HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, American statesman: b. Essex County, Va., 21 April 1809; d. 18 July 1887. He was graduated at the University of Virginia, and, choosing the law for his profession, commenced practice in 1830. He soon began to take an active part in politics, and at 24 was elected to the house of delegates, where he remained until 1837, when. he was elected to Congress. In the discussions growing out of the commercial convulsion of that year, he at once took his stand on the side of the administration in favor of the inde pendent treasury bill, and in his first speech de veloped those principles of free trade to which he consistently adhered throughout his public career. In the succeeding Congress he was elected to the speakership; and at the close of his term of service, the usual vote of thanks was passed without a dissenting voice, in a House of Representatives strongly marked by partisan bitterness. At the election in the spring of 1843 for members of the 28th Congress, Hunter was defeated by a small majority, mainly on account of his adherence to that clause of the independent treasury scheme re quiring all dues to the government to be paid in species. At the next Congressional election in
1845, he was successful. In 1846 Hunter, in common with other southern representatives, re sisted the application of the Wilmot Proviso. He voted for all the measures necessary to prosecute the war to a just and honorable con clusion, but altogether opposed the project, favored by some, of incorporating the whole of the Mexican states into our political system. He represented Virginia in the Senate, 1847-61. He was active in framing the Tariff Act of 1857, and after leaving the Senate became the Con federate Secretary of State. At a later period he was a Confederate senator, and in 1865 com missioner of peace. He became treasurer of Virginia in 1877, and retired from public life in 1880. Consult the memoir by M. T. Hunter (1903).