Charles F. Mercer
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Charles Fenton Mercer (June 16, 1778 – May 4, 1858) was a Virginia lawyer and politician. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates, as well as the U.S. House of Representatives. He served as an officer in the War of 1812.
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[edit] Family and early life
Mercer was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia and was a cousin of Robert Selden Garnett. He was graduated from Princeton College in 1797. Mercer took a postgraduate course in the same college and received his degree in 1800. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1802 and commenced practice in Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia.
[edit] Political and military career
Mercer was elected as a delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates for the terms 1810-1817. During the War of 1812, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of a Virginia regiment and then major in command at Norfolk, Virginia. He was made an inspector general in 1814, and aide-de-camp to Governor Barbour and brigadier general in command of the Second Virginia Brigade.
He was elected as a Federalist to the Fifteenth through the Seventeenth Congresses. He was reelected to the Eighteenth Congress as a Crawford Republican, and then to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses as an Adams. He was reelected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-First through the Twenty-fourth Congresses, and then as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth through Twenty-sixth Congresses and served from March 4, 1817, to December 26, 1839, when he resigned. He served as chairman, Committee on Roads and Canals (Twenty-second through Twenty-fifth Congresses) and was one of the originators of the plan for establishing the Free State of Liberia. Mercer was elected as a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1829.
He was the projector and first president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company from 1828 to 1833. He was vice president of the Virginia Colonization Society in 1836 and vice president of the National Society of Agriculture in 1842.
[edit] Death
Mercer died in Howard, near Alexandria, Virginia, May 4, 1858, and was buried in Union Cemetery, Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia.
[edit] References
| Preceded by: John Kerr |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 15th congressional district 1817 |
Succeeded by: ? |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mercer, Charles F. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Virginia lawyer and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 16, 1778 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fredericksburg, Virginia |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 4, 1858 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Howard, near Alexandria, Virginia |
