Charles F. Mercer

For the cricketer, see Charles Mercer (cricketer).

Charles F. Mercer
File:Charles F. Mercer.jpg
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 14th district
In office March 4, 1823 – December 26, 1839
Preceded by	Jabez Leftwich
Succeeded by	William M. McCarty
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 8th district
In office March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1823
Preceded by	Joseph Lewis, Jr.
Succeeded by	Burwell Bassett
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Loudoun County
In office December 3, 1810 – March 4, 1817
Preceded by	Stephen C. Roszel
Succeeded by	Joseph Lewis, Jr.
Personal details
Born	Charles Fenton Mercer (1778-07-16)July 16, 1778 Fredericksburg, Virginia
Died	Howard, Virginia
Alma mater	Princeton College
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Rank	Lieutenant colonel
Battles/wars	War of 1812

Charles Fenton Mercer (June 16, 1778 – May 4, 1858) was a nineteenth-century politician, U.S. Congressman, and lawyer from Loudoun County, Virginia.

Biography

The youngest son of James Mercer and Eleanor Mercer, Charles Mercer was the first cousin of Robert Selden Garnett and James Mercer Garnett, both also members of Congress.

Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Mercer graduated from Princeton College in 1797, where he later took a postgraduate course and received his degree in 1800. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1802, commencing practice in Aldie, Virginia, a village that he founded in 1810, centering on Mercer's mill. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1810 to 1817 and was appointed a lieutenant colonel of a Virginia regiment in the War of 1812. Mercer was later promoted to major in command at Norfolk, Virginia, was inspector general in 1814, aide-de-camp to Governor James Barbour and brigadier general in command of the 2nd Virginia Brigade.

He was projector and first president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co. from 1828 to 1833 and was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829. Mercer was elected a Federalist, Crawford Republican, Adams Republican, Anti-Jacksonian and Whig to the United States House of Representatives in 1816, serving from 1817 to 1839. There, he served as Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals from 1831 to 1839. He was one of the originators of the plan for establishing the Free State of Liberia, and in that context one of the founders of the American Colonization Society in 1816, was vice president of the Virginia Colonization Society in 1836, and vice president of the National Society of Agriculture in 1842.

Mercer died at Howard, near Alexandria, Virginia, on May 4, 1858 and was interred in Union Cemetery in Leesburg, Virginia.

Bibliography

• Egerton, Douglas R., Charles Fenton Mercer and the Trial of National Conservatism. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1989).

External links

• Charles F. Mercer at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Charles F. Mercer at Find A Grave

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Joseph Lewis, Jr.	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 8th congressional district March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1823	Succeeded by Burwell Bassett
Preceded by Jabez Leftwich	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 14th congressional district March 4, 1823 – December 26, 1839	Succeeded by William M. McCarty