. T h e current Napoleonic wars in Europe had emboldened the British and French governments to interfere somewhat arbitrarily with American neutral commerce. T h e system of blockades under the British Orders-in-Council and the Napoleonic decrees, the impressment of seamen under the English doctrine of indefeasible allegiance, and the seizure of American ships under Sir William Scott's doctrine of "continuous voyage" were regarded in the United States as intolerable violations of legitimate neutral rights. T h e ChesapeakeLeopard affair of J u n e 1807 had caused the irate Republicans, particularly of Virginia, to clamor for war with Britain. 7 Jefferson's policy of retaliatory commercial restriction, embodied in the Non-importation, Embargo, and Non-intercourse Acts, 1806-9, which proved so ruinous to American shipping and trade and so futile in redressing the grievances, had aroused vigorous protests and even secession sentiment in Federalist New England. 8 Republican Virginia, however, supported the action of the Administration, despite heavy economic losses and the loud protests of John Randolph and the Quids. 9 Her legislature had adopted resolutions pledging to the general government in the crisis "the last cent of our treasure, and the last drop of our blood." 10 Governor Tyler, in his message of December 1809, declared the embargo an expedient measure, and asserted that only "the want of sound patriotism" in enforcing the law had prevented the results which it sought to secure. 11 T h e recent conduct of the British ministers David M. Erskine and Francis J . Jackson had increased the tension. Governor Tyler declared to the Virginia legislature that the time had come for more positive action. " W e have talked long enough of our rights and our national honor," he asserted, "let us now prepare to defend them. . . . Let us prepare for the worst, and be ready to execute with vigor, whatever may be the determination of the General Government." T o that end he recommended an increase, if necessary, of the finances and a reenforcement of the militia laws. 12 A select committee, composed of Peter V. Daniel, Robert Stanard, Stevenson, and others, was appointed in the House to consider a series of resolutions presented to the chamber on the subject of Anglo-American rela' AmbR, pp. 42-43. » Henry Adams, History of the United States of America of Jefferson and Madison, I V , 408-19; AStD, p. 2(5. 8 AmbS, pp. 86-87. 10 VaActs, 1808-9, pp. 9 9 - 1 0 4 . 11 VaHJ, 1809-10, p. 5. 12 Ibid., pp. 5 - 6 .

during

the

Administrations

IN T H E V I R G I N I A L E G I S L A T U R E

15

tions. T h e resolutions stated that the late British envoy, J a c k s o n , h a d "transcended the legitimate privileges of a foreign m i n i s t e r " a n d deserved for his improper conduct " a n unqualified c o n d e m n a t i o n . " T h e y strongly supported President Madison in refusing f u r t h e r c o m m u n i c a t i o n with h i m a n d in d e m a n d i n g his recall. T h e y f u r t h e r m o r e pledged to the federal government the support of Virginia in the event of open hostility from G r e a t B r i t a i n . T h e s e resolutions were adopted by the G e n e r a l Assembly on February 7, 1810. 1 3 Along with his a n n u a l message in D e c e m b e r 1809, G o v e r n o r T y l e r transmitted to the G e n e r a l Assembly certain papers from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania regarding the Olmstead case, defending the rights of the states against e n c r o a c h m e n t by the federal courts, and proposing a n a m e n d m e n t to the Federal Constitution to establish a special t r i b u n a l to settle questions of disputed jurisdiction between the state a n d federal judiciaries. 1 4 T h e V i r g i n i a House of Delegates referred the Pennsylvania communication, particularly the proposition for a constitutional amendment, to a select committee composed of J o h n H . Peyton, J o s e p h C. Cabell, Stevenson, and others. 1 5 T h e committee, in its report on J a n u a r y 11, 1810, recommended the disapproval of the suggested constitutional a m e n d m e n t , on the ground that the existing U n i t e d States Supreme Court was " m o r e eminently qualified from their habits and duties; f r o m the m o d e of their selection, and from the tenure of their offices to decide the disputes aforesaid in an enlightened and impartial m a n n e r than any o t h e r tribunal which could be created." It held that the establishment of a t r i b u n a l such as was proposed would " t e n d r a t h e r to invite than prevent a collision between the federal and state courts." It rejected the idea that the federal courts would, " f r o m a lust of power, enlarge their jurisdiction to the total a n n i h i l a t i o n of the jurisdiction of the state courts," and that they 16 would exercise "their will instead of the law and the constitution." T h e s e recommendations, adopted by the G e n e r a l Assembly on J a n u a r y 26, 1 7 were transmitted in reply to the Pennsylvania c o m m u n i c a t i o n . T h e expression of confidence in the federal judiciary at this time was in sharp contrast to Stevenson's subsequent attitude in the 1820's. In December 1809 the House of Delegates received from R o b e r t F u l t o n and R o b e r t R . Livingston a petition seeking the exclusive right to navigate the waters of V i r g i n i a with boats " m o v e d by steam or fire," according to certain e n u m e r a t e d conditions. Stevenson was appointed the head of 13 Ibid., pp. 92, 99, 106. For the text of the resolutions, see VaActs, 1809-10, pp. 103-4. VaHJ, 1809-10, p. 7. For the facts in the Olmstead case, which originated during the American Revolution, see AStD, pp. 45-48. is VaHJ, 1809-10, p. 25. is Ibid., pp. 60-61. IT VaActs, 1809-10, pp. 102-3.

16

ANDREW STEVENSON

a committee to consider the petition. 18 On February 1, 1810, he presented from his committee a bill that would grant to Livingston and Fulton "the sole right and advantage of making and employing, for a limited time [20 years], the steam boat or boats by them invented" on the Virginia waters.19 On February 8, Speaker Barbour laid before the House a letter from William Thornton, superintendent of the United States Patent Office, urging the Virginia legislature to refuse the twenty-year monopoly requested by the New Yorkers, on the ground that, under the Constitution, the granting of patents was a federal and not a state prerogative, and that the allowance of the patent in question would confer on Livingston and Fulton undue advantages over other inventors of steamboats. In view of these considerations the House the same day rejected Stevenson's bill. 2 " T h e legislative session of 1809-10 is significant for the provision it made for the establishment of the "Literary Fund," dedicated to the advancement of public education in Virginia. Governor Tyler had devoted a large part of his annual message of December 1809 to the pressing problem of popular education. He had deplored the inadequate facilities and revenues and, particularly, the apparent lack of interest in the subject. He had indicated that for these reasons many Virginians were seeking their education abroad or in other states.21 T h e part of his message concerning education was referred in the House of Delegates to a select committee composed of William Noland, Thomas L. Preston, Stevenson, and others. 22 On January 19, 1810, the committee reported a bill, which Speaker Barbour had prepared, and which the General Assembly passed on February 2. 23 T h e act provided for the establishment of a "Literary Fund" for the encouragement of learning, the fund to consist of "all escheats, confiscations, non-military fines, penalties and forfeitures, and all rights in personal property accruing to the Commonwealth, as derelict." T h e revenue of the fund thus created was to be used for "the sole benefit of schools to be kept in each and every county in this commonwealth." 24 At its next session the General Assembly enacted a law establishing an organization to administer the Literary Fund. T h e measure, passed on February 12, 1811, had been prepared by a committee in the House of Delegates composed of Noland, James Monroe, Stevenson, and others. 25 It vested the administration of the fund in "a body politic and corporate is VaHJ, 1809-10, pp. 34-35. isibid., p. 93. 20 Ibid., p. 108; RE, Feb. 13, 1810. 21 VaHJ, 1809-10, pp. 7-9. 22 Ibid., p. 25. 28 Ibid., pp. 74, 94,108. 2« For the text of the act, see VaActs, 1809-10, p. 15. 26 VaHJ, 1810-11, p. 18.

IN T H E VIRGINIA

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17

u n d e r the d e n o m i n a t i o n of the President a n d Directors of the Literary F u n d " ; the governor to be the president; the l i e u t e n a n t governor, the treasurer; and the attorney general and the president of the V i r g i n i a C o u r t of Appeals, the directors. 2 6 T h e Literary F u n d was the basis and b e g i n n i n g of Virginia's publicschool revenue. F o r more than a century it has been the source of freq u e n t appropriations for the establishment a n d m a i n t e n a n c e of public academies, the University of Virginia and other colleges in the state, and of loans to county a n d city school boards and to colleges. By 1930 the fund had grown to nearly six million dollars, despite the fact that part of it had been a p p r o p r i a t e d for the defense of V i r g i n i a during the Civil W a r . 2 7 T o d a y , considerably increased, it comprises a large source of the revenue for p o p u l a r e d u c a t i o n within the state. D u r i n g this period Stevenson had i m p o r t a n t relations with the B a n k of Virginia. T h a t corporation, established in 1804 with a capital of $1,500,000, had its central office at R i c h m o n d , with b r a n c h b a n k s in Norfolk, L y n c h b u r g , Fredericksburg, Winchester, and S t a u n t o n . 2 8 O n J a n u a r y 20, 1810, Stevenson was n a m e d the head of a select c o m m i t t e e of the House of Delegates to act j o i n t l y with a similar c o m m i t t e e of the Senate in exa m i n i n g the condition of the bank. 2 9 At the n e x t session of the legislature he was appointed to a similar House committee, this time headed by exG o v e r n o r J a m e s M o n r o e . 3 0 I n J a n u a r y 1811, Stevenson was chosen by the stockholders to be a director of the R i c h m o n d b r a n c h of the bank, and he was reelected annually thereafter until 1821, except for the years 1818 and 1819. 3 1 T h e presidents of the bank in this period were A b r a h a m B . Venable, until his tragic death in the R i c h m o n d T h e a t e r fire in D e c e m b e r 1811, a n d then J o h n B r o c k e n b r o u g h . A m o n g the R i c h m o n d directors, besides V e n a b l e , B r o c k e n b r o u g h , and Stevenson, were S a m u e l Pleasants, R o b e r t G a m b l e , W i l l i a m W i r t , Samuel G r e e n h o w , a n d B e n j a m i n W . Leigh.32 In the years 1808-11 the recharter of the U n i t e d States B a n k was a much-agitated question before the country. T h e R e p u b l i c a n s generally c o n d e m n e d the institution as a Federalist monopoly, l a c k i n g constitutional sanction and exercising dangerous powers. As a staunch R e p u b l i c a n , Steven26 VaActs, 1810-11, pp. 8-10. 2' C. J. Heatwole, "Origin and Sacredness of the Literary Fund," Virginia Journal of Education, XXIII, 329-31 (April 1930). 28 W. L. Royall, A History of Virginia Banks and Banking Prior to the Civil War, pp. 9-13. 20 VaHJ, 1809-10, p. 76. so Ibid., 1810-11, p. 44. si RE, Jan. 10, 1811; Jan. 9, 1812; Jan. 7, 1813; Jan. 15, 1814; Jan. 7, 1815; Jan. 4, 1816; Jan. 9, 1817; Jan. 8, 1818; Jan. 9, 1819; Jan. 6, 1820. »2 Ibid.

18

ANDREW

STEVENSON

son did not fail to voice his opposition to the recharter of the bank. He was influenced in his stand, to some extent, by his close connection with the Bank of Virginia, of which he was a director, and which was an important part of the Republican machine in the state. T h e Bank of Virginia was hostile to the national bank, because of the federal restrictions on its note issues, and because of its desire to become a depository of the national funds. 33 Stevenson expressed his opinion on the subject in a preamble and resolution that he presented to the House of Delegates on January 1, 1811. He asserted that the Virginia legislature viewed "with the most serious concern" the late attempts which had been made to obtain a renewal of the bank charter. Emphatically denying the constitutional authority of Congress of incorporate such an institution, he declared that the exercise of such power would be "not only unconstitutional, but a direct and fatal violation of state rights." He recommended that Virginia's Senators in Congress be instructed, and her Representatives requested, to work against the reestablishment of a national bank "under any form whatsoever." 34 Stevenson's resolution, after passing the House by a vote of 125 to 35, was adopted essentially unchanged by the General Assembly on January 22. 35 T h e General Assembly that convened in December 1810 was distinguished by the presence in the House of Delegates of James Monroe, exgovernor of the state and former American minister to France, England, and Spain. At the beginning of the session Monroe was named by Speaker Barbour as chairman of the House committee of privileges and elections; Stevenson, who had been returned to the legislature by Richmond, 3 6 was placed second on the same committee, and also appointed to the standing committee for courts of justice and to that on the state armory. 37 On January 16, 1811, Monroe was elected governor of the state by the General Assembly for the second time, in place of John Tyler, Sr., who had accepted appointment by President Madison as judge of the Federal District Court of Virginia. 38 During the sessions 1809-10 and 1810-11, Stevenson served in the House on various other select committees, to which were entrusted economic, financial, military, and legal matters. He was a member of a committee that prepared a bill designed to stamp out the fraudulent trade of shipping refused tobacco. 39 This tobacco measure, which became law on 33 AmbR, p. 52. 34 VaHJ, 1810-11, p. 50; RE, Jan. 3, 1811. 35 VaHJ, 1810-11, p. 70. For the text, see VaActs, 1810-11, p. 121. 36 RE, April 10, 1810. 37 VaHJ, 1810-11, pp. 3, 33. 3» Ibid., p. 69. so Ibid., 1809-10, p. 13.

