Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/351

Rh HUNTER, Peter, British soldier, b. in Scotland in 1746 ; d. in Quebec, 21 Aug., 1805. He entered the army, and had attained the rank of lieutenant- general," when he was appointed in 1799 to admin- ister the government of Upper Canada, succeeding Lord Simcoe, and made commander-in-chief of the forces in Canada. He was eminently successful in his administration, and to his policy Canada is indebted for many benefits that probably it would otherwise never have known. His brother John (not the celebrated anatomist) erected a monument to him in the English cathedral of Quebec.

HUNTER, Robert, colonial governor, d. in Jamaica, 11 March, 1734. He entered the British army, and rose to the rank of major-general. He was appointed governor of Virginia in 1707, but while on the voyage was captured by a French privateer, and retained a captive till the end of 1709. In June, 1710, he became governor of New York and the Jerseys, at the head of 2,000 Pala- tine colonists. He was one of the ablest of the series of royal governors, but had frequent dis- putes with the assembly, which almost invariably refused to grant the required appropriations. He retired from the governorship of New York in 1719, and was appointed governor of Jamaica in July, 1727, which office he held till his death. He was the author of the famous letter on " Enthu- siasm," which was attributed by some to Swift and by others to Shaftesbury, and was also the reputed author of a farce called " Androboros."

HUNTER, Robert Mercer Taliaferro, statesman, b. in Essex county, Va., 21 April, 1809; d. there, 18 July, 1887. He was educated at the Uni- versity of Virginia, studied at the Winchester, Va., law-school, and be- gan practice in 1830. After serving in the Virginia legislature in 1833, he was elect- ed to congress as a Democrat in 1836 and 1838, and in 1839 chosen speaker of the house of representa- tives. He was de- feated in 1842, re- elected in 1844. and in 1846 was chosen U. S. senator, taking his seat in December, 1847. Meanwhile he hore a conspicuous part in the political discussions of the day. He favored the annexation of Texas and the compromise of the Oregon ques- tion, took an active part in favor of the retrocession of the city of Alexandria by the general govern- ment to Virginia, supported the tariff bill of 1846, originated the warehouse svstem, and opposed the Wilmot proviso. From 1847 till 1861 he was U. S. senator. He voted for the extension of the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific ocean, opposed the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Co- lumbia or any interference with that institution in the states and territories, opposed the admission of California, and supported the fugitive-slave law. As chairman of the finance committee, he made an elaborate report on the gold and silver coinage of the country, and proposed the reduction of the value of the silver coins of fifty cents and less, by which shipment to foreign countries was assisted. In the presidential canvass of 1852 he delivered an address in Richmond, Va., urging the sound- ness of the state-rights policy. He advocated the bill of 1855, forbidding the use of the army to en- force the acts of the pro-slavery Kansas legislature, and the repeal of the Missouri pro-slavery law, which declared the death penalty for nearly fifty slavery offences. Mr. Hunter framed the tariff act of 1857, by which the duties were considerably lowered, and the revenue reduced. In the session of 1857-8 he advocated the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution with slavery. In 1860 he was a candidate for the Democratic nom- ination for president, receiving upon several ballots in the Charleston convention the next highest vote to that for Stephen A. Douglas, and in January of this year made an elaborate speech in the senate in favor of slavery and the right of the slave-holder to carry his slaves into the territories. He took an active part in the secession movement, and in July, 1861, was formally expelled from the senate. He was a member of the provisional Confederate congress, and according to the original scheme he was to have been president of the new government, with Jefferson Davis as commander-in-chief of the army. He was for a short time Confederate secre- tary of state, and afterward was elected to the senate, in opposition to the administration of Mr. Davis. In February, 1865, he was one of the peace commission- ers that met President Lincoln and William H. Sew- ard upon a vessel in Hampden Roads. The confer- ence was futile, as Mr. Lincoln refused to recognize the independence of the Confederacy. Hunter then presided over a war meeting in Richmond, at which resolutions were passed that the Confederates would never lay down their arms till they should have achieved their independence. When a bill came before the Confederate congress, shortly afterward, freeing such negroes as should serve in the Confederate army, Mr. Hunter at first opposed it, but, having been instructed by the Virginia legislature to vote in its favor, did so, accompany- ing his vote with an emphatic protest. At the ciose of the war he was arrested, but was released on parole, and in 1867 was pardoned by President Johnson. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U. S. senator in 1874, became treasurer of Virginia in 1877, and in 1880 retired to the farm in Essex county, Va. A few months previous to his death he was appointed collector at Tappannock, Va.

HUNTER, William, statesman, b. in Newport, R. I., 26 Nov., 1774: d. there. 3 Dec, 1849. His father, Dr. William Hunter, a physician of Scottish birth, gave in Newport in 1754-'6 the first lectures on anatomy that were delivered in New England, and probably in the United States. The son studied medicine with his kinsman. John Hunter, in Eng- land, but, abandoning it for law. read in the Tem- ple, and on his return to the United States in 1795 was admitted to the bar in Newport, R. I. From 1799 till 1811 he was a member of the legislature, and in the latter year was elected U. S. senator to fill out the term of Christopher G. Champlin. He was re-elected, and served till 1821 with success as a statesman and orator, his speeches on the acqui- sition of Florida and the Missouri compromise giving him a wide reputation. Resuming his pro- fession at Newport, he practised till 1834. when he was commissioned charge d'affaires in Brazil, be- coming minister plenipotentiary in 1841, and serv- ing till 1843. Returning to Newport at the con- clusion of his service, he resided there till his death. — His son, William, diplomatist, b. in New- port, R. I., 8 Nov., 1805 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 22 July, 1886. entered the U. S. military academy, but left it in two years on account of trouble with his eyes. He then studied law, and practised in
 * New Orleans, La., and Providence, R. I., till 1829.