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Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (April 21, 1809 – July 18, 1887) was an American lawyer and politician from Virginia. He was a U.S. Representative (1837-1843, 1845-1847), Speaker of the House (1839-1841), and U.S. Senator (1847-1861). During the American Civil War he was Confederate States Secretary of State (1861-1862) and then a Confederate Senator (1862-1865). After the war, he served as Treasurer of Virginia (1874-80), and customs collector in 1885 until his death. ==Life and career== Hunter was born in Loretto, Essex County, Virginia, the son of James Hunter and Maria (Garnett) Hunter.〔http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/a/g/Rick--Waggener/GENE3-0020.html〕 He was a maternal first cousin of both Robert S. Garnett and Richard B. Garnett. He entered the University of Virginia in his seventeenth year and was one of its first graduates.〔University of Virginia. ''A Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the University of Virginia. Second Session, Commencing February 1, 1826''. Charlottesville, VA: Chronicle Steam Book Printing House, 1880, p. 10.〕 While he was a student, he became a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society. He then studied law at the Winchester Law School, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar. From 1835 to 1837 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1837, Hunter was elected U.S. Representative as a States Rights Whig. He was re-elected in 1839, and became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives - the youngest person ever to hold that office. He was re-elected again in 1841, but was not chosen Speaker. In 1843 he was defeated for re-election. He then changed parties, becoming a Democrat. In 1845, he was again elected Representative, and in 1846 was elected U.S. Senator, taking office in 1847. He was re-elected in 1852 and 1858. In the Senate, he became chairman of the Committee on Finance in 1850. He is credited with bringing about a reduction of the quantity of silver in the smaller coins. He was the author of the Tariff of 1857 and of the bonded-warehouse system, and was one of the first to advocate civil service reform. In 1853 he declined President Millard Fillmore's offer to make him Secretary of State. At the first session of 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, Hunter was a contender for the presidential nomination, but received little support except from the Virginia delegation. On seven of the first eight ballots, he was a very distant second to the leader, Stephen A. Douglas, and was third on the remaining 42 ballots. When the convention reconvened in Baltimore, most Southerners withdrew, including Hunter, and the nomination went to Douglas. Hunter did not regard Lincoln's election as being of itself a sufficient cause for secession. On January 11, 1861, he proposed an elaborate but impracticable scheme for the adjustment of differences between the North and the South. When this and several other efforts to the same end had failed, he quietly urged his own state to pass the ordinance of secession. He was expelled from the Senate for supporting secession. In July 1862, Hunter was appointed Confederate States Secretary of State. He resigned on February 18, 1862, having been elected a Confederate Senator. He served in the Confederate Senate until the end of the war, and was at times President ''pro tem''. As a Confederate Senator, he was often a caustic critic of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Despite this friction, he was appointed by Davis as one of three commissioners sent to attempt peace negotiations in 1865, and met with President Lincoln at the Hampton Roads Conference. After Lee's surrender, Hunter was summoned by President Lincoln to confer regarding the restoration of Virginia. From 1874 to 1880 he was the treasurer of Virginia, and from 1885 until his death was collector of the Port of Tappahannock, Virginia. He died near Lloyds, Virginia, in 1887. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert M. T. Hunter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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