IN T H E VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE

19

February 9, 1810, was regarded by the Richmond Enquirer as one of the outstanding pieces of legislation during the session. 40 He was chairman of a committee that prepared a bill concerning wills, the distribution of intestates' estates, and the duties of executors and administrators. 41 T h i s measure was passed by the legislature on February 12, 1811. 42 He was the head of a committee that framed a bill authorizing the Common Council of Richmond to pave the streets of the city. 43 T h i s measure became law on February 7, 18ll. 4 4 He served on various other committees instructed to prepare bills concerning the General Court, the defects in the state militia system, projects of internal improvements, and other subjects. 45 As the annual state elections of April 1811 approached, Stevenson, after completing his second session in the Virginia legislature, decided to offer himself as a candidate for Congress from the Richmond district. He was induced to take such a step, he stated, "at the solicitation of many of my friends," and under the impression that J o h n Clopton, the incumbent of the Richmond district, would not seek reelection on account of ill health. Accordingly, Stevenson, now twenty-six, announced his candidacy for the anticipated vacancy to the freeholders of the city of Richmond and the counties of Henrico, Hanover, New Kent, and Charles City, in an open letter, dated March 25, 1811, and published by his friend T h o m a s Ritchie in the Richmond Enquirer. He declared that he had always been "a most decided Republican, and a friend to the administration of the general government." He expressed his genuine attachment to the Federal Constitution and the principles of free government and free representation. " I t has been insinuated in the District," he stated, "that I am not only a violent and intolerant politician, but prepared to hang up the tables of proscription against all who differ from me in opinion; this is not the fact. . . . It is true that I am a decided politician, by nature warm and ardent in most things I undertake, but violence and intolerance are strangers to my bosom." 48 Five days after this notice Stevenson addressed to the voters a second letter, announcing the withdrawal of his candidacy, in view of the fact that Clopton, whose health had improved, now contemplated seeking reelection. 47 •0 RE, Feb. 13, 1810. For the text of the law, see VaActs, 1809-10, pp. 21-23.

*i VaHJ, 1810-11, pp. 17, 35.

5 VaHJ, 1809-10, pp. 15, 19, 44, 58, 61, 74; 1810-11, pp. 19, 33, 83.

**RE, March 26, 1811. Ibid., April 2, 1811.

Ill SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AND MAJOR OF ARTILLERY 1812-1816 withdrawing his candidacy for a seat in Congress, Stevenson, in April 1811, offered himself to the citizens of Richmond for reelection as their representative in the House of Delegates. He was opposed by William C. Williams, a prominent Richmond lawyer. In the city poll on April 8 he received a bare majority over his older and more experienced opponent; the vote stood: Stevenson, 118; Williams, 117. 1 When the new legislature assembled in December, Williams contested the election, but the House of Delegates rejected his petition. 2 AFTER

T h e new General Assembly convened for the regular annual session on December 2, 1811. It did not receive the usual gubernatorial message. James Monroe had resigned the governorship in April to become President Madison's Secretary of State. On December 5 the legislature elected George W . Smith governor. 3 T h e House of Delegates again chose James Barbour as its speaker. 4 In announcing his appointments on December 3, Speaker Barbour named Stevenson to two of the standing committees: that for courts of justice, on which Robert Stanard ranked first and Stevenson second, and that of finance, headed by Peter Randolph. 5 On December 7 he appointed Stevenson to a select committee of the House to act jointly with a similar committee of the Senate in examining the condition of the Bank of Virginia. On the same day he named Stevenson chairman of another committee to prepare a bill concerning the Supreme Court of Appeals. From this committee Stevenson reported a bill, but it was not passed during the session.4 On December 26, in the midst of the yuletide season, an appalling disaster befell the Virginia capital in the burning of the Richmond Theater. On the evening of the day after Christmas, over six hundred 1 RE, April 9,1811. 2 VaH], 1811-12, pp. 11, 15-17. s Ibid., p. 13. * Ibid., p. 3. «Ibid., pp. 5 - 6 . • Ibid., p. 17.

20

HOUSE SPEAKER AND ARTILLERY MAJOR

21

persons, including many of the most prominent in Virginia's social and political life, packed the Richmond playhouse to enjoy a new drama, Father, or Family Feuds, and a pantomime called The Bleeding Nun. During the pantomime the scenery on the stage caught fire, and soon the building was ablaze. A frantic scramble ensued. T h e wooden structure without adequate exits was a veritable firetrap. Seventy-two persons perished, and many others suffered injuries from the flames, the suffocating smoke, and the crush of the stampeding crowd. Among those who perished were George W. Smith, governor of the state, A. B. Venable, president of the Bank of Virginia, Benjamin Botts, and other prominent citizens. Another victim was Andrew Stevenson's sister, Elizabeth, of Spotsylvania County, who was apparently spending the holiday season with her brother and sister-in-law. 7 Richmond went into mourning. T h e Common Hall adopted an ordinance directing the citizens to wear crepe for thirty days, suspending businesses for forty-eight hours, and prohibiting during the next four months all public spectacles and dancing assemblies. 8 T h e House of Delegates took appropriate action. 9 T h e United States Congress and the legislatures of Ohio and Massachusetts adopted resolutions expressing sympathy and prescribing periods of mourning for "the sudden and awful calamity" that had befallen the capital of Virginia. 10 Today there stands on the site of the ill-fated theater the Monumental Church (Episcopal), erected in 1812 in memory of the seventy-two victims of the fire, whose names are inscribed on a marble u r n containing their ashes. T h e burning of the Richmond Theater had important political consequences. T h e sudden death of Governor Smith, three weeks after his election, necessitated the choice of a new chief executive. On January 3, 1812, the General Assembly elected as Smith's successor James Barbour, the speaker of the House of Delegates. 11 T h e House was now confronted with the problem of selecting a new speaker. O n January 4 it balloted on the question and the choice fell u p o n Richmond's representative, Andrew Stevenson, who was nominated for the office by John Tyler, Jr. Other candidates for the speakership were Robert Stanard, James Robertson, Jr., Thomas H. Wooding, and James Johnson. 1 2 T h e new speaker, now twenty-seven years of age, was destined to serve for nearly five regular sessions. His forensic talents, commanding mien, quick perception, and prompt action were attributes of his natural ex' For accounts of the disaster, see RE, Dec. 26, 28, SI, 1811; Jan. 2, 1812; Henry Howe,

op. cit., p. 311. s RE, Dec. 28, 1811.

» VaHJ, 1811-12, p. 50. io RE, Jan. 2, Feb. 8,1812; CVaSP.X,

" VaHJ, 1811-12, p. 62. 12 Ibid., pp. 65-64.

115-16.

22

ANDREW STEVENSON

ecutive ability. 13 On previous occasions, as chairman of the committee of the whole House, he had demonstrated his ability as presiding officer. In addition to serving as speaker of the House of Delegates, Stevenson was a member of the City Council of Richmond from April 1812 to April 1814, elected from Madison Ward in 1812 and from Jefferson Ward in 1813. Contemporary with him Thomas Williams and Robert Greenhow were the successive mayors, and among his other associates in the city government were J o h n Brockenbrough, William C. Williams, Philip N. Nicholas, George Hay, Thomas Ritchie, and William Wirt. 1 4 On February 13, 1812, the General Assembly passed an act incorporating the Farmers' Bank of Virginia, with a capital of $2,000,000. Like the Bank of Virginia, chartered in 1804, the new corporation was to have its central office at Richmond and branches in Norfolk, Winchester, Staunton, Fredericksburg, and Lynchburg. T h e sale of the 16,666 shares of stock began on the first Monday of April. Subscriptions for the 4,166 shares allotted to Richmond were received by a committee composed of Stevenson, Nathaniel and Joseph Seldon, Philip N. Nicholas, John Ambler, Thomas Rutherford, and others. 15 T h e General Assembly of 1811-12 made gifts to George Rogers Clark and Oliver Pollock in appreciation of services rendered to Virginia during the American Revolution. By act of February 17, 1812, it granted to Pollock, for his valuable aid in providing money and supplies for Clark during the conquest of the Old Northwest, the sum of $1,000 and an annual pension of $333.33 for the remainder of his life. 16 By act of February 20 it bestowed upon Clark, "now old, infirm, and poor, a sword of the Virginia Manufactory," a grant of $400, and a pension of the same amount annually for the rest of his life. It recognized "the valor, the military enterprise and skill of General George Rogers Clarke, to whom . . . the state of Virginia was indebted for the extension of her boundaries from the Atlantic to the Mississippi." 17 Speaker Stevenson gave cordial support to both these measures. 18 T h e offensive and ruinous restrictions imposed on American commerce by the British Orders-in-Council drew forth from the Virginia legislature a vigorous protest. On December 17, 1811, James Robertson, Jr., presented to the House of Delegates a series of resolutions on the subject, 1 9 which, after being considered by a committee composed of Robert13 RE, Feb. 3, 1857; Richmond Daily Dispatch, Jan. 29, 1857. « Record Book No. 3, pp. 194-96, 267-69, Common Council Records. is VaActs, 1811-12, pp. 7-15. is Ibid., p. 140. i T l b i d . , pp. 140-41; RE, Feb. 21, 1812. is VaHJ, 1811-12, pp. 132, 160-61. 19 Ibid., p. 35.

HOUSE SPEAKER AND ARTILLERY MAJOR

23

son, Stevenson, Stanard, and others, 20 were finally adopted by the General Assembly by overwhelming majorities on J a n u a r y 25, 1812. 21 T h e resolutions heartily commended the efforts of President Madison and Secretary of State Monroe to preserve the neutral rights of the United States and to obtain from Great Britain by negotiation a redress for the injustices suffered. They asserted most emphatically "that however highly we value the blessings of peace, and however we may deprecate the evils of war, the period has now arrived when peace, as we now have it, is disgraceful, and war is honorable." T h e legislature pledged to the federal government in the crisis its full support of "all constitutional and legitimate measures" that it might adopt in defense of American rights and interests.-On May 4, 1812, after the adjournment of the General Assembly, Stevenson suffered a deep bereavement in the sudden death of his wife. 23 Dying in childbirth, Mrs. Stevenson left a son, named J o h n White, who later attained prominence in the legal and political life of the nation. T h e boy, until he reached the age of eleven, was in the care of his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Judith White, and his maternal aunt, Mrs. William Brockenbrough, wife of Judge Brockenbrough of the General Court of Virginia. 2 4 On J u n e 18, 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain. T h e chief grievances, as stated by President Madison in his message to Congress on J u n e 1, were the impressment of American seamen, the illegal blockades and restrictions on American commerce established by the Orders-in-Council, the hovering of British cruisers within American waters, the insolent conduct of officers in searching American vessels, and the alleged British intrigues with the Indians of the Northwest. 25 A declaration of war had been loudly demanded by the young " W a r Hawks" in Congress. Like the other states, Virginia was not a unit on the question of war. Four of her twenty-two Representatives in Congress, led by J o h n Randolph, had voted against a declaration of war. 26 T h e Federalists west of the Blue Ridge and the Quids of the eastern tidewater opposed the war nearly as strongly as did the Federalists of New England. 2 7 However, ardent Republicans, particularly Spencer Roane, T h o m a s Ritchie, Philip N. Nicholas, William Wirt, William B. Giles, Stevenson, and others, were eager for war. 28 20 ¡bid., p. 40. 21 Ibid., pp. 71, 75-76. =2 VaActs, 1811-12, pp. 142-43. 23 RE, May 8, 1812. 24 "John While Stevenson," American Bar Association Report,

25 PrM, I, 499-505.

28 Annals, 12:1, p. 1637. 27 AmbS, pp. 92-93. 28 AmbR, p. 57; D. R. Anderson, William

Branch

Giles, p. 173.

I X (1886), p. 528.

24

ANDREW STEVENSON

During the period that elapsed between the declaration of war in June and the meeting of the Virginia legislature on November 30, Governor Barbour took decisive measures for state defense. As commander in chief of the militia, he ordered that the forces of the coastal counties exposed to attack be fully armed. He hastened to comply with orders received from Secretary of War William Eustis. He placed in immediate requisition Virginia's quota of militia, set at twelve thousand by law of Congress of April 10, 1812. In late July he dispatched five hundred militia to Norfolk to aid the United States troops there in defense of that port. In early September, after the ignominious surrender of General William Hull at Detroit on August 16, he ordered fifteen hundred militia to assemble immediately "with the view ultimately to joining the Northwestern Army under General Harrison." 29 Stevenson was prompt to offer his services in the field. He lamented the efforts, particularly in Federalist New England, "to pull down a pure and virtuous administration, and to render the arm of our government naked and nerveless, in opposition to a foreign power." On October 24, 1812, he wrote to his friend and former political associate, Secretary of State Monroe, as follows: I have determined to give my services at all hazards, to my Country in the present War, should they be deemed needful and acceptable. . . . I contemplate raising a troop of horse, to consist of 100 men, for the purpose of marching to Canada—to be equipped at their own expense, except arms, and to be tendered to the Presid' of the U. States. Will you be so good, as to inform me, in what way they would be accepted; whether they are immediately wanted, or the period when such force would be (if at all) required. 8 0

He added that the citizens of Richmond generally had not yet been aroused from their attitude of "apathy and Iistlessness" toward the war. 7'he national elections of 1812 approaching, the Virginia Republicans pledged to support Madison again for the Presidency and Elbridge Gerry for the Vice-Presidency. A party caucus, attended by members of both houses of the General Assembly, met in the state capitol in Richmond, February 12-14. It elected Stevenson president and Thomas Ritchie secretary, and nominated a ticket of twenty-five electors to be submitted to a vote of the people of the state in the November polls. It named a central corresponding committee of seven, including William Wirt, Peyton Randolph, Stevenson, and Ritchie. 3 1 On September 29 the committee issued to the subsidiary committees of the several counties and boroughs a public circular 2» VaHJ, 1812-13, pp. 5-6. so AS to Monroe, Oct. 24, 1812, Monroe MSS, NYPL. Monroe's reply to this letter has not been found. si RE, Feb. 18, 1812.

