Nathaniel Beverley Tucker
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Nathaniel Beverley Tucker (September 6, 1784 – August 26, 1851) was an American author, judge, legal scholar, and political essayist.


Life and politics

Tucker was generally known by his middle name. He was born into a socially elite and politically influential
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
family: his father was the noted legal scholar St. George Tucker, and his half-brother was the
John Randolph of Roanoke John Randolph (June 2, 1773May 24, 1833), commonly known as John Randolph of Roanoke,''Roanoke'' refers to Roanoke Plantation in Charlotte County, Virginia, not to the city of the same name. was an American planter, and a politician from Virg ...
. Tucker's older brother
Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. Henry St. George Tucker Sr. (December 29, 1780 – August 28, 1848) was a Virginia jurist, law professor, and U.S. Congressman (1815–1819). Biography Tucker was born on Mattoax Plantation in Chesterfield County, Virginia on December 29, 1780, ...
, too, went on to have an eminent career as a law professor and Congressman in antebellum Virginia. His nephew Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, a U.S. diplomat and later secret agent for the Confederacy, was named after him. His daughter
Cynthia Cynthia is a feminine given name of Greek origin: , , "from Mount Cynthus" on Delos island. The name has been in use in the Anglosphere since the 1600s. There are various spellings for this name, and it can be abbreviated to Cindy, Cyndi, Cyndy, ...
became a notable preservationist in Virginia. He graduated from the
College of William & 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 I ...
in 1801, studied law, and practised in Virginia. After moving with his family to the
Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
territory in 1816, Tucker served as a circuit court judge from 1817 until 1832. He returned to Virginia in 1833 and served as a Professor of Law at William and Mary, his alma mater (Class of 1802), from 1834 to his death in 1851. Tucker opposed the nullification movement in
South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
, but maintained that individual states had the right to secede from the Union. From the 1830s onward he was a
Fire-Eater Fire eating is the act of putting a flaming object into the mouth and extinguishing it. A fire eater can be an entertainer, a street performance, street performer, part of a sideshow or a circus act but has also been part of spiritual traditi ...
and a leading academic spokesman for
states' rights In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the ...
and Southern unity. He wrote frequently for the ''
Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some var ...
'' and other periodicals, and carried on an extensive correspondence with influential Southern political leaders, including President
John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig tick ...
, Secretary of State
Abel P. Upshur Abel Parker Upshur (June 17, 1790 – February 28, 1844) was a lawyer, planter, slaveowner, judge and politician from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Active in Virginia state politics for decades, with a brother and a nephew who became distinguis ...
, and South Carolina Governor
James Henry Hammond James Henry Hammond (November 15, 1807 – November 13, 1864) was an attorney, politician, and planter from South Carolina. He served as a United States representative from 1835 to 1836, the 60th Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844, and ...
. Tucker was a Freemason. He was one of the Organizers of the Grand Lodge of Missouri and served as its second Grand Master from 1821-1824. He died in
Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...
, at the age of 66 years.


Fiction

Tucker is probably best remembered for his 1836 novel '' The Partisan Leader.'' Set in the United States of 1849, the story depicts a war between secessionist guerrillas in Virginia and a despotic federal government led by President-turned-dictator
Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...
. In Tucker's future, the slaveholding states south of Virginia have already seceded, driven out of the Union by Van Buren's centralizing government and exploitative tariff policy. While the Old Dominion itself remains under federal control, the plot of ''The Partisan Leader'' concerns the efforts of patriotic Virginian irregulars to defeat government forces and join the independent Southern Confederacy. At the onset of 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 ...
in 1861, the novel was regarded by many in the North and South as a prophetic vision of the collapse of the Union. It was republished that year in New York with the subtitle "A Key to the Disunion Conspiracy", and next year in Richmond with the subtitle "A Novel, and an Apocalypse of the Origin and Struggles of the Southern Confederacy". Tucker wrote two other novels. ''George Balcombe'', also published in 1836, was called "the ''best'' American novel" by
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...
.Review by Poe of ''George Balcombe'', ''The Southern Literary Messenger'', Vol. III, 1 (January 1837), 49-58. ''Gertrude'' was serialized 1844–1845 in the ''
Southern Literary Messenger The ''Southern Literary Messenger'' was a periodical published in Richmond, Virginia, from August 1834 to June 1864, and from 1939 to 1945. Each issue carried a subtitle of "Devoted to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts" or some var ...
''.


Works

Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote: *''Discourse on the Importance of the Study of Political Science as a Branch of Academic Education in the United States'' (Richmond, 1840) *''Discourse on the Dangers that threaten the Free Institutions of the United States'' (1841) *''Lectures intended to Prepare the Student for the Study of the Constitution of the United States'' (Philadelphia, 1845) *''Principles of Pleading'' (Boston, 1846). He left an unfinished life of his half-brother, John Randolph of Roanoke. He wrote a great number of political and miscellaneous essays, and was a large contributor to ''The Southern Literary Messenger'' of Richmond, Virginia, and to the ''Southern Quarterly Review''. He also maintained an extensive correspondence with scholars and politicians.


Bibliography

*Robert J. Brugger, ''Beverley Tucker: Heart over Head in the Old South'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977). *Beverley D. Tucker, ''Nathaniel Beverley Tucker: Prophet of the Confederacy, 1784-1851'' (Tokyo: Nan'undo, 1979). *Drew Gilpin Faust, ''A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977). *"Recent Deaths"; ''New York Daily Times''; September 18, 1851; page 2. (Accessed from ''The New York Times (1851–2003)'', ProQuest Historical Newspapers, September 19, 2006).


Notes


References

*


External links


''Documenting the American South''
- The full text of ''The Partisan Leader''
Internet Archive
- The full text of ''George Balcombe''
Colonial Williamsburg
- The Life and Literature of Nathaniel Beverley Tucker * (12 as "Tucker, Beverley, 1784-1851", and probably some others) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Nathaniel Beverley 1784 births 1851 deaths Nathaniel Beverley Tucker American people of English descent People from Winchester, Virginia College of William & Mary faculty College of William & Mary alumni American essayists American jurists Novelists from Virginia Writers of American Southern literature American male essayists 19th-century essayists 19th-century male writers American male novelists 19th-century American novelists American proslavery activists Origins of the American Civil War American Fire-Eaters