Littleton Waller TAZEWELL, Congress, VA (1774-1860)

TAZEWELL, Littleton Waller, (son of Henry Tazewell), a Representative and a Senator from Virginia; born in Williamsburg, Va., December 17, 1774; privately tutored; graduated from the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg in 1791; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1796 and commenced practice in James City County; member, State house of delegates 1798-1800; elected to the Sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Marshall and served from November 26, 1800, to March 3, 1801; moved to Norfolk, Va., in 1802; member, General Assembly 1804-1806; member, Virginia House of Delegates 1816-1817; one of the commissioners of claims under the treaty with Spain ceding Florida in 1821; elected in 1824 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Taylor; reelected in 1829, and served from December 7, 1824, to July 16, 1832, when he resigned; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Twenty-second Congress; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Twentieth through Twenty-second Congresses); delegate to the State convention in 1829; Governor of Virginia from 1834 until his resignation in 1836; retired from public life; died in Norfolk, Va., May 6, 1860; interment on his estate on the Eastern Shore of Virginia; reinterment in 1866 in Elmwood Cemetery, Norfolk, Va.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Peterson, Norma L. Littleton Waller Tazewell. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983; Sawers, Timothy R. “The Public Career of Littleton Waller Tazewell, 1824-1836.” Ph.D. dissertation, Miami University, 1972.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present