Inventory of the R. L. Caruthers Papers, 1823-1870

Collection Number 1416

Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Descriptive Summary

Repository

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.

Creator

Caruthers, R. L. (Robert Looney), 1800-1882.

Title

R. L. Caruthers Papers, 1823-1870

Call Number

1416

Language of Materials

Materials in English

Extent

Items: About 1600

Linear Feet: 2.0

Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access

No restrictions.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mary Moore Martin of Lebanon, Tenn., in October 1947.

Processing Information

Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, July 1996

Encoded by: Lynn Holdzkom, February 2006

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the R. L. Caruthers Papers #1416, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Caruthers, R. L. (Robert Looney), 1800-1882.

Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 1799-1871.

Foster, Ephraim Hubbard, 1794-1854.

Green, Nathan, 1792-1866.

Stewart, Alexander Peter, 1821-1908.

Zollicoffer, Felix Kirk, 1812-1862.

Cumberland University--History.

Lawyers--Tennessee--History--19th century.

Plantations--Tennessee.

Practice of law--Tennessee--History--19th century.

Lebanon (Tenn.)--History--19th century.

Tennessee--Politics and government--To 1865.

United States--Politics and government--1841-1845.

Biographical/Historical Note

Robert Looney Caruthers was born in Smith County, Tenn., on 31 July 1800. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits from 1817-1819, then attended Woodward's Academy near Columbia, Tenn., and Greenville College, 1820-1821. He studied law in the office of Judge Samuel Powell at Greenville and was admitted to the bar in 1823. In 1824, Caruthers was clerk of the State House of Representatives, then clerk of the chancery court of Smith County, and editor of the Tennessee Republican. He moved to Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., in 1826; was State's attorney, 1827-1832; and was made Brigadier-General of the Tennessee militia in 1834. In 1835, Caruthers was elected to the State House of Representatives and, in 1841, was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress (4 March 1841-3 March 1843). He was the founder of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1842 and of its Law Department in 1847.

Caruthers served as presidential elector on the Whig ticket of Clay and Frelinghuysen in 1844; was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee in 1852 to fill a vacancy; and then elected to the position in 1854, which he held until the beginning of the Civil War. He was a member of the Peace Congress of 1861 held in Washington, D.C. He was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1862, but never served because of the occupation of the state by federal forces.

At the close of the Civil War, Caruthers became dean of the Law Department at Cumberland University, in which capacity he served until his death. He was also the first president of the board of trustees of Cumberland University. Caruthers was at one time "Worthy Patriarch" of the Sons of Temperance for Tennessee and was also a ruling elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He died in Lebanon, 2 October 1882, and was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

For further information see Biographical Dictionary of the American Congress.

Collection Overview

The collection pertains to only a part of lawyer, politican, and law professor R. L. Caruthers's political career and consists in bulk of letters received, 1840-1849, and lesser amounts, 1823-1839 and 1866-1870. There are no papers from 1854 to August 1865. The papers chiefly concern Caruthers's law practice, state and national politics, Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tenn., before and after the Civil War and, after the war, plantation management. Correspondents include Andrew Jackson Donelson, Ephraim Hubbard Foster, Nathan Green, Alexander Peter Steward, and Felix K. Zollicoffer.

Items Separated

A-1416/1 (Millard Fillmore letter)

Detailed Description of the Collection