HOUSE SPEAKER AND ARTILLERY MAJOR

25

32

urging their support of the Madison-Gerry ticket. Stevenson believed that Virginia would give to the Republican candidates in the November election a decided majority. This opinion he expressed in a letter to James Monroe in late October. 33 His forecast proved to be correct. On December 1, after the popular election in which the Republicans triumphed, Virginia cast all her twenty-five electoral votes for Madison and Gerry. 34 The central corresponding committee of the Republican party in Virginia, chosen quadrennially in the year of each Presidential election, became known as the "Richmond Junto." It was a powerful political clique, which exalted Jeffersonian principles and exercised in Virginia politics a controlling influence comparable to that wielded in New York by the Albany Regency.85 Stevenson was a prominent member of the Richmond Junto for more than thirty years. He was regularly appointed to that powerful party agency by the Republican caucuses at Richmond every four years from 1812 to 1844, except for the year 1840, when he was the American minister at London. 36 Another continuous member of the Richmond Junto during this same period was Thomas Ritchie, the able and vigilant editor of the influential Richmond Enquirer. The Virginia legislature was elated by the early American naval victories, notably that of the Constitution, under Captain Isaac Hull, over the Guerrière, and that of the frigate United States, under Commodore Stephen Decatur, over the Macedonian. Action was taken to thank and reward Decatur, his officers, and men. 37 Speaker Stevenson, William S. Archer, Philip P. Barbour, and many others at this time favored making a loan to the United States for building a ship of the line, a "seventyfour," for use against the British, but, after debate, the House of Delegates defeated the proposal by the close vote of 93 to 81, on January 29, 1813.38 Governor Barbour communicated to the General Assembly on February 6, 1813, documents that showed that five British warships had entered Hampton Roads on February 4.39 T o repel a possible invasion of the state, he issued immediately, through Deputy Adjutant General William W. Hening, general orders directing certain detachments of the state militia, about three thousand troops in all, including Captain Robert Gamble's troop of cavalry of the city of Richmond, to repair without 32 Ibid., Sept. 29, 1812. 33 AS to Monroe, Oct. 24, 1812, Monroe MSS, NYPL. 3« RE, Dec. 3, 1812. 35 C. H. Ambler, Virginia and the Presidential Succession, p. 175. 3»RE, Feb. 18, 1812; Feb. 20, 1816; Feb. 19, 1820; Feb. 26, 1824; Jan. 17, 1828- March 17 1832; Jan. 12. 1836; Feb. 6, 1844. VaHJ, 1812-13, p. 6; VaActs, 1812-13, p. 135; RE, Dec. 12, 1812. ss VaHJ, 1812-13, pp. 137-39; RE, Jan. 30, 1813. 3» VaHJ, 1812-13, p. 153.

26

ANDREW STEVENSON

delay to Norfolk, where the whole force would be commanded by Brigadier General Robert B. Taylor. 4 0 T o guard Richmond d u r i n g the absence of Gamble's " t r o o p of horse," certain citizens of R i c h m o n d promptly organized on February 8 a volunteer association of cavalry, with Dr. William Foushee, Sr., as captain; William Wirt, first lieutenant; a n d Stevenson, second lieutenant. 4 1 Soon thereafter Stevenson proceeded to raise, equip, and drill a volunteer company of light artillery for service in the war. "His knowledge of military tactics, manly demeanor, and power of controlling m e n " enabled him as captain to render his company a well-disciplined and efficient corps. 42 O n March 17, after the a d j o u r n m e n t of the General Assembly, he was authorized by the Executive Council of Virginia to have "such alterations a n d improvements made as necessary to p u t your Artillery in complete order." 43 In response to a proclamation of Governor Barbour, the legislature met in special session, May 17-26, 1813, to consider urgent problems of state defense. T h e House of Delegates, with its attendance unusually full, reelected Stevenson its speaker. 44 T h e governor, in his message to the General Assembly, stated the problems confronting that body and the measures for defense he had taken. He seized the opportunity to pay "a just tribute of applause to the patriotism of our citizens, who with cheerfulness and alacrity obeyed the summons to the field." 45 Speaker Stevenson appointed a committee, composed of Charles F. Mercer, Philip P. Barbour, Robert Stanard, and others, to consider that part of the governor's message relating to state defense. 40 D u r i n g its ten-day session the General Assembly enacted five laws, chiefly on the subject of defense. 47 O n e of the laws repealed the act that exempted from military duty students of William and Mary and other "Public Seminaries of Learning" within the state; this measure Stevenson opposed. 4 8 During the spring and early s u m m e r of 1813, a British squadron u n d e r Admirals W a r r e n and Cockburn, with the occasional cooperation of land forces, did much damage along the shores of Chesapeake Bay and for some distance u p its navigable rivers. Repulsed at Craney Island, the key to the port of Norfolk, on J u n e 22, they succeeded three days later in taking H a m p t o n , where they captured a quantity of a m m u n i t i o n and treated the inhabitants with violence. Immediately after leaving H a m p t o n o n See G. W. Graham, " T h e Mecklenburg Declaration: What Did the Governor See?" American Historical Review, XIII, 394-97 (Jan. 1908) and A. S. Salley, Jr., " T h e Mecklenburg Declaration: T h e Present Status of the Question," ibid., pp. 16-44 (Oct. 1907). 71 S. Millington Miller, M. D., " T h e T r u e Cradle of American Liberty: Independence Bell Rang a Year Earlier in Charlotte than in Philadelphia," Collier's: The National Weekly, XXXV (July 1, 1905), 19-21. 72 A. S. Salley, Jr., and W. C. Ford, "Dr. S. Millington Miller and the Mecklenburg Declaration," Am. Hist. Rev., XI, 548-58 (April 1906). 73 AS to Todd, Nov. 12, 1838, StLbk, LC. '* Bentley to AS, Jan. 17, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XI, LC. TS Cass to AS, Jan. 1, 1839, ibid., X. 76 AS to DMad, Jan. 24, 1839 (copy), ibid., XI.

168

ANDREW STEVENSON

auspices of Congress, in the three volumes of Madison Papers edited by Henry D. Gilpin. Stevenson exerted his official influence in behalf of contemporary American historians seeking admission to the British archives in London. He obtained through Palmerston in February 1841, after considerable delay, permission for Joseph B. Felt, Massachusetts antiquarian whom Governor Everett had appointed as state agent, to transcribe under restrictions certain records in the British State Paper Office relating to the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the period 1765—75.77 He obtained leave in October 1838 for Charles W. Howard, the appointed agent of Georgia, to make excerpts and transcripts of documents in the London archives relating to Colonial Georgia. 78 He exerted his influence in 1841 in an effort to secure for John R. Brodhead, New York historian whom Governor Seward had designated as state agent, permission to make excerpts and copies of all records in the British archives relative to Colonial New York, but apparently he had obtained no such permission up to the time of his departure from London in October 1841.78 He received in 1839 from George E. Ellis, agent of George Bancroft, then collecting data on the British colonization of North America, a request for aid in gaining admission to the London archives,60 and another from William L. Stone, writer on Colonial New York, for copies and excerpts of letters of Sir William Johnson and Joseph Brant in the British Colonial Office.81 Whether or not he succeeded in accommodating these two investigators does not appear. In November 1840 he obtained from Lord Normanby, through Palmerston, permission for the historian-editor Jared Sparks, then professor at Harvard, to examine and copy in the British State Paper Office the records relating to the American colonies for the years 1775-76.82 Sparks wrote Stevenson again in June 1841, urging him upon returning to the United States, to exert his influence to induce Congress to procure from the London archives complete transcripts of all papers there relating to the American colonies.83 Stevenson replied, stating his willingness to do what he could in the matter. 84 77 JFor to AS, No. 55, May 9, 1839, Ins, GB, XIV, DS; AS to Pirn, Dec. 17, 1839, StLbk, LC; Plm to AS, Feb. 26, 1841 (en.), Dsp, GB, XLVI1I, DS. 78 JFor to AS, No. 40, May 10, 1838, Ins, GB, XIV, DS; AS to Plm, July 2, 1838, StLbk, LC; Plm to AS, Oct. 22, 1838, StLbk, LC. In appreciation of his services the Georgia Historical Society at Savannah elected Stevenson an honorary member in August 1839. J. K. Tefft to AS, Aug. 13, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XVI, LC; AS to Tefft, Sept. 16, 1839, StLbk, LC. 7» AS to Plm, May 22, 1841, StLbk, LC; AS to Brodhead, Aug. 4, 1841, ibid. so Ellis to AS, Feb. 11, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XI, LC; Ellis to AS, March 20, 1839, ibid., XIII. si Stone to [AS], 1837, ibid., VI. 82 AS to Plm, Nov. 25, 1840, StLbk, LC; AS to Sparks, Nov. 26, 1840, Sparks MSS, Harvard. 88 Sparks to AS, June 30, 1841, Stevenson MSS, XXVI, LC. 84 AS to Sparks, July 17, 1841, Sparks MSS, Harvard.

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169

Learning from Sparks that William H. Prescott "was engaged in another work connected with Spanish History," he forthwith wrote to Prescott's friend, George Ticknor of Boston, in November 1840: "Pray say to Mr. Prescott, that I shall take the greatest pleasure in rendering him here [at London] any service in my power, in the prosecution of his literary pursuits." 85 American engineers and scientists seeking British aid at London benefited from Stevenson's official influence. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy visited England in the fall of 1836 as the agent of Congress, in search of any apparatus and data the British government might afford him for a scientific and exploring expedition—the first ever authorized by the American government—to the Pacific and southern seas. Wilkes left London in late November 1836, after receiving generous and enthusiastic aid during his two months' sojourn from the British Admiralty, the Astronomical Society, and similar organizations, thanks to the aid of Stevenson and others.86 In 1838 Captain Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy, another agent of Congress, visited and inspected the lighthouses of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France, as well as dockyards and arsenals, with a view to improving the lighthouse system, naval steamships, and ordnance in the United States. Through the influence of Stevenson and others, he consulted lighthouse boards, studied the new and superior dioptric lenses, and obtained the best charts and books on lighthouse illumination, as well as various instruments. He left London for the United States in December 1838, after five months in the British Isles and France.87 Samuel F. B. Morse, after the refusal of Congress to give him financial aid and a patent for his electric telegraph, went to England in 1839 in the hope of gaining government support there. On March 20, at the house of the Earl of Lincoln in London, he demonstrated to British scientists and other interested persons, including Stevenson, his recording apparatus. 88 After the failure of President Van Buren to appoint him to London as special envoy on the northeastern boundary question, Senator Daniel Webster decided to go to England "in a private character" in the summer of 1839. His decision arose from a desire to meet the leading British statesmen, to enrich his culture, to grant the request of his daughter to be married in England, and to replenish his finances by finding buyers for his American lands.89 With his wife, his daughter Julia, and his relative, Mrs. ss AS to Ticknor, Nov. 18, 1840, Chamberlain MSS, BPL. so Wilkes to AS, Nov. 26, 1836, Stevenson MSS, IV, LC; AS to Lord Minto, Nov. 27, 1836 (en.), Dsp, GB, XLIV, DS; AS to JFor, No. 12, Nov. 29, 1836, ibid. 87 Perry's notes, Dec. 8, 1838, Stevenson MSS, X, LC; AS to Lord Minto, Nov. 19, 1838, StLbk, LC; AS to JFor, No. 59, Dec. 12, 1838, Dsp, GB, XLVI, DS. «8 Morse to AS, March 19, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XIII, LC. ss C. M. Fuess, Daniel Webster, II, 73-74.

170

ANDREW STEVENSON

Harriette Story Paige, he sailed to Liverpool and thence proceeded to London in early June. 90 The distinguished American statesman and his family received everywhere a cordial reception. 91 Minister Stevenson, whose appointment to London Webster had opposed, showed the famous New Englander every possible courtesy, which Webster expressly acknowledged in a letter to Edward Curtis. 92 Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson presented the Websters and Mrs. Paige to Queen Victoria,93 and to British celebrities in politics, society, and literature, and accompanied them to high social functions, including the Queen's state ball at Buckingham Palace.94 In consideration of Webster's forensic tastes, Stevenson secured permission to attend the debates in the House of Commons and accompanied Webster there. 95 Other American visitors to London enjoyed Stevenson's hospitality and courtesies. John H. Eaton, Jackson's new minister to Spain, stopped to see Stevenson on his way to Madrid in September 1836,96 and again on his return to the United States at the end of his mission four years later.97 James H. Hammond of South Carolina, 98 James Alexander Hamilton, 99 New York politician and son of the first Secretary of the Treasury, and Hugh S. Legaré,100 returning to America after serving four years as chargé d'affaires at Brussels, were other visitors. General Lewis Cass, Jackson's new minister to France, tarried in London eleven days in November 1836, and then proceeded to Paris after the French government, through British mediation, had complied satisfactorily with the procedure required for the renewal of Franco-American diplomatic relations, severed because of the controversy over the delay of the French Chamber of Deputies in voting (in accordance with the treaty of 1831) the American spoliation claims dating from the Napoleonic Wars. Stevenson, as the agent of Secretary of State Forsyth, through interviews and correspondence with Palmerston played a minor role in the formalities connected with the reëstablishment of diplomatic intercourse. 101 George M. Dallas, Van Buso LT, June 8, 1839. si G. T . Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster, II, 6-27. »2 DW to Curtis, June 12, 1839, ibid., pp. 8-9. »a LT, June 20, 1839; Pira to AS, June 14, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XV, LC. 9* Daniel Webster in England: Journal of Harriette Story Paige, Edward Gray, ed., pp. 24, 28-31, 39-41, 48, 86, 166. »6 AS to DW, June 10, [1839], StLbk, LC. 96 AS to Pirn, Sept. 8, 1836, ibid. 97 AS to JFor, No. 98, June 30, 1840, Dsp, GB, XLVII, DS. 98 J. Y. Mason to AS, June 1, 1836, Stevenson MSS, III, LC. »9 \v. B. Lewis to AS, Oct. 7, 1836, ibid., VI. 100 AS to JFor, No. 2, July 14, 1836, Dsp, GB, XLIV, DS. 101 Asbury Dickins to AS, No. 8, Oct. 4, 1836, Ins, GB, XIV, DS; AS to Plm, Nov. 11, 1836 (en.), Dsp, GB, XLIV, DS; Plm to AS, Nov. 15, 1836 (en.), ibid.; AS to JFor, No. 11, Nov. 19, 1836, ibid.

