Robert M. T. Hunter Is Born

Robert M. T. Hunter was born on April 21, 1801, at “Mount Pleasant,” Essex County, Virginia.

Educated at home, he attended the University of Virginia, graduating in 1828. Hunter was admitted to the bar in 1830 and set up a legal practice in his native county, which later became his political base.

In the U.S. Congress he emerged as a major spokesman of the Democratic party's states rights faction. Although his erudition and conservatism gave an appearance of moderation to his position, Hunter remained uncompromisingly pro-slavery and pro-Southern.

Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (April 21, 1809 – July 18, 1887) American statesman, was born in Essex County, Virginia.

He entered the University of Virginia in his seventeenth year and was one of its first graduates; he then studied law at the Winchester (Va.) Law School, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar. From 1835 to 1837 he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.