Robert Perkins LETCHER, Congress, KY (1788-1861)

LETCHER Robert Perkins , a Representative from Kentucky; born in Goochland County, Va., February 10, 1788; pursued an academic course; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Lancaster, Ky.; member of the State house of representatives 1813-1815, 1817, and 1836-1838 and served as speaker in the latter year; elected as an Adams-Clay Republican to the Eighteenth Congress; reelected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-first through the Twenty-third Congresses (March 4, 1823-March 3, 1833); contested the election of Thomas P. Moore to the Twenty-third Congress, but the House did not seat either and declared a new election necessary; subsequently elected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to fill the foregoing vacancy and served from December 1, 1834, to March 3, 1835; was not a candidate for renomination in 1834; presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1836; Governor of Kentucky 1840-1844; appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico and served from August 9, 1849, to August 3, 1852; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1852 to the Thirty-third Congress; resumed the practice of his profession; died in Frankfort, Ky., January 24, 1861; interment in the State Cemetery.

Bibliography

Gilliam, William D. ``The Public Career of Robert Perkins Letcher.'' Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1942.

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