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ren's new minister to Russia, passed through London on his way to St. Petersburg in June 1837,102 as did Churchill C. Cambreleng, Dallas's successor, in June 1840.103 In 1837 Horace Binney, eminent Philadelphia lawyer, touring Europe, visited London where Stevenson presented him to various notables and accompanied him to the House of Lords.104 Charles Sumner, then a talented young lawyer of Boston, toured Europe from 1837 to 1839 to study the systems of government and jurisprudence and to make influential friends. Letters from Governor Edward Everett of Massachusetts and Binney introduced the young Bostonian to Minister Stevenson.105 From Paris and elsewhere Sumner wrote Stevenson occasional letters on the Maine-New Brunswick boundary dispute, in which he was much interested.106 In 1839 Major Abraham Van Buren, eldest son of the President, and his newly wedded wife, Angelica Singleton Van Buren, Mrs. Stevenson's niece, were guests of the Stevensons, who presented the young couple to the Queen and to celebrities of British society.107 Henry A. Muhlenberg, returning to the United States after his mission to the Austrian court, called upon Stevenson at London in September 1840,108 as did Charles F. Mercer, Stevenson's old colleague in the Virginia legislature and Congress, in June 1841.109 President Francis Wayland of Brown University, eminent clergyman, educator, and writer, visited France, England, and Scotland in 1840-41. He learned to know Stevenson at London through a letter of introduction from Benjamin F. Butler of New York,110 recently Attorney General under Jackson and Van Buren. T o these and other visiting Americans, to Americans resident in England, and to native Britons, Stevenson extended hospitality and obliging services, without distinction of party. He learned from Edward Coles of Philadelphia that his treatment of Americans visiting England had been "highly spoken of" and had gained him "much popularity." 111 On April 4,1841, one month after taking office, President William Henry Harrison, victor in the memorable "log cabin and hard cider" campaign, died in Washington from a severe cold, old age, and the importunities of Whig office seekers. Vice-President Tyler automatically succeeded him. 102 AS to Plm, J u n e IS, 1837, StLbk, LC. 103 AS to JFor, No. 98, J u n e 30, 1840, Dsp, GB, XLVII, DS. ioi Binney to AS, April 27, 1837, Stevenson MSS, V, LC; AS to the Lord Bishop of London, J u n e 6, 1837, StLbk, LC. los Everett to AS, Nov. 4,1837, Stevenson MSS, VI, LC; Binney to AS, Nov. 2, 1837, ibid. 106 Sumner to AS, April 10, 1839, ibid., XIII; Sumner to AS, April 19, 1839, ibid.; AS to Sumner, April 16, 1839, StLbk, LC. 107 LT, J u n e 20, 1839; SCS Letters, p. 734; Gray, ed., op. cit., pp. 48, 68-70. los Benjamin Rush to Plm, Sept. 28, 1840, StLbk, LC. loo AS to J R t h , J u n e 18, 1841, Rutherfoord MSS, Duke. n o Butler to AS, Oct. 7,1840, Stevenson MSS, XXIII, LC; Wayland to AS, March , 1841, ibid., XXVI. i n Coles to AS, J u n e 24, 1838, ibid., VIII.

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Secretary of State Webster hastened to inform Stevenson, who in turn notified Palmerston. 112 On May 1 the American minister assembled at his residence a number of his countrymen then in London to pay respects to the deceased President. Stevenson, who presided at the meeting, with Thomas Aspinwall, the American consul at London, as secretary, made appropriate remarks, as did James Hamilton. Stevenson then offered a series of resolutions of sympathy which the group unanimously adopted and which Stevenson forwarded to Mrs. Harrison at North Bend, Ohio. 113 Apart from his diplomatic duties, Stevenson interested himself in British livestock and agriculture with a view to improving those industries in his own country. He wrote to Thomas Bates, stockman of Yorkshire: Although engaged in Political Life, I am an Agriculturist, and fond of it, with the strongest passion for fine cattle and horses. My present purpose is to send over, or carry with me when I return, specimens of the best stock in Great Britain. Some of my friends in Scotland have promised me the best of the Ayrshire Breed; Lord Leicester his Devons, and my only difficulty now is in relation to the Short Horns or Durhams. Lord Spencer has kindly interested himself in the matter and offered his services, but as yet I have decided on nothing. My friends in the U. States, and especially in the middle and southern States, are looking out with anxiety to the stock I shall take over. . . . I shall certainly send over none but the finest kind, backed by the judgment of the best judges. 1 1 4

He investigated not only various breeds of British cattle but also of sheep, particularly the Southdowns and Leicesters. He received inquiries on the same subject from John Stuart Skinner, 115 American agricultural editor and writer, and scientific breeder of livestock, and from other Americans. 116 In the early fall of 1841 he purchased from Jonas Webb of near Cambridge a splendid ram, young "Babraham," and some ewes "at a very high figure" ($1,000). " T h e celebrity of the Babraham flock," observed the London New Farmersf Journal,117 "is too well known to our agricultural friends in this country to need any comment from us." Under the care of Anthony B. Allen, agricultural writer and editor returning to the United States, he shipped the sheep in September aboard the packet ship Hendrick Hudson, bound for New York. 118 Later he shipped some fine specimens of English cattle. 119 He also investigated agricultural implements, new crops, " 2 D W to AS, April 4, 1841, Ins, GB, XV, DS; AS to Plm, April 29, 1841 (en.), Dsp, GB, XLVIII, DS. u s AS to Mrs. Harrison, May 1, 1841, StLbk, LC. 11« AS to Bates, Feb. 3, 1840, ibid. u s Skinner to AS, May 8, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XIV, LC; AS to Skinner, July 20, 1840, StLbk, LC. " « AS to Jonas Webb, July 12, 1841, StLbk, LC. i " Quoted in RE, Oct. 19, 1841. u s AS to Webb, Aug. 9, 1841, StLbk, LC; RE, Oct. 29, 1841. 11» AS to J. Borthwick, Sept. 25, 1841, StLbk, LC; AS to John Blomfield, March 10, 1841, ibid.

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and fertilizers. He inquired of the renowned English agriculturist, the Earl of Leicester of Holkham, John Blomfield of Norfolk, and other "practical men," regarding the application and effects of marl as fertilizer, with a view to the use of it for the enrichment of the "poor, sandy soils" of his own estates in Hanover County, Virginia.120 The British agriculturists soon came to regard Stevenson as one of their honorable fraternity. The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland had him as the guest of honor at its dinner in Glasgow on September 27, 1838. Among the seven hundred present were the Lord Provost and magistrates of Glasgow, the dukes of Sutherland, Hamilton, and Montrose, the earls of Rosebery and Dalhousie, and Lord William C. C. Bentinck. During the course of the proceedings the Duke of Sutherland, who presided, toasted the United States and Minister Stevenson, who elicited enthusiastic applause by his graceful speech of response in which he alluded to the common interests of the United States and Great Britain, the friendship existing between them, and Scotland's proficiency in agriculture as well as in "philosophy and oratory." He expressed his desire to establish similar agricultural associations in the United States.121 The Society at its annual meeting on January 8, 1839, upon the nomination of Sir Niel Menzies and Sir Charles Gordon, directors, unanimously elected Stevenson an honorary foreign associate.122 At about the same time the newly founded Royal Agricultural Society of England, through the initiative of its first president, the third Earl of Spencer, also conferred honorary membership upon Stevenson,123 who thereby became the only foreigner who enjoyed that distinction. 124 This society on July 15, 1840, met for an elaborate dinner at Cambridge, with more than twenty-five hundred in attendance. The Duke of Richmond, then president of the association, introduced the American minister, the guest of the occasion, as "a tried friend of agriculture." Stevenson responded with a lengthy and eloquent speech that drew forth high praise from "the Duke of Richmond, Lord Spencer, Rutland, and the Professors" of Cambridge University.125 The meeting, Stevenson wrote to Skinner, was "probably one of the most remarkable assemblies ever witnessed, and will long be remembered as an epoch in the Agricultural History of even this Country [England]." 128 He declared that 120 AS to William F. Wickham, Jan. 26, 1841, ibid. 121 London Morning Chronicle, Oct. 3, 1838; RE, Nov. 16, 1838. 122 Menzies to AS, Nov. 17, 1838, Stevenson MSS, X, LC; Menzies to AS, Jan. 8, 1839, ibid., XI. 123 Spencer to AS, Dec. 15, 1838, ibid., X; AS to Spencer, Dec. 15, 1838, ibid. 124 AS to Thomas Bates, Feb. 3, 1840, StLbk, LC. 12» London Morning Chronicle, July 17, 1840; AS to Benjamin Rush, July 24, 1840, StLbk, LC. 12« AS to Skinner, July 20, 1840, StLbk, LC.

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the exhibits of cattle and sheep, agricultural implements, seeds and plants, were "fine beyond example." Stevenson followed with genuine interest the course of British political and social reform, marked by the Reform Act of 1832, the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, and other progressive measures. In 1836 he confidently predicted other and more liberal reforms: The work of Reform, which has commenced must go on. Revolutions never go backwards, and England is verging to a fundamental change in her political institutions. It may not be as rapid as many wish, and suppose, but it must come, and that at no remote period. The liberal spirit has acquired a momentum too mighty to be resisted. The proceedings and changes of the last three or four years [1832-36], can only be regarded as forerunners of other and stronger Reforms. . . . It may I think be well questioned whether the course of the Peers, . . . in resisting every thing in the shape of Reform is not doing the work of the Liberal party; are they not in fact hastening on, or rather forcing on a crisis, which, when it comes, as it must do, will be tremendous? 127 "My own opinion is very decided," he wrote again in ernment, as well as that of the French, will be forced of free representative Government which is abroad rience the fate that has overthrown so many of the world." 1 2 8

1839, "that this Govto yield to the spirit in Europe, or expeGovernments of the

T h e question of the repeal of the Corn Laws (on the statute book since the late seventeenth century) was a burning one in British politics during the period of Stevenson's ministry at London. " T h e r e is deep excitement here on the subject of the Corn Laws," Stevenson wrote to President Van Buren in January 1839, " a n d it will engross the early attention of Parliament. Under the influence of the enlightened and liberal views of the age, they must soon give way." 1 2 9 He made further observations to Secretary of State Forsyth in March: That the excitement will continue to increase rather than diminish I am very confident. Having fairly put the ball in motion, and arrayed the working classes against the landed interests, I see no probability of its being arrested, until some signal change in the whole system of free trade shall be achieved. Indeed, it will be fortunate for the landed proprietors, who have so resolutely resisted all amelioration of the Corn Laws, if the struggle does not end in some signal organic changes not now anticipated by the most sanguine friends of Reform. 130 T h e Anti-Corn Law League, under the leadership of Richard Cobden and J o h n Bright, was conducting a vigorous campaign by means of lectures and pamphlets that won the support of the British masses by revealing how 127 AS to JFor, No. 6. Aug. 22, 1836, Dsp, GB, XLIV, DS. 128 AS to JFor, No. 65, March 18, 1839, ibid., XLVI. >2»AS to VB, Jan. 25, 1839, Van Buren MSS, XXXV, LC. iao AS to JFor, No. 65, March 18, 1839, Dsp, GB, XLVI, DS.

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protective tariffs on imported grain benefited the T o r y landlords at the expense of the working and manufacturing classes. T h e league invited Stevenson, an admirer of William Huskisson, 131 the liberal Tory champion of laissez faire and free trade, to attend a banquet at Manchester in January 1840. Stevenson, however, declined because of his diplomatic position. 132 T h e Republic of Texas was seeking foreign recognition of the independence it had won in the struggle with Mexico in 1835-36. In J u n e 1837, three months after the United States had acknowledged the new government, President Sam Houston appointed his Secretary of State, James Pinckney Henderson, as diplomatic agent to work in London and Paris for the recognition of Texas. 1 3 3 Bearing a letter of introduction from Houston, 134 Henderson proceeded to London where Stevenson, an old friend of Houston, assured the Texan agent of all possible aid in achieving his objective. In 1838 President Mirabeau B. Lamar, Houston's successor, commissioned James Hamilton, formerly governor of South Carolina, as diplomatic agent to aid Henderson in his task and to negotiate money loans. 135 Hamilton sailed for Europe in 1839. At Paris he received a note from Stevenson, who told him that the problem of securing British recognition for Texas was "one of great delicacy and importance and requires deliberation." " I think," he continued, "you and I can manage, as in times gone by, to work out the figure,"—this despite the opposition of certain politicians, notably the eloquent Irish member of Parliament, Daniel O'Connell. 1 3 6 Assured of cooperation on the part of his old friend Stevenson, "a ripe and experienced Diplomat," Hamilton was hopeful of success. " I think between us," he wrote from T h e Hague, "we may do something or hold the British Govt, very uneasy in spite of the comparative insignificance [of] Texas. Though small she may yet be the exponent of mighty principles." 137 Stevenson, unlike the British abolitionists, saw no legitimate connection between the slavery question and the recognition of Texas. In August 1840 he wrote frankly to Hamilton, still at T h e Hague: I concur with you in opinion as to the slavery question. It can have nothing to do with the recognition. W h a t right have those abolitionists, and disturbers of the Peace of Nations, on either side of the Atlantic, to interpose in the affairs of Texas? W h a t right has Great Britain when appealed to for recognition under 131 AS to RR, July 26, 1845, Rush MSS, NYHS. 132 Council of the Anti-Corn Law League to AS, Dec. 17, 1839, Stevenson MSS, XVII, LC; AS to the President and Council of the Anti-Corn Law League, Dec. 20, 1839, StLbk, LC. 133 DAB, VIII (1932), 526-27. 134 Houston to AS, June 24, 1837, Stevenson MSS, V, LC. 135 DAB, VIII (1932), 187-88. 13« AS to Hamilton, Sept. 1, 1839, StLbk, LC. Hamilton to AS, Sept. 4, 1840, Stevenson MSS, X X I I , LC.

