Andrew Stevenson (January 21, 1784 – January 25, 1857) was an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. He represented

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

and eventually became its

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

before being elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

; its members subsequently elected him their

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

. Stevenson also served in the Jackson administration for four years as the

U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom The United States ambassador to the United Kingdom (known formally as the ambassador of the United States to the Court of St James's) is the official representative of the president of the United States and the American government to the monarc ...

before retiring to his

slave plantation A slave plantation was an agricultural farm that used enslaved people for labour. The practice was abolished in most places during the 19th century. Slavery Planters embraced the use of slaves mainly because indentured labor became expensive ...

Albemarle County Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Charl ...

. He also served on the board of visitors of the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

and briefly as its rector before his death.

Early life

Andrew Stevenson was born in

Culpeper County, Virginia Culpeper County is a county located along the borderlands of the northern and central region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 52,552. Its county seat and only incorporated community is Culp ...

on January 21, 1784. He was the son of James Stevenson (1739–1809) and Frances Arnette (née Littlepage) Stevenson (1750–1808). He received a private education appropriate to this class, then attended the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

where he studied law.

Career

Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1809, Stevenson practiced in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

Legislator

Richmond voters elected Stevenson as a member of the

, and he served in that part-time position from 1809 to 1816 and 1818 to 1821. Fellow members elected him as

of the House of Delegates during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

and he served from 1812 to 1815. In both 1814 and 1816, Stevenson unsuccessfully sought a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

U.S. Congress

1820 Events January–March *January 1 – Nominal beginning of the Trienio Liberal in Spain: A constitutionalist military insurrection at Cádiz leads to the summoning of the Spanish Parliament (March 7). *January 8 – General Maritime T ...

, Stevenson won election to the 17th U.S. Congress as a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

. When the party fragmented during the contentious 1824 presidential election, he first aligned himself with the

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

faction during the 18th Congress, and then, for the remainder of his time in Congress, identified with the

Jacksonians Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21, and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, And ...

. He was elected

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

on December 3, 1827, the opening day of the 20th Congress. Reelected three times ( 1829, 1831 and

1833 Events January–March * January 3 – Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (1833), Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. * February 6 – His Royal Highness Prince Otto ...

) he served until his resignation on June 2, 1834.

Minister to the United Kingdom

In June 1834, Stevenson resigned from Congress to accept appointment from Andrew Jackson as Minister to the United Kingdom. In June of that year, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

denied him confirmation by a vote of 23 to 22. Jackson's opponents in Congress argued that Jackson had offered Stevenson the appointment in 1833, and that when Congress convened later that year, Stevenson had organized the House, including committee assignments and chairmanships, in accordance with Jackson's preferences. In the Anti-Jacksonian view, this amounted to a ''

quid pro quo Quid pro quo ('what for what' in Latin) is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; "a favor for a favor". Phrases with similar meanings include: "give and take", ...

'' that allowed executive branch interference with the prerogatives of the legislative branch. Following his denial by the Senate, he returned to Virginia and resumed the practice of law and in addition, he presided over the

1835 Democratic National Convention The 1835 Democratic National Convention was held from May 20 to May 22, 1835, in Baltimore, Maryland. It was the second presidential nominating convention held in the history of the Democratic Party, following the 1832 Democratic National Conven ...

. In February 1836,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

renominated Stevenson for Minister to Great Britain. The second time around, he was confirmed 26 votes to 19, and served from 1836 to 1841. His term as Minister to the United Kingdom was marked by controversy: the

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

cause was growing in strength, and some sections of public opinion resented the choice of Stevenson, who was a slaveowner, for this role. The Irish statesman

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

was reported to have denounced Stevenson in public as a ''slave breeder'', generally thought to be a more serious matter than simply being a slaveowner. Stevenson, outraged, challenged O'Connell to a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

, but O'Connell, who had a lifelong aversion to dueling, refused, and suggested that he had been misquoted. The controversy became public and the repeated references to slave breeding caused Stevenson a good deal of embarrassment; there was a widespread view that if O'Connell's charges were false Stevenson would have done better to simply ignore them rather than engaging in a public squabble.

Later life

In 1846, Stevenson purchased the Blenheim estate in

Albemarle County, Virginia Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Char ...

. an
''Accompanying photo''
In the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, the last of his lifetime, Stevenson owned 63 enslaved people in Albemarle County. He had owned eight enslaved people in Richmond during the 1820 federal census, and 1830 federal census. Stevenson presided over the

1848 Democratic National Convention The 1848 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that met from Monday May 22 to Thursday May 25 in Baltimore, Maryland. It was held to nominate the Democratic Party's candidates for President and Vice president in ...

. In 1845 he was elected to the board of visitors of the

, and from 1856 to 1857, he served as the university's

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Personal life

Stevenson married three times. In 1809, he married Mary Page White, a granddaughter of

Carter Braxton Carter Braxton (September 10, 1736October 10, 1797) was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, a merchant, planter, a Founding Father of the United States and a Virginia politician. A grandson of Robert "King" Carter, one of ...

, a signer of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

. She died during childbirth in 1812, giving birth to: * John White Stevenson (1812–1886), a Congressman, U.S. Senator, and who also served as

Governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-el ...

after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. During his father's lifetime, e married Sibella Winston (1823–1904) in 1843. The marriage produced five children (this man's grandchildren): Sally C. (Stevenson) Colston, Mary W. (Stevenson) Colston, Judith W. (Stevenson) Winslow, Samuel W. Stevenson, and John W. Stevenson.Morton gives both Mary and John Stevenson's middle initials as "D." instead of "W." She also omits Samuel W. Stevenson from the list of children, including instead Andrew Stevenson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She later writes that his son John White Stevenson was survived by six children, despite having previously listed only five names. Vaux (p. 14) lists sons Andrew and John, although he states that Andrew lives in Montana. Vaux also mentions three unnamed daughters. In 1816, Stevenson married his second wife, Sarah "Sally" Coles (1789–1848), who was a cousin of

Dolley Madison Dolley Todd Madison (née Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of bo ...

and a sister of

Edward Coles Edward Coles (December 15, 1786 – July 7, 1868) was an American planter and politician, elected as the second Governor of Illinois (1822 to 1826). From an old Virginia family, Coles as a young man was a neighbor and associate of presidents ...

, who served as

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

. She died in 1848. In 1849, he married for the third and final time to Mary Schaff.

Death and legacy

Stevenson died at his Blenheim estate on January 25, 1857. He was buried at Enniscorthy Cemetery in

Keene, Virginia Keene is an unincorporated community in Albemarle County, Virginia, United States. As of the 1990 census, the town had a total population of 10. The town is known for being the location of the last sighting of a passenger pigeon in the wild, by ...

. His firstborn son, John White Stevenson, followed his father's career path into law and politics, serving as Congressman during his father's lifetime, then as Governor of Kentucky following the American Civil War and later as U.S. Senator. Appleton's Cyclopedia, vol. 5, p. 680 Stevenson's manor house, Blenheim, remains today, having been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Andrew 1784 births 1857 deaths 19th-century American diplomats 19th-century American politicians Ambassadors of the United States to the United Kingdom American slave owners College of William & Mary alumni Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia People from Culpeper County, Virginia Speakers of the United States House of Representatives Speakers of the Virginia House of Delegates Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates