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598 ment, but soon resigned and went into the field as brigadier-general. He declined re-election as senator in 1862, and remained in the provisional Confederate army until after the battle of Sharpsburg, in which he did signal service. In 1864 he was adjutant and inspector-general of a division of Georgia militia. After the surrender he exiled himself from the country and passed two years in Cuba, France and England, but returned in 1867. The closing years of his life were spent in advocacy of State political against the railroads. He died December 15, 1885.

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, second secretary of state, was born in Essex county, Virginia, April 21, 1809. He studied in the university of Virginia and then engaged in law practice in his native county. He sat in the Virginia house of delegates elected in 1834, and in 1837 entered the national house of representatives, in which he obtained such influence that upon his re-election by his district he was chosen speaker. Here began his close friendship and political alliance with John C. Calhoun. He was defeated in 1842, re-elected in 1844, and in 1846 was elected United States senator. In the discussion and settlement of the great political questions of that period he bore a prominent part. He favored the annexation of Texas; supported the tariff bill of 1846; opposed the Wilmot proviso; supported the fugitive slave law; opposed the various measures hostile to slavery; and advocated the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. As chairman of the finance committee he made a famous report on coinage, favoring a debasement of subsidiary silver, and he framed the tariff of 1857, since known by his name, decreasing duties and revenues. In 1860, in the Charleston convention, he received upon several ballots the vote next highest to that of Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidential nomination. January n, 1861, he made a last appeal in Congress