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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 4.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1900 items) |
| Abstract | James McDowell was born 13 October 1795, son of Colonel James McDowell and Sarah Preston. He married Susanna Smith Preston in 1818. McDowell was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1833. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates, 1831-1835 and 1837-1838, as governor of Virginia, 1842-1846, and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1847-1851. Among McDowell's major political concerns were internal improvements, slavery, and public education. The collection includes correspondence, writings, financial and legal material, and other papers of James McDowell. Most of the papers are letters, addresses, and essays relating to affairs in Virginia and the nation, including slavery in the territories, internal improvements, temperance, nullification, Democratic party politics, colonization societies, collegiate and literary societies, and colleges in Virginia. |
| Creator | McDowell, James, 1795-1851. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
1795: Born, 13 October, Cherry Grove Plantation, Rockbridge County, Va., son of Colonel James McDowell and Sarah McDowell.
1805-1812: Attended William McPheeters's classical school in Greenville, Va., and a boarding school in Brownsburg, Va.
1812: Attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Va.
1813: Attended Yale College, New Haven, Conn.
1814: Transferred to the College of New Jersey (Princeton University); graduated salutatorian, circa 1818.
1818: Married cousin, Susanna Smith Preston, 7 September; moved to an estate called "The Military," near Lexington, Ky.
1823: Returned to Virginia; began construction on Colalto Plantation, near Lexington, Va.
1827: Served as justice of the peace for Rockbridge County, Va.
1831: Joined the Presbyterian Church; elected to Virginia House of Delegates, where he served until 1835.
1833: Defeated by John Tyler in U.S. senatorial election.
1837: Re-elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served until 1838.
1838: Delivered "West Augusta Speech" at Princeton, calling for reconciliation between the abolitionists and the proponents of slavery.
1842: Elected governor of Virginia; served until 1846.
1846: Seated as member of U.S. House of Representatives, 6 March, replacing William Taylor.
1847: Elected to U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1851; death of wife in October.
1848: Partially paralyzed as result of heart attack.
1851: Died, 24 August, at Colalto.
Additional biographical information can be found in James Glen Collier, "The Political Career of James McDowell, 1830 1851" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1963).
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Scope and Content
Correspondence, speeches, essays, public addresses and notes, bills, legal papers, and other material of McDowell, chiefly during his terms as state legislator, governor, and congressman. Topics include slavery in Virginia and in the nation, but especially in the territories; internal improvements; temperance; nullification; Democratic Party politics in Virginia; colonization societies; collegiate and literary societies; land speculation; currency and credit issues; and education, both public school and higher education, in Virginia.
Some papers relate to other members of the McDowell family. These include correspondence and other items relating to James McDowell's father Colonel James McDowell, mother Sarah McDowell, wife Susanna Preston McDowell, son in law Charles Scott Venable, and brother-in-law Virginia statesman Thomas Hart Benton. Many family letters, especially those from James McDowell to his wife, discuss agriculture and plantation management. Other materials include records pertaining to Washington College (later Washington and Lee University), a detailed emancipation contract between James McDowell and one of his slaves, and the childhood reminiscences of Francis Preston Venable, James McDowell's grandson and professor of chemistry and president of the University of North Carolina.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1770-1896 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
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Subseries 1.1. 1770-September 1813.
Early items are chiefly correspondence of James McDowell's father, Colonel James McDowell in Rockbridge County, Va., with various individuals concerning land speculation and business affairs in Fayette County, Ky., and other places. Many letters relate to Colonel McDowell in his capacity as inspector of revenue. Also included is Colonel McDowell's personal correspondence with his wife, Sarah McDowell, especially in 1813 when he was serving in the U.S. army near Richmond.
Correspondents include: James Breckenridge (3 letters, 1796-1802); Edward C. Carrington (many letters from Colonel McDowell to Carrington, 1801-1810); John McDowell, Colonel McDowell's brother(?) (14 letters, 1792-1800); and Francis Preston (1 letter, 1796).
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Subseries 1.2. October 1813-1830.
Correspondence of James McDowell begins around October 1813. Colonel McDowell's correspondence with his wife continues through 1832, and there are many letters between father and son. James McDowell's first letters are about his life as a student at Yale in 1813 and 1814. Later, there are many letters from James McDowell to his wife, Susanna Preston McDowell, before and after their marriage in 1818, as well as correspondence of James and Susanna with Susanna's sisters Eliza (Mrs. Edward C. Carrington) and Sally (Mrs. John B. Floyd), and with other members of the Preston and McDowell families, including James's brother-in-law, Thomas Hart Benton. In the 1820s, there are several letters reflecting James McDowell's involvement with colonization societies.
Correspondents include: Thomas Hart Benton (9 letters, 1821-1830); James Breckenridge (3 letters, 1817-1830); Ralph Gurley, secretary of the American Colonization Society (2 letters, 1828 and 1830); and Francis Preston (3 letters, 1818-1828).
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Subseries 1.3. 1831-July 1851.
In addition to the continued family correspondence between Colonel McDowell and his wife and between the Colonel and James McDowell (until the Colonel's death in 1835), there are letters to James McDowell from friends, U.S. congressmen and other national figures, state legislators and other members of the Virginia elite, students, college presidents, and constituents in the 1830s and 1840s. Many letters concern McDowell's commitment to temperance and his belief in the value of college groups, especially collegiate literary societies. Other letters are concerned with such topics as internal improvements in Virginia, slavery in the territories, the Nullification crisis, colonization societies, Virginia politics, currency and credit issues, public education, and colleges in Virginia. While there is surprisingly little about the political campaigns that McDowell must have mounted to win office, many letters relate to his responsibilities after those offices were attained (Virginia House of Delegates, 1831-1835 and 1837-1838; governor of Virginia, 1842-1846; U.S. House of Representatives, 1846-1851).
