CHAPTER IV PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1832-THE GENERAL R. STUART began his life's work at an eventful era. After the Presidential election of 1824, which resulted in the election of John Quincy Adams by the House of Representatives, there was a decided division among the followers of Clay and Jackson. The canvass of 1828 brought about a complete separation of the divergent elements in what had been up to that time the Republican party. The adherents of Jackson became the Democratic party, while the opponents of his administration during his first term took the title of National Republicans. In April, 1832, although Mr. Stuart had only been at the bar four years, he had already been active in the politics of the county. On April 30th of that year two public meetings of the citizens of the community who favored the election of Henry Clay as President were held in Staunton. The first was a meeting of the citizens generally, and one of the resolutions adopted provided for the appointment of a committee to correspond with those who advocated the election of Mr. Clay in the fall of that year. A committee of fifty men was appointed and among the number was Mr. Stuart. The other meeting held on the same day was composed of young men favoring the same object. Mr. Stuart was appointed on the committee to report the resolutions, and was sent as a delegate to the Young Men's National Convention which assembled in Washington on May 7th, 1832. Among other delegates to this convention from Virginia were Robert E. Lee, E. C. Fitzhugh, Andrew Hunter and H Charles J. Faulkner. The object of the convention was to ratify and approve the action of the National Republican Convention which had nominated Henry Clay and John Sergeant as candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. The convention consisted of three hundred and sixteen members, representing almost every State. Mr. Stuart was chairman of the committee to prepare an address to the young men of the country, and participated otherwise in the deliberations during the five days the convention was in session. Near the close of the session Mr. Clay addressed the convention. Mr. Stuart, upon his return from Washington, took an active part in the movement to call a State convention of those who were favorable to the election of Clay and Sergeant. Meetings to appoint delegates to this convention were held at different times in the several counties, the meeting in Wythe preceding that in Augusta. Mr. Stuart and Thomas J. Michie, with Charles L. Crockett and others, were chosen as delegates from Wythe. It thus appears that in the reports of the convention they were always referred to as from Wythe. The convention assembled in the Presbyterian Church in Staunton on July 16th, 1833. Charles J. Faulkner was chosen permanent chairman and Richard H. Toler, of the Lynchburg Virginian, secretary. At the head of a committee to prepare the order of business for the convention appears the name of Mr. Stuart. He had difficult questions to deal with, but his report met with the unanimous approval of the convention, which, in addition to the men already named, was composed of such men as Goggin of Bedford, Moore and Dorman of Rockbridge, Newton of Norfolk, Tayloe of King George, Lewis of Westmoreland, Francis T. Anderson, John Janney, and a long list of others who afterwards attained high positions in the legal profession and in public service. A resolution endorsing Mr. Clay's nomination was offered by Mr. Lyttleton Waddell of Augusta, and was seconded by General Dorman. Mr. Stuart offered a resolution endorsing Sergeant for Vice-President which he supported by a forcible and eloquent address. While the convention was in session it was rumored that Mr. Clay had left Washington for his home in Kentucky, and would probably reach Staunton before the convention adjourned. A committee, of which Mr. Stuart was a member, was appointed to wait upon Mr. Clay and invite him to address the convention. Mr. Clay, however, was delayed and did not arrive in Staunton until after the convention had adjourned. He spent one day in Staunton and was called upon by a large number of the citizens of the county and town. General Jackson spent the night at Waynesboro a few days previously on his way to his home in Tennessee, and thus both of the candidates for the Presidency were in Augusta County almost at the same time. Mr. Stuart entered upon the Presidential campaign with all the enthusiasm of youth, and made a most effective canvass. When the election closed he enjoyed an enviable reputation as an eloquent and forcible speaker, and was recognized as one of the most promising men in the State. When Mr. Stuart came to the bar, the courthouse was an old stone building which stood on the ground now oc cupied by the present building. It was antiquated and unsuitable for its purposes, and Mr. Stuart was most active in demanding that a new one be erected. In 1832, he moved the court to summon the justices of the county in full bench at the August term of that year to consider the erection of a new courthouse. In the meantime he prepared plans for a new building, which he presented and explained to the justices in such a manner as to meet their approval. An order was entered appointing Mr. Stuart, Joseph Brown, James Crawford, John H. Peyton and Briscoe G. Baldwin commissioners to superintend the erection of a building, and Mr. Stuart, the youngest of the commissioners, became their chairman. The building was completed in 1836, and for its day was one of the best in the State. By this time Mr. Stuart was firmly established in his profession, and by the canvass he made for Clay in 1833, had become widely and favorably known in the western part of the State. He possessed a fine legal and miscellaneous library, and was a close student of both political parties and of the science of government. It is not strange, therefore, that he was soon pressed by his friends to announce himself as a candidate for the House of Delegates. It happened that the county was then represented by two gentlemen to whom he was warmly attached, and he declined to become a candidate so long as they desired to occupy the positions they held. But at the close of the session of 1835, these gentlemen declined re-election, and Mr. Stuart was chosen one of the members of the House of Delegates for the session of 1836, and was twice reelected. At the close of his third term he realized that his withdrawal from his office interfered materially with his professional interests and declined re-election. When Mr. Stuart entered the Legislature one of the absorbing subjects of the day was internal improvements. It was one of the leading issues in the Presidential election. of 1832, and was advocated by Mr. Clay and approved by General Jackson. Professor W. B. Rogers, the "Father of American Geology," who had been commissioned by the Legislature to make a geological survey of the State, had completed his report upon its mineral resources, and thereby added new interest to the subject. Mr. Stuart was an earnest advocate of internal improvements, both by the State and Federal Governments. He had made a profound study of the subject previous to his election to the Legislature, especially during his canvass in the Presidential election. In the Legislature he was assigned to the Committee of Roads and Internal Navigation, and during the session of 1838, as chairman of that committee, he prepared an elaborate report recommending a general system of improvements. A motion was made to postpone indefinitely this report, and Mr. Stuart spoke in its defense on February 8th, 1838. He began by saying he believed that much of the future wealth and prosperity of Virginia materially depended upon the adoption of some such scheme of improve ment as that recommended by the report of the committee. The report, he said, presented distinctly, for the decision. of the Legislature, the question whether the councils of the State on the subject were to be controlled by the same policy which had theretofore governed them, or whether they were to give place to a more enlarged and statesman-like policy, which should cherish a generous system of internal improvements, stimulate the enterprise and industry of all classes of the citizens of Virginia, and develop her almost boundless resources. The first great work recommended by the committee, he declared, was the construction of a railroad commencing on the Tennessee line, and extending eastwardly to Evansham, in the county of Wythe, and thence by two divergent branches, one reaching to the James River at the most eligible point, and the other striking the Roanoke at Danville. This road would penetrate the choicest portion of the State, abounding in all the elements of national wealth; containing inexhaustible quantities of gypsum, lime, iron, salt, lead, coal and timber; possessed of water power sufficient for every manufacturing purpose; adapted to the production of every necessity of life; and consequently capable of sustaining a dense population. The development of these resources, and the additions which they would bring to the wealth and commerce of the State, would alone be sufficient to justify a wise government in undertaking the enterprise. But Mr. Stuart declared that, great as these objects were, they sank into comparative insignificance when viewed in connection with the immense accession of foreign commerce and travel which would be brought into Virginia from Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and other States by means of the southwestern railroads. The second work recommended by the committee, he said, was the road from Parkersburg to Scottsville. The effect of this road would be most beneficial to the whole country through which it passed. It would traverse a fertile section which was almost entirely cut off from access to the commercial parts of the State. It would unlock its resources, |