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the principles of Public Law, to look into their constitution of Government, or annex conditions and prohibitions? . . . The only rightful enquiry then is, is Texas independent. This cannot be doubted. . . . Demand her [Britain's] decision, and get her reasons, and then open your battery. 188 Having secured the recognition of T e x a s by France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as substantial money loans, Hamilton proceeded to London, where Stevenson arranged for him an interview with the British foreign secretary, Viscount Palmerston. On November 9, 1840, he apprised Stevenson that he " h a d obtained in point of fact the Recognition of T e x a s by G. B . " and that he and Palmerston had "definitely agreed on the projet or Draft of a T r e a t y , " which they would sign on Palmerston's return fronj Windsor. 1 8 9 Stevenson, during his five years in London, inevitably gained impressions of outstanding British statesmen, Whigs and Tories. He regarded the Duke of Wellington as a man whose "moral power" was immense, 1 4 0 and he held the " I r o n D u k e " in high esteem in spite of his extreme and unalterable opposition to all liberal movements. He had the utmost respect also for the radical Whig reformer, the Earl of Durham, recent governor-general of British North America and author of the epoch-making report on Canadian affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson were the guests of the Earl and Countess of Durham at Lambton Castle in the fall of 1839, 141 not long after Durham had submitted his famous report to Parliament. Stevenson considered Lord J o h n Russell, outstanding advocate of the great reform bill of 1832, then colonial secretary in Melbourne's Whig Cabinet, " a strong m a n " intellectually. 1 4 2 He admired greatly the brilliant jurist and liberal Whig reformer, Lord Brougham, whose forensic abilities particularly impressed Stevenson, who wrote: As a public speaker he is probably the first man living. In disputation . . . the wonder of the age. If he had the moral power of the Duke of Wellington, he would be irresistible. He has the most perfect command of language, and can mould it at pleasure. . . . I know him very well, and can truly say, that he is one of the most remarkable and gifted men I have ever known. . . , 143 From close and frequent contact in diplomatic negotiations, Stevenson came to regard Viscount Palmerston very favorably, 144 although the latter was brusque, blusterous, unyielding, and sometimes insolent. During the first week of January 1837 he was Palmerston's guest at Broadlands, " 8 AS to Hamilton, Aug. 31, 1840, StLbk, LC. Hamilton to AS, Nov. 9, 1840, Stevenson MSS, X X I I I , LC. « 0 AS to R R , Feb. 28, 1840, StLbk, LC. i t 1 WG, Nov. 26, 1839. Baron Broughton (John Cam Hobhouse), Recollections of a Long Life, VI, 29. « 3 AS to William F. Wickham, Jan. 26, 1841, StLbk, LC. i " H. C. F. Bell, Lord Palmerston, I, 254; Baron Broughton, op. cit., VI, 29.

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Hants. He liked better, however, the mild and conciliatory Earl of Aberdeen, 148 who succeeded Palmerston as foreign secretary in September 1841, after the accession to power of the Conservative ministry of Sir Robert Peel. T h e Stevensons came to know a number of the British literati of the early Victorian period. At the Queen's ball at Lansdowne House in May 1838, shortly before Victoria's coronation, they met Bulwer-Lytton, the novelist and dramatist. Mrs. Stevenson referred to this meeting as "the most agreeable incident of the evening." 147 They dined with Henry Hallam, the historian and critic, in February 1839. 148 T o him later Stevenson sent an American newspaper containing "a flattering eulogy" of his writings. Hallam gratefully acknowledged the courtesy. 149 T h e American minister also greatly admired William Wordsworth, the nature poet of Rydal Mount, of whom he requested an autographed poem. Wordsworth complied at Christmas time in 1838. 150 While at the Court of St. James, Stevenson learned to know also Thomas Babington Macaulay; Sydney Smith; Francis Jeffrey, the Scottish lawyer, critic, and essayist; 1 5 1 John Cam Hobhouse (Baron Broughton), the literary friend of B y r o n ; 1 5 2 the poets Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, and Samuel Rogers; and the novelist Maria Edgeworth. 153 145

A month's visit in January 1838 to Paris, as guests of Minister and Mrs. Lewis Cass at the American embassy,154 and personal associations at the Court of St. James, enabled Stevenson to form opinions of contemporary French figures of importance. While at Paris he gained "a high opinion" of Louis Philippe. He regarded the King of the French, with whom he and Mrs. Stevenson had dined at the Tuileries, 1 " as "the first Sovereign in the world," bold and able, but obstinate. 156 In February 1840 he wrote prophetically to Richard Rush: " I have had for some time a strong conviction that Louis Philippe would be deposed. I hope not in blood, for the good feeling I bear him." 157 He had no confidence in Marshal Soult, a premier 145 LT, Jan. 5, 10, 1837. " 8 AS to DW, No. 132, Sept. 18, 1841, Dsp, GB, X L V I I I , DS; AS to J R t h , Sept. 30, 1841, StLbk, LC. 147 SCS Letters, p. 513. " s ibid., p. 457. « o Hallam to AS, June 21, 184!, Stevenson MSS, X X V I , LC. 150 Wordsworth to AS, Dec. 24, 1838, ibid., X . 151 RE, May 17, 1839. isa Baron Broughton, op. ext., VI, 29. 153 RE, March 30, 1841. 154 l t , Jan. 2, Feb. 6, 1838; RE, March 17, 1838. 155 re, March 17, 1838. 156 AS to Mrs. Van Rensselaer, Dec. 5, 1840, StLbk, LC; AS to VB, Jan. 25, 1839, Van Buren MSS, X X X V , LC. is? AS to R R , Feb. 28, 1840, StLbk, LC.

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under Louis Philippe, whom he regarded as " a warrior, but no Statesman." 158 He did, however, place "great confidence in M. Guizot," whom he had met in Paris and whom he learned to know better at London, where the eminent French statesman was Louis Philippe's diplomatic representative in 1840. He wrote to Richard Rush concerning Guizot: H e has come [to London] in great state, with the motto on his arms (painted on his carriage) that the straightest line is the shortest. A good maxim this for a diplomatist. However he is an amiable man. . . . H e is well acquainted with the English character and literature and speaks the language pretty well. W i t h all, very plain in his manners. . . . He is you know the head of the Doctrinaire Party [in France], . . . he is a warm friend of constitutional monarchy, and favourably disposed toward Louis Philippe. 1 5 9

Stevenson became acquainted with several members of the Bonaparte family. He learned to know at London in 1838, Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of the great Napoleon and erstwhile King of the Two Sicilies and of Spain, who, during his twenty-year exile in the United States after Waterloo, had assumed the title "Count Survilliers." T h e seventy-year-old Frenchman was returning to Europe to visit relatives. 180 Stevenson also became acquainted with Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte of Baltimore, nephew of Napoleon I and Harvard graduate, who at the time was visiting in Europe with his American wife. 161 At Paris he had met Caroline Bonaparte, sister of the "Little Corporal" and widow of Marshal Murat, who presented to him a bronze statuette of her famous brother. 162 is« AS to Henry Wheaton, Nov. 20, 1840, ibid. 15» AS to R R , Feb. 28, 1840, ibid. 180 N. Chapman to AS, June 20, 1838, Stevenson MSS, VIII, LC. i«i JFor to AS, June 28, 1838, ibid. i«2 SCS Letters, p. 457.

XVI IMBROGLIOS opponents in the United States, ever on the alert for opportunities to make political capital, criticized Minister Stevenson severely in connection with several incidents that occurred during the period of his London residence. T h e incidents in question concerned (1) the transport of American specie to England, (2) the Bank of the United States, (3) slave breeding in America, and (4) the return home of the U. S. frigate Brandywine. In each instance faultfinding Whigs in the United States demanded the recall of Stevenson from his diplomatic post. PARTISAN

T R A N S P O R T O F SPECIE T O ENGLAND

In the spring of 1837 the United States was slipping inevitably into a dangerous economic depression. T h e fiscal policy of the Jackson Administration, as shown in the bitter war on the Bank of the United States, the Deposit Act of June 1836, and the Specie Circular of the following month; the overexpansion of credit by the numerous "wildcat banks" chartered under the lax state laws; the excessive, widespread speculation in public lands and municipal real estate; the extravagant expenditures by the states on programs of internal improvements; the overexpansion of cotton planting in the South and of manufacturing in the Northeast; the disturbed condition of Europe and the consequent withdrawal of loans and restriction of credits to the United States by British banking houses, were factors which contributed to the crisis. In April Editor Thomas Ritchie of the Richmond Enquirer described existing conditions to Stevenson at London: You can form no adequate idea of the general distress of our country. T h e strongest capitalists, as they were thought, have failed at our two great Commercial Emporiums, N. York and N. Orleans. . . . it has run on into a tremendous panic. The Banks are unable to give adequate relief, and many other merchants and Dealers must go to the wall. We hope the Banks will be able to stand the shock— though some few do speculate on their being compelled to stop specie payments. . . . Our importations have been immense. . . . How and when it is all to end, I cannot tell, and I see no man wise or bold enough to predict. 1

In the midst of this state of affairs, the New York Sunday Morning News on April 2 published a communication which stated that recent letters i ThR to AS, April 20, 1837, Stevenson MSS, V, LC. 179

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from Stevenson and the American consul at Liverpool, allegedly read before Van Buren's Cabinet, had suggested . . . that every practicable method should be resorted to by the Government to retain the specie now in the country. They state that England is on the brink of a great financial and political convulsion, and that the Bank of England will be obliged to suspend specie payments unless the efforts then making for procuring a supply from the United States should succeed; and that the question, in fact, was whether the banks on this side of the water or on that, should first blow up. T h e political disturbances of England (says Mr. Stevenson) are greatly promoted by her financial embarrassments, and if the latter continue, the former must soon come to a crisis. If the [British] money power is crippled and embarrassed, the democracy of the country will triumph, and Ireland will be emancipated. T o send our [American] specie to England at this crisis would, therefore, destroy ourselves and aid the British tories in their present death-struggle with the people. 2

The New York newspaper communication got to London where "it made some noise." The London Observer viewed the communication, which it reprinted, with "very great regret" and stated that "we venture to tell Mr. Stevenson that the whig party, to a man, hold in the utmost abhorrence such opinions as he is reported to hold." 3 Stevenson noticed the Observer's reprint from the New York Sunday Morning News and promptly contradicted the charges and imputations directed against him. Through the columns of the London Times he declared that the Observer had made "some very absurd observations" in connection with the communication reproduced from the New York newspaper. 4 With his friend Henry Wickoff,5 he regarded "this sudden overflow of Editorial bile" as unjustifiable and insulting. He sent a private letter to Lord Palmerston on May 22, in denial of the charges.6 Palmerston replied promptly: "We know and appreciate you too well to pay the slightest attention to calumnies such as those to which your letter relates. I shall, however, not fail to shew your letter to my colleagues and to the King. . . . " 7 At home Thomas Ritchie, undertaking to disprove the allegations against Stevenson, forthwith sounded Asbury Dickins of the State Department upon the matter. Upon the basis and authorization of Dickins's reply, 8 he contradicted, in the Richmond Enquirer of April 21, the whole story of the alleged letters of Stevenson and others to which the New York Sunday Morning News had referred: "No such letters are known to have 2 Quoted in RE, April 7, 1837. s Quoted in WG, J u n e 21, 1837. * LT quoted in RE, J u n e 23, 1837. i> Wickoff to AS, May 23, 1837, Stevenson MSS, V, LC. « AS to Plm, May 22, 1837 (copy), ibid. 7 Plm to AS, May 22, 1837. ibid. s Dickins to T h R , April 19, [1837], ibid.

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been received by any member of the Executive at Washington. Four [of the six] members of the Cabinet, to whom alone application was made, distinctly declare that they know nothing of such letters. The whole story is a humbug. . . ." At the same time Ritchie wrote to Stevenson: "Dickins's letter has removed a mountain from my . Put yourself at ease. All is now well. Every cloud blown over—and I feel entirely relieved on your account." 0 The official Washington Globe settled the controversy by adding its authority to that of the Enquirer: . . . we are authorized expressly to contradict all the statements of the letter quoted by the [London] Observer. No such letter, nor any containing advicc touching the subject alluded to, was ever received by any member of the Administration, or read in the Cabinet. 1 0 T H E BANK O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S

During the fall of 1836 Minister Stevenson received frequent inquiries, in view of the uncertain economic conditions then prevailing in his country, as to the solvency of the financial institutions in the United States, particularly in Philadelphia and New York. He gave his opinion freely, with a view to dispelling the fears and restoring the confidence of anxious British investors contemplating the withdrawal of their loans from the United States.11 He expressed the belief that the attack upon the Bank of the United States as recharterea in February 1836 by the commonwealth of Pennsylvania would fail, and that its charter would not and should not be repealed, except upon the clearest evidence of corruption found.12 This declaration, according to Joshua Bates, the American partner in the banking house of Baring, was so well-timed that it fully counteracted the efforts of Richard Rush at London against the bank.13 Stevenson furthermore denied as a "sheer fabrication," as a "wanton and barefaced calumny," the charge of the New York Commercial Advertiser (Nov. 24, 1836) that he had had an agency in the republication at London of Presidential nominee Van Buren's letter to Congressman Sherrod Williams,14 in which Van Buren condemned the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania. Stevenson's actions and opinions, which he explained in a letter to John Duer,15 London correspondent of the New York American, became 9 T h R to AS, April 20,1837, ibid. 10 WG, June 21, 1837. 1 1 AS to editors of WG, April 22, 1837, WG, June 7, 1837. 12 AS to John Duer, Dec. 31, 1836, New York American, March 16, 1837. 13 Ibid. 14 VB to Williams, Aug. 8, 1836, Niles, LI, 26-30 (Sept. 10, 1836). is AS to Duer, Dec. 31, 1836, New York American, March 16, 1837.

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known in the United States, where they attracted the attention of both Whig and Democratic newspapers. T h e New York American published Stevenson's letter to Duer on March 16, 1837. Six days later Editor Francis P. Blair, on his own account, without governmental sanction, 1 6 published in the Democratic Washington Globe, the government news organ, a caustic editorial in which he interpreted Stevenson's actions and statements as indicating a reversal of his well-known position on the controversial bank question and as indicating a disposition to repudiate Van Buren and Jackson in their stand against the bank. Blair boldly declared that Stevenson apparently " h a d volunteered on the side of the bank, against the Government and Administration, which he represents abroad," and that he was "lending himself to the American tories in England." He asserted, however, that he would not believe that Stevenson had enlisted in the cause of the bank unless he avowed it openly, or remained silent in the face of the charge. 17 Certain unfriendly Whig presses sought to make political capital of the Stevenson-Duer letter, with the intention of disrupting the Democratic party. T h e Alexandria Gazette, New York Gazette, and other antiadministration journals therefore welcomed the unseemly strictures of the Washington Globe and upon the basis of them demanded the recall of Stevenson from his diplomatic post. 13 Influential individuals and newspapers came to Stevenson's defense. T h e Democratic Richmond Enquirer vouched for the American minister's vigorous, consistent opposition to the Second Bank of the United States and its continuation under a Pennsylvania charter. It declared that the Globe editorial had entirely misrepresented Stevenson's true attitude on the bank question, and appealed to the "liberality" of Editor Blair " t o forbear" in his strictures on Stevenson. It referred to the demands of Whig presses for the recall of Stevenson as "vaticinations" that should be disregarded as "the idle croakings of the mischief-making raven." 19 Even the Washington National Intelligencer, which had "no political sympathies with Mr. Stevenson," deplored the Globe assault as ill-reward to a faithful party man. 2 0 It asserted that Stevenson's "opponents as well as his associates in politics cannot but be glad to see him sustained" against the "unpatriotic" and "uncivilized" Globe attack. 2 1 From Washington William B. Lewis wrote to Stevenson: " . . . I am happy to inform you that there are but very few who do not think he [Blair] has done you great injustice." 1« Blair to A J . April 5, 1837, JaCor, V, 474-75. " WG, March 22, 1837. 19 RE, March 28, 31, April 4, 1837. 19/fcirf., March 28, 1837. 20 WNl, March 24, 1837. 21 Ibid., March 27, 1837.

