Littleton Tazewell | |
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| 26thGovernor of Virginia | |
| In office March 31, 1834 – April 30, 1836 | |
| Preceded by | John Floyd |
| Succeeded by | Wyndham Robertson (acting) |
| President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
| In office July 9, 1832 – July 16, 1832 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel Smith |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Lawson White |
| United States Senator fromVirginia | |
| In office December 7, 1824 – July 16, 1832 | |
| Preceded by | John Taylor |
| Succeeded by | William Rives |
| Member of theVirginia House of Delegates | |
| In office 1816–1817 Serving with William Barrett,Archer Hankins | |
| Preceded by | Miles King |
| Succeeded by | George Loyall |
| In office 1809–1812 | |
| Preceded by | William Lightfoot |
| Succeeded by | William Barrett |
| In office 1798–1800 Serving with John Allen,William Lightfoot | |
| Preceded by | John Pierce |
| Succeeded by | Champion Travis |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's13th district | |
| In office November 26, 1800 – March 3, 1801 | |
| Preceded by | John Marshall |
| Succeeded by | John Clopton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1774-12-17)December 17, 1774 Williamsburg, Virginia, British America |
| Died | May 6, 1860(1860-05-06) (aged 85) Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Anti-Administration (Before 1792) Democratic-Republican (1792–1825) Jacksonian (1825–1828) Democratic (1828–1860) |
| Spouse | Anne Stratton |
| Children | 8 |
| Education | College of William & Mary (BA) |
Littleton Waller Tazewell (December 17, 1774 – May 6, 1860) was a Virginia lawyer, plantation owner, and politician who served asU.S. Representative,U.S. Senator and the26th Governor of Virginia, as well as a member of theVirginia House of Delegates.[1]
Tazewell, son ofHenry Tazewell and his wife Dorothy Elizabeth Waller, was born inWilliamsburg in theColony of Virginia shortly before Christmas, 1774. His father was a clerk of the revolutionary conventions during the next two years. Although his mother died when he was a child, his maternal grandfather, lawyerBenjamin Waller, taught him Latin.[2] Tazewell was privately tutored byJohn Wickham; he later graduated from theCollege of William & Mary at Williamsburg in 1791. He married Ann Stratton Nivison Tazewell, and they had at least six daughters and two sons, although only four daughters would survive their mother.
After studying law, Tazewell was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1796 and commenced practice inJames City County, Virginia. He was a member of theVirginia House of Delegates (a part-time position) representing James City County from 1798 to 1800, when he resigned to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation ofJohn Marshall in theSixth United States Congress, serving in the federal legislature from November 26, 1800, to March 4, 1801.[3] Politically, Tazewell was aJeffersonian Republican, and upon the fissure of that party he associated with theJacksonian Democrats.
Tazewell moved toNorfolk, Virginia in 1802. He represented Norfolk Borough in the General Assemblies of 1804–1805 and 1805–1806 but was replaced by William Newsum, Jr. in the Assembly of 1806-1806.[4] Nonetheless, on July 5, 1807, he defused the impressment crisis involving the BritishHMS Leopard in Norfolk harbor and theUSS Chesapeake and Norfolk mayorRichard E. Lee.[5] Tazewell again represented James City County in the House of Delegates from 1809 until 1812.[6] Norfolk voters elected him to represent the Borough again in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1816 to 1817. After theWar of 1812, Tazewell, General Taylor, George Newton, and others also formed the Roanoke Commercial Company, designed to expand traffic through theDismal Swamp Canal and allow goods from as far away as mountainousBedford County to ship through Norfolk.[7] Tazewell also served as one of the commissioners of claims under the treaty withSpain, which cededFlorida in 1821.
Virginia legislators elected Tazewell in 1824 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death ofJohn Taylor. Re-elected in 1829, he served from December 7, 1824, to July 16, 1832, when he resigned to become Virginia's governor, as discussed below. While in the Senate, Tazewell wasPresident pro tempore of the Senate during theTwenty-second United States Congress and chairman of theSenate Committee on Foreign Relations. His principal published work isReview of the Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain Respecting the Commerce of the Two Countries (1829).[8]
Tazewell served as Norfolk's delegate to theVirginia Constitutional Convention in 1829–1830.[9][10]
When the Whigs secured majorities in the Virginia Assembly for six years, they first elected the Old Republican as a Whig governor 1834–36. However, he resigned a year before his term ended.[11] During his two years as governor, Tazewell had to address abolitionism. However,Nat Turner's revolt had occurred in 1831 while Tazewell was home from Washington (and caused him to neglect his plantations). He became an advocate of wholesale colonization and, as Governor, asked Virginia's legislature to formally request that Northern states suppress abolitionist groups and also asked Congress to suppress delivery of such literature through the U.S. Post Office.[12] Tazewell's governorship was also marked by an expansion of theJames River Canal, which was to connect to the Kanawha Canal and thus theOhio River. Under his leadership, the Assembly instructed Virginia's U.S. Senators to support internal improvements, protective tariffs, and a national bank supporting Henry Clay's American System.[13]
Following his term as governor, Tazewell retired from public life but received 11 electoral votes for vice-president in theelection of 1840.[14][15][better source needed]
Tazewell owned plantations and enslaved persons in the Hampton Roads area. In the 1830 U.S. Federal Census, his Norfolk household included nine free white people (5 his children) and a dozen enslaved people.[16] Although Virginia state slave censuses are not available online, and several federal census returns appear either missing or digitally misindexed, by 1860, his household included nine enslaved people (3 men, 5 women, and one 2-year-old boy) in Norfolk, and over 100 enslaved people across the Chesapeake Bay inNorthampton County, Virginia (inherited through his wife).[17][18]
Governor Tazewell died a widower inNorfolk, Virginia, on May 6, 1860. Initially interred with his wife on his estate on theEastern Shore of Virginia, he was re-interred in 1866 atElmwood Cemetery in Norfolk.
Tazewell, Virginia,Tazewell County, Virginia andTazewell County, Illinois are named in his honor and his father's honor, as are the cities ofTazewell andNew Tazewell, Tennessee. A plaque remembering him stands at the corner of Tazewell and Granby streets in Norfolk, near the Tazewell Hotel and Suites, where his two-story house was located. His house, known as theBoush-Tazewell House, was completely dismantled and re-erected in its present location about three miles from its original site around 1902.[19] It was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1974.[20]
Tazewell was the maternal grandfather ofLittleton Waller Tazewell Bradford, a prominent Virginia politician and a founder ofPi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
A building at the College of William and Mary is named in Tazewell's honor.[21]
One of the 23 Virginia electors, and all of South Carolina's 11 electors, voted for Van Buren but defected to James K. Polk and Littleton W. Tazewell of Virginia, respectively, in the vice-presidential contest.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 13th congressional district 1800–1801 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Virginia 1824–1832 Served alongside:James Barbour,John Randolph,John Tyler | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Foreign Relations Committee 1828–1832 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President pro tempore of the United States Senate 1832 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Virginia 1834–1836 | Succeeded by Wyndham Robertson Acting |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democraticnominee forVice President of the United States(1) 1840 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Oldest living U.S. senator 1857–1860 | Succeeded by |
| Notes and references | ||
| 1. There was no formalDemocratic nominee. The Electoral College gave most votes to incumbent Vice PresidentRichard Johnson, and others voted for Tazewell andJames K. Polk. | ||
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