-UNDER THE CONFEDERACY
DEPARTMENT OFFICERS.
Hunter, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, sec-
ond secretary of state (July, i86i-March,
1862), born at Hunter's Hill, Essex county,
Virginia, April 21, 1809, son of James and
Maria (Garnett) Hunter, grandson of Wil-
liam and Sarah (Garnett) Hunter, and of
Muscoe and Grace Fenton (Mercer) Gar-
nett, and a direct descendant of James Hun-
ter who immigrated from Scotland and set-
tled in or near Fredericksburg, Virginia. He
was graduated at the University of Vir-
ginia in 1829, and at the Winchester Law
School in 1830. He practiced law in Essex
county, and was a representative in the state
legislature, 1834-36. He represented his dis-
trict in the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twen-
ty-seventh and twenty-ninth congresses,
1837-43 and 1845-47, and served as speaker
of the house in the twenty-sixth congress,
when only thirty years of age. He was
chosen United States senator in 1846 as
successor to \\". S. Archer ; took his seat,
December 6, 1847, and was re-elected in
1852 and again in 1858. In the senate he
advocated the annexation of Texas, the
compromise of the Oregon question, the
tariff bill of 1846, and opposed the Wilmot
proviso. He advocated the retrocession to
Virginia of the portion of the District of
Columbia west of the Potomac river, and
voted to extend the line established by the
Missouri compromise to the Pacific ocean.
He opposed the admission of California and
the abolition of slavery in the District oi
Columbia. He became chairman of the
finance committee in 1850, held that position
until 1861. and framed the tariff act oi 1857
which lowered duties. In 1857-58 he ad-
vocated the admission of Kansas under ihe
Lecompton constitution. In the Democratic
national convention of i860 at Charleston
he was a candidate for the nomination for
president, and received next to Stephen A.
Douglas, the largest number of votes on the
first six ballots. He took an active part in
the campaign of 1856, speaking through the
north and foretelling the dissolution of the
Union if the rights of the southern states
were abrogated in the territories. On the
secession of Virginia in 1861, he left the
United States senate, and became a member
of the provisional Confederate congress at
Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Davis made
hun secretary of state, on the resignation of
Secretary Robert Toombs. Mr. Hunter re-
signed this position when unanimously
elected to the Confederate States senate by
the legislature of Virginia and he was made
president pro tempore of the senate. In
February. 1865, with Alexander H. Ste-
phens and John A. Campbell he was a peace
commissioner and met Mr. Lincoln and Sec-
retarv Seward on board the River Queen in
•The Provisional Congress of tlie Confederate
States met at Montgomery, Alabama. February 4,
ISSl. and adjourned permanently. February 17. 1S62,
having held five sessions. The first regular Con-
gress under the Confederate Constitution, met at
Richmond. Virginia. February 18. 1S62. and contin-
ued till February 17, 1864. The Second Congress
met in Richmond, May 2, 1864, and adjourned March
IS. 1865.