There are many letters written home by McDowell as he traveled either for the government or to check on lands he apparently held near Columbus, Miss. Until her death in October 1847, most of these letters were written to his wife, Susanna Preston McDowell, and deal chiefly with family matters. They also offer her instruction and advice on how to manage Colalto, the McDowell plantation near Lexington, Va., which, considering McDowell's heavy travel schedule, she seems to have handled on her own.
Correspondents include: Joseph Bell (3 letters, 1831-1834); Thomas Hart Benton (over 60 letters, 1830-1838 and 1843-1846); James Breckenridge (1 letter, 1831); Joseph Cabell (2 letters, 1843-1844); Charles Dimmock, Captain at the Richmond Armory (several dozen letters, 1844-1847); Lyman Copeland Draper (1 letter, 1847); Landon C. Garland (2 letters, 1847-1848); Samuel E. Goodson (9 letters, 1837-1838 and 1842-1847); Archibald Graham, a doctor of Lexington, Va. (over 30 letters, scattered over this period); Reuben Grigsley of Rockbridge County, Va. (9 letters, 1830-1835 and 1846); Ralph Randolph Gurley (1 letter, 1846); Thomas Henderson of Lexington, Va. (2 letters, 1846); George Washington Hopkins, U.S. congressman of Abingdon, Va. (over 20 letters, 1830s); John Letcher, Lexington, Ky., attorney and editor, later governor (numerous letters, 1830s and 1840s); Francis McFarland, Presbyterian minister (4 letters, 1848-1851); Francis McGavock of Nashville, Tenn. (1 letter, 1838); John Marsh, temperance reformer (12 letters, 1851); John Murray Mason (2 letters, 1844); Samuel McDowell Moore, U.S. congressman (1 letter, 1832); Francis Preston (2 letters, 1832-1833); Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson of Thomas Jefferson (7 letters, 1838-1846); Benjamin Wood Richards, classmate of McDowell and later mayor of Philadelphia (7 letters, 1842-1850); William H. Richardson, adjutant general of Virginia (over 50 letters, 1842-1850); William Taylor, U.S. congressman, and other members of the Taylor family (numerous letters, 1831-1846); John H. Wartmann of Harrisonburg, Va. (over 20 letters, 1840s); Thomas Willis White, founder of the Southern Literary Messenger (4 letters, 1834-1838).
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Subseries 1.4. August 1851-1896.
Correspondence after James McDowell's death in August 1851 consists of letters of condolence written to McDowell's daughter, Salley Campbell Preston Miller. There are also letters involving another McDowell daughter, Margaret Cantey McDowell Venable, her husband Charles Scott Venable, a professor of mathematics at Hampden Sidney College, and their son Francis Preston Venable, later professor of chemistry and president of the University of North Carolina. There are few letters during the Civil War period.
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Series 2. Financial and Legal Materials, 1728-1864 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Financial and legal papers of James McDowell and McDowell family members. The 1728 item is a fragment of a deed involving Alexander McDowell, an ancestor of James McDowell. Materials include sales receipts, statements of accounts, lists of expenditures, indentures, notes and briefs for legal cases, vote tallies, and court dockets. Of interest are the will of Colonel James McDowell; records of land transactions in Fayette County, Ky,; inventories of James McDowell's slaves; and an emancipation contract, circa 1831, between McDowell and his slave, Lewis James, requiring that Lewis both purchase his freedom and apply for emigration to Liberia. There are only a few items after James McDowell's death in 1851. The 1864 item is a series of Confederate bonds. (For other papers relating to colonization and emancipation, see Series 3.)
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Series 3. Writings and Notes, circa 1815-1850.
Drafts of speeches, addresses, essays, and reports that James McDowell presented to various groups, societies, and organizations, including the Virginia House of Delegates and the U.S. House of Representatives. McDowell's writings reflect his interests in the public affairs and intellectual life of Virginia and the nation, especially in the 1830s and 1840s. Many items are speeches to citizens, legislators, and members of collegiate societies on topics such as slavery in the territories, internal improvements, and constitutional government.
Most items have been grouped by topic; those not arranged by topic are arranged by type (e.g., miscellaneous speeches and resolutions before the Virginia House of Delegates).
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Subseries 3.1. Slavery
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Subseries 3.2. Economics
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Subseries 3.3. Politics and government
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Subseries 3.4. Other writings and notes
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Series 4. Genealogical Materials, circa 1810-1893.
Genealogical notes, correspondence, and clippings, chiefly of James McDowell's daughter, Sally Campbell Preston Miller, circa 1884-1891, relating to the life of her father and to other members of the McDowell family. Included is a list, circa 1810, of the descendants of Andrew McDowell (born 1710).
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Series 5. Other Papers, circa 1800-1879 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Miscellaneous papers relating to Washington College; printed memorials and circulars received by James McDowell, chiefly about internal improvements; and other materials, including draft constitutions for agricultural, collegiate, and debating societies.
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Series 6. Volumes, 1818-circa 1840 and undated.
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Items Separated
Processed by: Lynn Roundtree, 1983; Pamela Dean and Tim West, 1986; Roslyn Holdzkom, 1991
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
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