Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/135

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

He was elected to the United States senate to fill vacancy caused by resignation of Littleton W. Tazewell, and served from January 4. 1833, until February 22, 1834, when he resigned, having refused to follow the instructions of the \'irginia legislature to vote to censure President Jackson for re- moving government deposits from the Bank of the United States. He was reelected to the United States senate in place of John Tyler, resigned February 29. 1836. and was returned 1840-45. He joined the Whigs in 1840. but did not approve of the course of Mr. Clay in bringing forward the bank bills in 1 841. He was appointed United States minister to France by President Fillmore, serving 1849-53. and in the latter year retired tv private life at his residence. "Castle Hill,'' Albemarle county. He was one of the five commissioners sent from Virginia to the peace congress at Washington. D. C, in February. 1861, and elected chairman of the \'irginia delegates chosen at Richmond, April 17, 1861, to represent Virginia in the provisional congress at Montgomery, Ala- bama, April 29, 1861. He represented his district in the second Confederate congress, February 22, 1864, to February 22. 1865. He was made president of the Virginia His- torical Society, 1847, ^^^d received the de- gree of Doctor of Laws from the College of William and Mary. He was the author of: *The Life and Character of John Hamp- den" (1845) ; **Ethics of Christianity" (1855); "The Life and Times of James Madison (3 vols., 1859-69). He died at "Castle Hill," Virginia, April 25, 1868.

Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, son of Rev. William Leigh and Martha Watkins, his wife* was born in Chesterfield county. Vir- ginia, June 18. 1781. He graduated at the

College of William and Mary in 1802, stud- ied law, and carried on a successful practice at Petersburg, \'irginia. until 1S13. when he removed to Richmond. He was elected from Petersburg to the \'irginia legisla- ture, where in 181 1 he presented resolutions asserting the right of the legislature to in- struct United States senators elected by it. He was a member of the commission which revised the statutes 6i the state, and in 1822 served as a commissioner to Kentucky, con- ferring with Henry Clay in regard to an im- portant land law, known as the "occupying claimants" law, threatening to annul the title which \'irginia held upon certain lands lying within the state of Kentucky; but a Stitisfactory agreement was finally reached by these two representatives. From 1829 to 1841 he served as reporter of the \'ir- ginia court of appeals, and was prominent in the state constitutional convention of 1S29-30. He was first a Democrat and after- wards a Whig, and March 5, 1S34. was elected to the United States senate, where he took the place of William C. Rives, a Democrat, who had refused to obey instruc- tions from the Virginia legislature, and had tendered his resignation. Senator Leigh was reelected, but being instructed to vote for the celebrated expunging resolutions, re- fused to obey. In view of his former atti- tude on the doctrine of instructions, this made him unpopular. A year later he re- signed, but he never recovered his former popularity, and from that time his life was spent in retirement. He was compiler of eral Court," 1829-1841. The degree of Doc- tor of Law^s was given him by the College of William and Mary in 1837. He died in Richmond, Virginia. February 2, 1849.
 * Reports of the Court of Appeals and Gen-

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