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He declared that Stevenson's opinion regarding the attack on the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania was also "the opinion of many others, and some of them the very best friends of the Administration." He advised that the Globe editor "should not tommyhawk his friends." 22 From London Richard Rush, whose opinions and conduct with regard to the bank had been, critics declared, impeached and counteracted by Stevenson, also wrote to the Globe editors of his own accord, in defense of Stevenson. 23 Editor Thomas Ritchie of the Richmond Enquirer undertook the settlement of the matter. He wrote to Attorney General B e n j a m i n F. Butler, requesting him to inquire of President Van Buren whether or not the Globe editorial truly represented the attitude of the Administration, because, if it did, Stevenson would feel constrained to resign his London post. He admitted that Stevenson's statements regarding the bank were somewhat ambiguous and indiscreet, but nevertheless contended that the Globe editorial was a gross misrepresentation. 24 In its issue of April 3, 1837, the Globe denied that the Administration had directed or sanctioned the editorial of March 22. It thereby relieved Stevenson of any fear of official censure. It condemned unequivocally as a "federal fabrication" the charge that Stevenson had changed from opposition to support of the bank. Stevenson first saw the censorious Globe editorial on April 21. He immediately wrote to the Globe editors, 25 explaining fully his actions and conversations at London in regard to the bank, professing his decided opposition to the institution whether under a national or state charter, and attesting to his constant efforts to uphold the banks and credit of the United States abroad. He wrote at the same time and in the same strain to the President. 2 6 SLAVE BREEDING IN AMERICA Opponents of Negro slavery held a memorable public meeting at Birmingham, England, on August 1, 1838, to celebrate the end on that day of the four-year period of Negro apprenticeship (under the Emancipation Act of 1833) in the British West Indies. Joseph Sturge, the Quaker philanthropist, signalized the occasion by laying the foundation of " T h e Negro Emancipation Schools." 27 Besides Sturge, Daniel O'Connell, Irish leader in the House of Commons, delivered an address in which he condemned slaveholding and "slave breeding" in the United States. According to 22 Lewis to AS, March 30, 1837, Stevenson MSS, V, LC. 23 R R to editors of WG, April 24, 1837, WG, June 12, 1837. 24 T h R to Butler, [ra. April 1, 1837], BranchHP, III, 231-36. 25 AS to editors of WG, April 22, 1837, WG, June 7, 1837. 26 AS to VB, April 22, 1837, Van Buren MSS, X X V I I , LC. 27 For an account of the meeting see Henry Richard, Memoirs 174-82.

of Joseph

Sturge,

pp.

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reliable reports, he made "an outrageous attack" upon the character of George Washington, whom he accused of "the basest avarice and most disgraceful hypocrisy" as a slaveholder. He asserted that Washington had purchased renown by liberating his slaves at his death, after "the want of progeny had rendered them of no further value to him." 28 Furthermore, O'Connell slandered Minister Stevenson. According to the report in the London Spectator of August 4, he declared: "I believe their very Ambassador here is a slave-breeder, one of those beings who rear up slaves for the purpose of traffic. Is it possible that America would send here a man who trafficks in blood, and who is a disgrace to human nature?" Upon reading the press report of O'Connell's speech in the Spectator, Stevenson hastened to his old friend James Hamilton, then in London, and requested him to convey to the Irish politician a message "as should leave no doubt of its import." With the concurrence of Captain Matthew C. Perry, also in London at the time, Hamilton advised that Stevenson first approach O'Connell with an inquiry as to the correctness of the newspaper report of his Birmingham speech, and that, should the "King of the Beggars" avow it, then he would act as Stevenson's agent in conveying to O'Connell a challenge to a duel to defend the honor of the American minister and that of his country.29 Acting upon Hamilton's advice, Stevenson sent a note to O'Connell. 30 T h e Irish M. P. replied the next day, August 10, that the Spectator's report of his speech was not correct.81 He declared that instead of saying, "Is it possible that America would send here a man who trafficks in blood, and who is a disgrace to human nature?" as reported in the Spectator, he had actually said, "Is it possible that America would send here a man who trafficks in blood, and who, if he do, would be a disgrace to human nature?" He maintained, also, that the next sentence of his speech, "I hope the assertion is untrue, but it is right to speak out," which Stevenson had not quoted in his letter to O'Connell, .involved "a direct contradiction" of the calumnious statements concerning the American minister.32 Stevenson sent a rejoinder to O'Connell on August 11: Presuming that you intended your reply as a disavowal of the offensive expressions contained in that part of your reported speech which had allusion to myself . . . I am satisfied with the answer you have given. As an incorrect report of your speech has been made public through the press, 28 James Hamilton to T h R , Oct. 10,1838, RE, Oct. 16, 1838. 28 Hamilton to T h R , Aug. 15, 1838, RE, Sept. 25, 1838. 30 AS to O'Connell, Aug. 9, 1838, LT, Aug. 15, 1838. si O'Connell to AS, Aug. 10, 1838, ibid. 32 O'Connell to editor of London Morning Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1838, reprinted in RE, Oct. 16, 1838.

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I beg to inform you that I deem it due to myself that the correspondence which has taken place [between us] should also be published. 33

O'Connell, however, remained obdurate. In a letter to the London Morning Chronicle dated September 13, he declared emphatically that his letter to Stevenson on August 10 was not intended to disavow his statements regarding the American minister. Furthermore, he continued his bitter criticism of slaveholding, slave trading, and slave breeding in the United States: T o supply the home slave trade, an abominable, a most hideous, most criminal, and most revolting practice of breeding negroes exclusively for sale has sprung up. and especially, we are told, in Virginia. . . . This it is which stains the character of the American slave-holder, and leaves the breeder of slaves the most detestable of human beings, especially when that slave breeder is a Republic, boasting of freedom. . . . 34

Although he had demanded a disavowal of the charges and imputations directed against him and had intimated that if satisfaction were not given, a challenge to a duel would follow, Stevenson, because of his diplomatic position, refrained from pressing the controversy further. He replied finally to O'Connell's latest letter (September 13, 1838) through the columns of the London Evening Mail, upon returning in late October from a visit to Scotland: T h e tone and purport of his last note (in which he disavows responsibility for any thing he may say) precludes any other notice from me than to say, that the charge which he has thought proper again to repeat, of my being a breeder of slaves for sale and traffic, is wholly destitute of truth; and that I am warranted in believing it has been made by him without the slightest authority. Such too, I venture to say, is the case in relation to his charge of slave-breeding in Virginia. 38

Hamilton, on his own initiative, "without the knowledge or connivance" of Stevenson, immediately wrote Thomas Ritchie a letter, which appeared in the Richmond Enquirer in late September, describing the imbroglio. He ardently defended Stevenson in his action and upbraided O'Connell, "the Irish Caliban." 86 He stated later, regretfully, that he had written the letter, which the Enquirer (Oct. 2, 1838) nevertheless commended as a gesture of American patriotism, "in great haste, and under a peculiar excitement," and therefore had "indulged in a tone of abuse too much in the 33 AS to O'Connell, Aug. 11, 1838, LT, Aug. 15, 1838. Stevenson did have his correspondence with O'Connell published in the I.T of August 15, 1838. 3 « O'Connell to editor of London Morning Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1838, reprinted in RE, Oct. 16, 1838. 85 AS to editor of London Evening Mail, Oct. 29, 1838, reprinted in RE, Dec. 18, 1838. 33 Hamilton to T h R , Aug. 15, 1838, RE, Sept. 25, 1838.

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vein of Mr. O'Connell's language to his opponents . . . unworthy of my country and myself." 37 Henry S. Fox, the British minister at Washington, in a despatch to Palmerston, referred to Hamilton's "very ill advised letter," evidently written under "very violent excitement." 38 O'Connell's attack upon Stevenson drew forth interesting comments from Britons and Americans. Henry H u r t of London declared that the Irish leader's letter (Sept. 13, 1838) was "as infamous as its Author." He regretted that the American minister "should have entered the lists, or even to have noticed anything from so notorious a liar and Scoundrel." He urged Stevenson to "demand of the Government that a Criminal Information should be filed against him for the Libel." 30 From Paris Lewis Cass wrote to Stevenson: "I was rejoiced to see your correspondence with O'Connell. You have fairly put the braggadacio down. It will be of service to you personally, and to the American name abroad." 40 John Randolph Clay, of the United States legation at Vienna, addressed Stevenson in a similar strain: "I was glad to see that you had given a lesson to that political Judas which he richly deserved and which I hope he will not soon forget." 41 Charles Palmer, Whig, of Richmond informed the American minister that his conduct toward O'Connell had not injured him "in the estimation of any spirited true hearted Virginian or American." 42 Richard Vaux of Philadelphia wrote to Stevenson: ". . . the feeling of your friends as well as others in regard to this matter is 'that Mr. Stevenson ought not to have taken any notice of O'Connell—but since he has, he has not gone far enough.' T h a t is the opinion of gentlemen disconnected with politicks with whom I have conversed." 43 Certain American newspapers were bitter in their criticism of the Irish politician. T h e Washington National Intelligencer (Oct. 16, 1838) declared that O'Connell's slave-breeding charges were "a tissue of unfounded imputations and insulting reflections on the slaveholding part of our country." T h e Richmond Enquirer (Oct. 16, 1838) angrily accused him of "audacious slander u p o n the character of Virginia." It branded as "a fable" the charge that Virginia had slave-breeding plantations such as those described by O'Connell. "It is false as to Virginia. It is false as to the rest of the Southern States." Certain antislavery newspapers of New York and other northern states, however, contended that O'Connell's charges regarding slave breeding in 37 Hamilton to editor of New York Gazette, Oct. 3, 1838, reprinted in RE, Oct. 9, 1838. as Fox to Plm, No. 21, June 11, 1839, FOP 5, Vol. 331(3), PRO. 39 Hurt to AS, Sept. 20, 1838, Stevenson MSS, IX, LC. 40 Cass to AS, Aug. 31, 1838, ibid. Clay to AS, Dec. 18, 1838. ibid., X. 4-> Palmer to AS. Dec. 11, 1838, ibid. *RE, Dec. 14, 1841. so RE, Dec. 16, 1841.

XVIII COUNTRY GENTLEMAN London Stevenson had written to his brother-in-law, John Rutherfoord of Richmond, regarding his intentions after he should retire from his diplomatic post: FROM

I shall try therefore to settle myself down on a farm and spin out my years as well and as comfortably as I can. If I can arrange my means (if any remain), so as to enable me to get comfortably fixed in the Country, I think I can be happy, and much more so now than ever, although my friends think otherwise. Having seen and enjoyed to my heart's content (as well as discontent) all that Royalty, wealth, and luxury can do in this world I should be much more reconciled to private life now, than before I came to Europe. I know now what it is all worth and am satisfied. 1

Had he found something wanting in "the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave"? Early the next year, 1840, he wrote to William Pope in similar strain: Once home and safely in the Port of Private life, I shall in all probability, never consent to embark again upon the stormy ocean of Politics. T h e little happenings that I may have it in my power to enjoy, will be sought in the bosom of that society of my friends, amongst whom I hope to live and die, and in the land where I drew my first breath. . . . 2

In his letter to Pope, Stevenson declared that he was still healthy and was regarded as "well looking on the outside" for his age. "The inside of the man, I flatter myself, has undergone no. change." T o another friend he promised not much change except in size and age; asserted that he was in fine health, but confessed to a feeling that he was getting on the "sear and yellow leaf of life." 3 T o William B. Lewis he wrote: "I am as gray as a badger and as fat as an alderman." 4 Upon his return to America in November 1841 he was nearly fifty-seven. Stevenson was looking forward eagerly to the quiet of country life. He owned extensive and fertile lands in Hanover County, Virginia, one place known as Woodbury, another as Crump's Neck. He regretted that he had not a "snug House" at Woodbury and therefore would be forced to 1 AS 2 AS a AS * AS

to JRth, May 28, 1839, StLbk, LC. to Pope, March 4, 1840, ibid. to William F. Wickham, Jan. 26, 1841, ibid. to Lewis, July 3, 1841, ibid. 199

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reside in a town. And Mrs. Stevenson, he said, would not consent to be separated from her sisters in Richmond—"and there I shall go." 5 Accordingly they made their home at " T h e Retreat" near Richmond for the next six years—until Mrs. Stevenson's death. In the meantime he gave attention to his Hanover farms, purchased land in Albemarle County, participated in various movements for the advancement of education and agriculture, and figured prominently in many of the social and civic activities of Richmond. He took Mrs. Stevenson each summer to the springs of western Virginia, for the benefit of her declining health, with occasional sojourns at her old home in Albemarle County. On February 13, 1842, Stevenson had the pleasure of a visit from one of his English friends, Lord Morpeth (courtesy title of George William Frederick Howard), a supporter in the House of Commons of the Reform Bill of 1832 and a member of Lord Melbourne's Cabinet when Stevenson was in London. Lord Morpeth, after inviting himself to take tea with Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson, arrived in Richmond on Saturday evening, February 12, and the next morning "walked up thro' a pouring rain at 10 o clock" and sat in Stevenson's "sick chamber, until 11." Later during the day he was the dinner guest of Stevenson's brother-in-law, John Ruthcrfoord, then the acting governor of Virginia, and other prominent citizens of Richmond. Everyone "was delighted" with the English statesman and author, whom Stevenson's sister-in-law, Betsy Coles, described as "so plain and unpretending!" 6 In the summer of 1842, soon after a trip to South Carolina, the Stevensons visited Dolly Madison at Montpelier, in Orange County, Virginia. Anticipating their visit, Mrs. Madison had written from Washington: " I wd. say how much I long to see you and my ever dr. fd. Mr. Stevenson but that is impossible." 7 Mrs. Madison visited the Stevensons at " T h e Retreat" in November 1843. " I have never seen him [Stevenson]," wrote Betsy Coles to Mrs. Madison, "look forward with such pleasure to having any one, under his Roof. And it would seem as if the hope of it had already benefitted my dear Sister [Mrs. Stevenson]." 8 During his later years Stevenson took "a very deep interest" in the advancement of agriculture. His genuine interest in British agronomy and animal husbandry, while American minister at London, had won him honorary membership in the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland « AS to Wickham, Jan. 26, 1841, ibid. « B. Coles to John C. Rutherfoord, Feb. 23, 1842, MS Collection, T h e Valentine Museum. Lord Morpeth (1802-64), who in 1848 l>ecame the seventh Earl of Carlisle, wrote a preface for the edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin published at London in 1853. See the Dictionary of National Biography, ed. by Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee (Oxford University Press, 1921-22), X , 19-21. i DMad to AS and SCS, May 12, 1842, D. P. Madison MSS, II, LC. 8 B. Coles to DMad, Nov. 16, 1843, ibid., I I I .

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a n d in the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Naturally, after his retirement from public service a n d with increased opportunity for attention to farming, gardening, a n d stock raising, his interest grew. Small projects of homely character afforded h i m pleasure and diversion. His wife wrote on one occasion: ". . . Mr. S. well again a n d very busy gardening . . . " 9 An act of the Virginia General Assembly, passed on March 20, 1841 (repealed in 1843), created the first State Board of Agriculture, of which James Barbour was president and the e m i n e n t agriculturist and publisher, E d m u n d Ruffin, was corresponding secretary, to "discuss all subjects connected with agricultural pursuits." Stevenson observed, " T h i s is an imp o r t a n t move, and one to which I shall readily lend my aid." T o the members of the board he submitted select livestock he h a d brought over f r o m Great Britain. 1 0 T h e Agricultural Society of Virginia was reorganized at a convention held in the state capitol, J a n u a r y 20-21, 1845. Nearly one h u n d r e d delegates from various counties attended. Governor James McDowell presided. A select committee of sixteen, composed of T h o m a s J . R a n d o l p h , chairman, Andrew Stevenson, W . W. Minor, Charles T . Botts, Bernard Peyton, and others, framed a constitution for the society, with supplemental resolutions concerning it. Stevenson presented other resolutions, which he supported with "some strong and a p p r o p r i a t e remarks" on the improvement of agriculture, advocating the a p p o i n t m e n t of a committee to prepare an address to the people of Virginia, and another to memorialize the General Assembly for an act of incorporation. U n d e r his resolutions, which the convention adopted, E d m u n d Ruffin, Stevenson, R a n d o l p h , and two others were appointed the committee to prepare the address, and T h o m a s Ritchie, J o h n R. Sampson, a n d three others, the committee for the memorial. Governor McDowell, u n d e r the constitution and resolutions, appointed E d m u n d Ruffin president of the society; Richard B. Haxall, treasurer; Charles T . Botts, corresponding secretary; William Nelson, recording secretary; and fifteen vice-presidents, including T h o m a s J . Randolph for the sixth Congressional district, Stevenson for the seventh, Hill Carter for the eighth, a n d Willoughby Newton for the ninth. 1 1 Mr. Ruffin, who felt that Virginia had not sufficiently appreciated his work in agriculture, 1 2 declined to serve as president of the society. T h e r e u p o n Andrew Stevenson was elected president. " T h e Society dragged along, doing almost nothing." 13 »SCS to Mrs. Marion Deveatix, March 7, 1844, Singleton Family MSS, LC. " A S to Jonas Webb, Aug. 9, 1841, StLbk, LC; WMQ, 1st series, XXVI, 171 (Jan. 1918). ii RE, Jan. 21, 22. 1845. is A. O. Craven, "Edmund Ruffin," DAB, XVI (1935), 215. " WMQ, 1st series, XXVI, 171 (Jan. 1918).

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The languor of the society may have been due to its president's neglect, because of other duties, but can hardly be charged to his lack of interest. On October 29, 1847, he delivered an extended address before the Agricultural Society of Albemarle County at its annual meeting in Charlottesville.14 Stressing the importance and dignity of agricultural pursuits, he viewed with alarm the apathy toward them in the Old Dominion, the apparent causes therefor, and the lamentable results. T o improve conditions, he suggested the application of more scientific methods, especially the rotation of crops and the use of fertilizers. He cited the achievements of eminent British agriculturists, notably the Earl of Leicester of Holkam. "Indeed," he had stated previously, "if I had needed proofs of the vast importance of applying Science to practical husbandry, they would have been abundantly supplied by England and Scotland, where the most barren and sterile soils have been by the aid of science and cultivation, made to yield products, greater than those of the most fertile kind in our Country." 15 T o stimulate interest, he recommended the organization of other county agricultural societies. On October 31, 1851, he addressed the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society at Harrisburg.16 On his way to the Keystone State Stevenson wrote to Andrew Jackson Donelson, then in charge of the Washington Union, central news organ of the Democratic party: I am going to talk to the farmers, about mending their ways, but I shall look about and see how the land lies in another direction, but not a word about Politics, save a glance at the " U n i o n " ! ! I had rather blow off a little steam, about Pennsylvania and Virginia democracy, instead of talking about farming. . . . By the bye, if I had known when I accepted six weeks ago, that Webster, and Cass, and Douglas, were to make agricultural speeches, I would have backed out. I see they say at the North, that I am electioneering! Not for myself, I assure you. 1 7

Evidently Stevenson's interest in farming and farm life did not abate with the passing of the years, and reports of his devotion continued to be carried into neighboring states. In September 1855 he was the orator before an agricultural fair in Maryland, where, despite his threescore years and ten, he spoke for two and a half hours. This was certainly an exhibition of vigor and endurance, but he may have felt that he had exhausted himself or the subject, for he declared this address (never published) to be "the last Agricultural Speech I shall ever make." 18 T h e address was published at Charlottesville in 1847. " AS to John Lewis, May 24, 1839, StLbk, LC. 1 6 T h e address was published at Harrisburg in 1852. 1 7 AS to Donelson, Oct. 25, 1851, "Selected Letters, 1846-1856, from the Donelson Papers," ed. by St. G. L. Sioussat, Tennessee Historical Magazine, 1st series, III, 281-82 (Dec. 1917). »9 Two letters, AS to JCC, Sept. 22, Oct. 13, 1855, Cabell MSS, UVa. 14

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Stevenson, like many other slaveholders, took an active interest in certain philanthropic movements for aiding freedmen, notably in connection with the Colonization Society of Virginia. T h e American Colonization Society, organized at Washington in 1816, continued to transport freed Negroes of the United States to the little republic of Liberia on the west African coast until the outbreak of the Civil War. States, counties, and cities, especially in the South, formed auxiliary societies that contributed f u n d s for the work. State legislatures approved the enterprise and gave financial assistance. Virginia supported the work more strongly than any other state with the possible exception of Maryland. Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe gave their hearty approval, as did Charles F. Mercer, John H. Cockc, and Edward Colston, who became life members of the American Colonization Society. These Virginians believed that the deportation and colonization of the freed Negroes would reduce the danger of slave insurrections, make slave property more secure, confer signal benefits u p o n the freedmen, and carry Christian civilization to Africa. 19 Stevenson regarded the objects of the society as "highly laudable and expedient." 20 On December 15, 1828, the Richmond and Manchester Auxiliary Society had converted itself into the Colonization Society of Virginia, an organization "more distinct from and independent of the American Colonization Society than the State of Virginia is of the United States of America." 21 T h e new body had sought "to make Richmond instead of Washington the center of operations in Virginia." It had elected Chief Justice Marshall president; Madison, Monroe, J o h n Tyler, James Pleasants, William H. Fitzhugh, and others, vice-presidents; J o h n Rutherfoord, corresponding secretary. 22 At its annual meeting in the capitol at Richmond on January 11, 1832, it had designated Marshall, Tyler, and Stevenson (then Speaker of the House of Representatives) as delegates to attend the approaching meeting of the American Colonization Society in Washington. 2 3 It had received financial support from the General Assembly of Virginia from time to time for the removal of "free persons of color who may desire to migrate from Virginia to Liberia." 24 After a period of comparative inactivity from 1845 to 1849 for want of competent agents, the society reorganized in February 1849 by electing Governor John B. Floyd president. In February 1855 J o h n Rutherfoord was chosen president, with Henry is Miscellaneous Papers, 1672-1865, R. A. Brock, ed., pp. 26-29; B. B. Munford, Virginia's Attitude toward Slavery and Secession, pp. 59, 61-64. 20 AS to R. R. Gurley, Dec. 18, 1840, StLbk, LC. 21 Philip Slaughter, The Virginian History of African Colonization, p. 19. 22 Ibid., pp. 17-19; Brock, ed.. Misc. Papers, pp. 29-30. 23 RE, Jan. 19, 1832; Slaughter, op. cit., pp. 61-63. 2« Slaughter, op. cit., pp. 99, 102-3; Brock, ed., Misc. Papers, pp. 30, 32; Munford, Virginia's Attitude, p. 59.

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A. Wise, George W. Summers, Alexander H. H. Stuart, William B. Preston, John H. Cocke, Wyndham Robertson, John Janney, Andrew Stevenson, and others as vice-presidents. In 1846 it had founded in Liberia the "New Virginia" settlement, which had a population of about four hundred by 1855.25 Although hindered by the activities of the abolitionists, the Virginia society continued its work until the outbreak of the Civil War, transporting annually from one hundred to two hundred freed Negroes.28 In 1845 Richard Rush of Philadelphia sent to his old friend and associate, Stevenson, a copy of his newly published work, Memoranda of a Residence at the Court of London, Comprising Incidents Official and Personal from 1819 to 1825 . . . (Philadelphia, 1845). Perusal of this not only revived in Stevenson many pleasant memories, but also at times provoked melancholy. He wrote: I can't look into yr. book w i t h o u t f i n d i n g myself continually in L o n d o n , a n d floating in a sea of d i n n e r s a n d fetes; in t h e midst of t h e brightest a n d the best, the wisest a n d the silliest. . . . You are well qualified for all this, b u t I d o n ' t t h i n k I could n o w even hold my o w n . T h e last three years have crushed my spirits, a n d m a d e life h a n g loosely o n me. N o t h i n g b u t yr. Book could have revived feelings, a n d reminiscences so long d o r m a n t . 2 7

Evidently Stevenson had not found that Arcadia in which he had expected quiet and happiness. He could not escape altogether from importunate demands upon his time and energies; in addition, buying and selling land and slaves, repairing old buildings and planning new ones, hiring workmen who didn't work, all entailed incidental annoyances and disappointments, whatever stimulus ultimate achievements may have afforded. But his depression of spirits resulted chiefly from the ill health and physical sufferings of his wife, Sarah Coles Stevenson, whose brilliant mind had long been imprisoned in a frail body. He had taken her during a serious illness in 1828 to the eminent Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Philip S. Physick, who had skillfully restored her at that time.28 He had consulted distinguished physicians of London, but had received little encouragement. "On my return from England in the Autumn of '41," he wrote, "Mrs. Stevenson's health became greatly impaired, and I carried her to the [Virginia] Springs, the ensuing summer." 29 Every summer for the next six years, as for a number of summers before their residence at London, they sojourned at the springs—Warm Springs and Hot Springs in Bath County, 2» Slaughter, op. cit., pp. 71, 97, 105, 110. 2« Brock, ed., Misc. Papers, p. 32. 27 AS to RR, July 26, 1845, Rush MSS, NYHS. 2« AS to Matthew Carey, Jan. 7, 1830, Ford MSS, NYPL; Isaac A. Coles to Walter Coles, June 14,1828, ColesF, p. 151. 28 Memorandum by AS, Sept. 12, 1846, Stevenson MSS, XXVI, LC.

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White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier, or Sweet Springs in Monroe—with stops en route on beautiful Green Mountain in Albemarle. For health's sake as well as for other reasons, he took her occasionally to visit her sister, Mrs. Richard Singleton, and other relatives in South Carolina. 30 All hope of permanent recovery or marked improvement was in vain. Mrs. Stevenson during her last years was so much an invalid that she had to be moved about in a rolling chair. 31 Early in January 1843 Stevenson wrote to his son, J o h n White Stevenson, then a rising young lawyer of Covington, Kentucky: . . . yr. mother [his stepmother] is still as ill as she can be to live. Her sufferings are now beyond any thing I ever witnessed and more I fear, than human nature can bear. . . . her life hangs on a thread. I am overwhelmed with sorrow. . . . I have not been outside of my House and yard, for the last five weeks or more. . . . I have abandoned almost all hope. 32

Late in December 1845 he wrote to James Buchanan: "She is yet, I am grieved to say, a great sufferer, with little hope I fear, of recovery." 33 Within the same general period Mrs. Stevenson, writing to her niece, Mrs. Marion Deveaux, said: "I am here [at the "Retreat"] quite alone with my dear husband who rarely leaves me." 34 In March 1846 Stevenson, in a letter to Joseph C. Cabell, said: "I have been housed for the last two or three weeks, by the illness of Mrs. S., and the bad weather. She is now better and able to leave her room, and I ventured in Town [Richmond] this morning, for an hour or two." 35 Under such conditions, it is not surprising that the Agricultural Society was neglected. It is surprising that his health was fairly well maintained. T h e summer sojourns at the springs, among congenial associates, provided seasons of relaxation. Of other diversions there were few. In London he had played chess, and while there he had written to his friend Wickham: "I have become . . . more devoted to shooting and fishing, than ever and can kill time in this way, though not very skilful in either." 36 How much fishing and shooting he did after his return to Virginia does not appear, but he did spend some time riding and driving. His sister-in-law, Betsy Coles, wrote to her niece, Mrs. Marion Deveaux: I never saw Mr. Stevenson look better—his present hobby is a fine Horse he has just purchased; it suits him exactly, in being a very easy riding, and a most exso AS to Jonas Webb, Jan. 20, 1842, ibid.; AS to Richard M. Deveaux, May S, 1842, Singleton Family MSS, LC. 31 SCS Letters, p. 453. 32 AS to JWS, Jan. 7, 1843, Stevenson MSS, XXVI, LC. 33 AS to JBu, Dec. 26, 1845, Buchanan MSS, HSPa. 3 « SCS to Mrs. Deveaux, Aug. 17 [1841^71, Singleton Family MSS, L C 33 AS to JCC, March 9, 1846, Cabell MSS^ UVa. s« AS to Wickham, Jan. 26, 1841, StLbk, LC.

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cellent Buggy Horse. I believe it has tempted him to leave his wife; for the first time since her illness, he went this morning to Hanover Court, and will go from there to his Plantation [Woodbury, on the Pamunkey]. 3 7

He probably found his chief recreation in horses. On September 10, 1846, at Hot Springs in Bath County, where he was vacationing, a "dark brown riding mare," five years old and the property of Michael McElwee, caught his fancy. He bought her for forty dollars, "paid in hand." 38 Not very far from the same locality in the western mountains, a four-year-old horse, Robert E. Lee's famous "Traveler," was purchased just fifteen years later. In late January 1846 Professor Jared Sparks of Harvard University, author of the monumental Life and Writings of George Washington, wrote Stevenson requesting his aid in securing permission of the Virginia state authorities to have an eminent Italian artist then in Boston, take a mold, at the expense of several interested Bostonians, from Houdon's famous statue of Washington in the capítol at Richmond for the purpose of having casts made from it. Sparks wrote: You are aware that the statue of Washington in Richmond is the only genuine representation of the Father of his Country which has been produced by the genius and chisel of a sculptor. All the others, however admirable as specimens of art, are in many parts the result of the artist's imagination. And yet this statue, so honorable to Virginia, exists alone without a copy, or the means of obtaining one; and if by any accident it should be destroyed, or essentially injured, the invaluable resemblance will be lost forever. 3 9

Stevenson requested of the lieutenant governor the permission that Sparks desired, 40 and on February 3 secured such permission through William H. Richardson, secretary of the commonwealth. 41 He at once informed Sparks of the success of his application. 42 An interesting case in Virginia legal history was that of The Commonwealth v. Thomas Ritchie, Jr. in 1846. It resulted from the mortal wounding and death of John Hampden Pleasants, editor of the Richmond Whig, by Ritchie, junior editor of the Richmond Enquirer and son of the renowned Thomas Ritchie, in a duel fought on the south bank of the James River in Chesterfield County on February 25, 1846. T h e duel resulted from a controversy between the Whig and the Enquirer, antagonistic journals, and specifically from an article in the Enquirer accusing Pleasants of abolitionist propensities. T h e duel had been irregular, since Pleasants, the challenger, had designated the time, the place, and the weapons. Im37 B. Coles to Mrs. Deveaux, March 26, 1844, Singleton Family MSS, LC. » Certificate of McElwee, Sept. 10, 1846, Stevenson MSS, X X V I , LC. S9Sparks to AS, Jan. 23, 1846, CVaSP, X I , 14-15. 40 AS to the lieutenant governor of Virginia, Feb. 2, 1846, ibid., p. 14. 41 Richardson to AS, Feb. 3, 1846, ExLbk No. 25, p. 97, VaSL. emarle Co. Records. «» ColesF, pp. 711-13. •i» Thomas Anburey, Travels through the Interior Parts of America, II, 213-M. «o AS to William Selden, Oct. 16, 1816, Selden MSS, VaHS. Hayden, op. cit., p. 401. 62 ColesF, pp. 663, 713; VaM, VII, 102 (July 1899).

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Enniscorthy, Mrs. Stevenson's old home, is only a few miles away to the southwest, on the low wooded summit of Green Mountain. On December 28, 1846, a month and a half after his purchase of Blenheim, Stevenson sold his Woodbury estate of 860 acres, lying on the Pamunkey River in Hanover County, three miles below the courthouse and eighteen miles from Richmond. At the same time and place he sold "between 50 and 60 valuable Slaves, consisting of men, women, and children, with such kinds of stock" as he did not wish to remove, "and the crops of corn, fodder, etc." On the same date he leased to a tenant for a term of years his Crump's Neck estate, containing between 600 and 700 acres, lying on the river adjoining Woodbury. 53 Blenheim was in a state of near dilapidation. T h e old mansion house had burned. T h e outbuildings needed repair. Stevenson planned to fit up servants' quarters and other outhouses for a residence, with the expectation of building on the old site. T o a friend Mrs. Stevenson wrote: . . . I tell my husband, I am sure he is glad the fine down, as it gives him an opportunity of exercising his taste never seen my husband so interested and engrossed by making him a happier and a better man, and sincerely do so. . .

old mansion is burned in building. . . . I have any thing, he says it is I rejoice to see that it is

In the reconstruction at Blenheim, however, Stevenson encountered annoying difficulties. His wife wrote in April 1847: ". . . he is quite discouraged, no workmen he can confide in, and they get on so slowly. . . . he says he can't afford to give high wages. . . . he fears he will not get into the house for 12 months at the rate they are going on." 55 T h a t autumn, upon his return from a month at the springs, Stevenson was "much vexed, and perplexed, by his workmen's doing nothing, or worse than nothing," during his absence. " T h e consequence of this," Mrs. Stevenson wrote to Dolly Madison, "will be to prevent our permanent residence at Blenheim for probably 12 months. Fortunately Mr. Stevenson's lease for his house at Richmond will not expire until the 1st of May [1848], and we shall return to the lower country for the winter. This is inconvenient as we shall be partly in the Country, and partly in town. . . ." 5a Sarah Coles Stevenson died at " T h e Retreat," January 3, 1848, at the age of fifty-eight. Funeral services were held the next day from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond. She was buried in the Coles family cemetery at Enniscorthy. 57 There, on a table tomb of marble, her husband had inscribed the following: " RE, "SCS 65 SCS 5«SCS « RE,

Nov. 17, 1846. to William Selcien, Jan. 22, 1847, Selden MSS, VaHS. to Mrs. Marion Deveaux, April 25, 1847, Singleton Family MSS, LC. to DMad, Sept. I I , 1847, D. P. Madison MSS, VII, LC. Jan. 4, 1848; ColesF, p. 123.

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ANDREW STEVENSON Few women possessed in a more eminent degree all the admirable and christian virtues. As a daughter, she was unremitting in her duties, as a wife and mother, tender and devoted, as a sister, most affectionate, as a mistress, just and kind. Blessed with rare intellectual endowments, she possessed all the elements of moral grace and dignity. Peculiarly captivating in her manners, she imparted pleasure and instruction to all around her. Inspired by the truths of Christianity, and the hope of immortality, her life was beautifully illustrated by devoted piety and expanded benevolence. Meek, gentle, frank, artless, and confiding, she seemed to have been created to be loved. Her only child was torn from her in early life, by an agonizing casuality. For many years, she endured great bodily afflictions. But, these trials added fresh vigor to her faith, and moral sublimity to her character. T o the latest period of her life, amidst all her sufferings, she exerted herself by precept and example, to work a reform in the sphere in which she moved, and became the instrument of diffusive good.

Stevenson was disconsolate. Sarah Coles had been his wife for thirtyone years. Betsy Coles, his sister-in-law, wrote to a niece in South Carolina: Mr. Stevenson still continues inconsolable. We have been here [Richmond] a fortnight day after tomorrow, and as yet, he has been unable to do anything towards breaking up his Establishment [ " T h e Retreat"]. He puts it off, from day to day, but he has left us this morning for the Retreat, with a determination to go to work. 58 T h e r e is abundant evidence of the high esteem in which Mrs. Stevenson was held in many places. " I t touches m e , " wrote Betsy Coles, " t o see how highly she was estimated. Letters come from the North, the South, the East, and the West. Newspapers are constantly sent to us, which speak of her, as a bright example to the Christian W o r l d ! " 5 9 Stevenson finally removed to Blenheim in the spring of 1848. T h e r e he continued to direct the improvements he was having made. H e developed a residence from several rather small structures and erected a well-appointed library building on or near the site of the former mansion house. H e embellished his estate with gardens of English box and other shrubbery, and engaged in agricultural activities. During the last twelve years of his life Stevenson rendered his most important public services in the field of education. During the 1840's con58 B. Coles to Mrs. Marion Deveaux, March 20, 1848, Singleton Family MSS, LC. Ibid.

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siderable agitation developed in Virginia for the establishment of free public schools. Educational conventions assembled to discuss the problem. Such a convention met in the capitol in Richmond, December 10-12, 1845. Samuel M. Janney of Loudoun County, Thomas J . Randolph of Albemarle, William M. Burwell of Bedford, Andrew Stevenson and W. S. Plumer of Richmond City, and others attended. Governor James McDowell presided. A committee on colleges, one on military and normal schools, and another on primary schools prepared and submitted reports. T h e convention adopted a report on primary schools that recommended the district school system as embraced in the report of the president and directors of the Literary Fund to the General Assembly in 1841. Upon a motion by Stevenson, Governor McDowell appointed a committee, composed of Stevenson, chairman, Janney, Plumer, and four others, to present to the legislature a memorial requesting the enactment of a law that would carry into effect the objects of the convention for the establishment of schools commensurate with the wants of the people. 60 In response to the memorial the General Assembly on March 5, 1846, passed an act to establish a district system of free public schools in those counties in which two thirds of the voters should indicate approval, the schools to be supported by apportionments from the Literary Fund and by local taxation. 81 Only nine counties, however, at the time availed themselves of the provisions of this act. 62 In the spring of 1845 Stevenson was appointed to the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, in the place of Samuel Taylor, resigned. 63 He had maintained a deep interest in that institution, from which his son had graduated, ever since its incorporation in 1819. He served as a visitor from April 1845 until his death in January 1857, and during the last eight months of his life was rector. During his twelve years of service on the board he was associated with Virginians prominent in state and national affairs: Chapman Johnson, William C. Rives, Jospeh C. Cabell, John H. Cocke, Thomas J . Randolph, James M. Mason, R . M. T . Hunter, John Y. Mason, Thomas L. Preston, William J . Robertson, James L. Carr, Andrew McDonald, Robert A. Thompson, Harrison B. Tomlin, F. B. Miller, John R . Edmunds, William T . Joynes, John Randolph Tucker, and others. 84 Riding or driving the nine miles to the University from Blenheim, Stevenson passed on his left Ashlawn, the home of Monroe; a mile farther he crossed through the gap, with Carter's Mountain on the left and Monticello, Jefferson's home, on the right. •o RE, Dec. 9, 12, 16, 1845. «i VaActs, 1845-46, pp. 32-36. «2 Bruce el al., History of Virginia, II, 477. «3 VisM, Book III, p. 107, UVa. ««Ibid., I l l , IV, passim.

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Stevenson began his service on the university board at a crucial time. The spring of 1845 witnessed repeated and violent student riots. The situation became so serious that Rector Chapman Johnson called the board of visitors into special session on April 23-24. Stevenson attended for the first time and participated in the deliberations. 85 Of the 194 students enrolled, some had been expelled; others, a majority, had withdrawn voluntarily in indignation at the faculty's summoning the militia to restore order. Much of the disorder on the campus resulted from the failure of parents and guardians to require their sons and wards, no longer students, to leave Charlottesville. Many delinquents remained in the town for several weeks and instigated riots and offensive demonstrations against the faculty and other university authorities. 88 The spirit of lawlessness among the students finally subsided, more cordial relations between them and the faculty developed, and within the next decade the enrollment showed a remarkable increase. The growth in attendance was due to prosperity in the states of the South (the region providing most of the students), the prestige and influence of graduates, and the extension of railway facilities to Charlottesville. In the spring of 1845 the student enrollment was 194. For the session of 1855-56 it was 558, and the next year, when Stevenson was rector, the number was 645, the largest for any session prior to the Civil War. In 1855-56 the enrollment at Yale was 619, at Harvard, 669. T h e next year, when Virginia had 645 students, Harvard had 697.67 During the period when Stevenson .was a visitor, the number of faculty members of the University increased from nine to sixteen, exclusive of the proctor, bursar, librarian, and others.68 Stevenson exerted his influence effectively in this direction. On June 29, 1855, he presented a resolution, which the board of visitors unanimously adopted, instructing the rector to petition the legislature to remove the restriction on the number of professors in the University.89 The General Assembly complied in March of the following year.70 Among the new professors of the period 1845-57 were several who became distinguished in their respective fields, notably William H. McGuffey, professor of moral philosophy, John B. Minor, professor of law, and Basil L. Gildersleeve, professor of Greek and Hebrew. On May 26, 1856, the day Stevenson became rector, the board of visitors voted to establish in the school of ancient languages, in place of the single «5 Ibid., I l l , 107. 0« P. A. Bruce, History of the University of Virginia, III, 111-28. 07 Ibid., pp. 3-4; Clifford K. Shipton (Harvard College Library) to the author, Jan. 13, 1941. 88 John Cook Wyllie (University of Virginia Library) to the author, Dec. 11, 1940. «» VisM, III, 350. to Bruce, Hist. 11. Va., Ill, 33.

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professorship, two chairs, one in Latin and one in Greek and Hebrew. O n the same day the visitors provided for a chair in history and literature, in which the first incumbent was George F. Holmes, who entered upon his duties in 1857.71 O n J u n e 29, 1855, Stevenson presented to the board a resolution that favored the establishment of a professorship of agriculture, 72 which Jefferson had advocated, but even though a majority of the visitors approved the addition, it was not made, because of opposition in the faculty and other reasons. 73 As early as 1846 Stevenson urged the creation of the office of president for the University. T o Joseph C. Cabell, the rector, he wrote: . . . we must do something too about the Presidency. We can't get along without one. The more I have reflected on the subject, the more thoroughly I am convinced of its importance. T h e experiment should be made, the sooner the better. . . .7