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American politician

George Tucker (August 20, 1775April 10, 1861) was an American attorney, politician, historian, author, and educator in Virginia. His literary works include The Valley of Shenandoah (1824), the first fiction of colonial life in Virginia, and Voyage to the Moon (1827), which is among the nation's earliest science fiction novels. He also published the first comprehensive biography of Thomas Jefferson in 1837, as well as his History of the United States (1856). Tucker's authorship, and his work as a teacher, served to redeem an earlier life of unprincipled habits which had brought him some disrepute. Tucker was a son of the first mayor of Hamilton, Bermuda, Daniel Tucker. He immigrated to Virginia at age 20, was educated at the College of William and Mary, and was admitted to the bar. His first marriage to Mary Farley ended childless with her death in 1799; he remarried and had six children with wife Maria Carter, who died at age 38 in 1823. His third wife of 30 years was Louisa Thompson, who died in 1858. Aside from his law practice, Tucker wrote distinctive compositions for various publications. His topics ranged widely from the conceptual to the technical—from slavery, suffrage, and morality to intracoastal navigation, wages, and banking. He was elected in 1816 to the Virginia House of Delegates for one term, and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825. From his youth until early middle age, Tucker's lofty social lifestyle was often profligate, and occasionally scandalous. Nevertheless, upon completion of his congressional term, his eloquent publications led Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to offer him an appointment as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the newly founded University of Virginia; he accepted and held that post until 1845. After retiring, Tucker relocated to Philadelphia, continuing his research, and expounding upon a variety of subjects, which included monetary policy and socio economics, until his death in Virginia at the age of 85.

George Tucker was born August 20, 1775, on St. George's Island, Bermuda. He was the second son of Daniel and Elizabeth Tucker, who were distant cousins, and members of the Tucker family that included Henry Tucker. Daniel and his brothers established a mercantile partnership with a fleet of vessels shipping goods to British America, Newfoundland, and the West Indies. Daniel was also a founder and mayor of the port of Hamilton, Bermuda. Tucker offers a description of his physique in his Autobiography: “I was 1.52 m in height, and tho’ somewhat slender, well proportioned. I had great animal spirits, and unceasing mobility. My face was somewhat of a feminine cast." Tucker was educated primarily by a tutor engaged from Great Britain and also by Josiah Meigs. His assigned reading included Tom Jones, The Vicar of Wakefield, and Arabian Nights, among the mainstays of an education on the American continent. At age fifteen he helped form a literary club, which he says he named the Calliopean Society; this may have been an imitation of the original started earlier in New York. Tucker at age 16 began to read the law under a successful and prosperous lawyer, George Bascomb. At Bascomb's death, the firm's clients urged Tucker to assume their representation, but feeling quite unqualified, he declined, and initiated plans for a career in the United States. According to Tucker's Autobiography, at this time he encountered his first love interest, in a distant cousin, Nancy Tucker. The longer he suffered in silence with his feelings, the stronger they grew, until finally he resolved to call upon her at home and make his declaration. Upon his arrival, the two entered a parlor where he offered her his hand, which was accepted, all in silence. The tongue tied handholding continued for 10–15 minutes until interrupted by the entrance of her mother, and the visit ended. Very soon thereafter the girl fell ill and died and left Tucker in grief, which he described as a "most serious affliction." Six years passed before he expressed an interest in another woman.

Shortly after his mother's death in 1795, Tucker sailed for Philadelphia, intending to continue his legal education in the United States. He briefly considered London for his studies but discarded the idea, in order to optimize his chances for "political advancement." After a free spending time with other Bermudians in the capital city, he ran out of funds, and proceeded to Williamsburg, Virginia to seek advice and borrow money from his famous cousin St. George Tucker, a maneuver he would repeat. He was admitted to the College of William & Mary, where he studied law under St. George and graduated after two years. Tucker was pleased to find the academic work undemanding, and his social life entertaining, as he gained access to the finer homes through his cousin. Tucker traveled to New York and Philadelphia and, with letters of introduction in hand, was able to further acquaint himself with his adopted country and noted leaders, including George Washington and New York governors John Jay and George Clinton. Despite his enjoyment of this high society, he returned to Williamsburg and there began a courtship with Mary Byrd Farley, who was possessed of much charm and fortune, and to whom he proposed. Though he had initially preferred to delay the wedding until he was admitted to the bar, he gave in to his heart's desire, borrowed the needed funds from an uncle, and they married in April 1797. To help Mary, who was chronically ill with consumption, Tucker arranged a trip to his old home in Bermuda. The stay there provided Mary no relief from her illness and confirmed their desire to be in Virginia. They returned to Williamsburg, setting up residence, and he began to read for admission to the bar, which was completed after some procrastination. Except for trips to North Carolina to collect rents on his wife's property, Tucker avoided work, attending horse races in Fredericksburg, and frequenting fashionable watering places with friends and family. He made Thomas Jefferson's acquaintance at this time. Mary never recovered from her infirmities, and died childless in 1799. Mary's death complicated Tucker's facile life, as her estate, though considerable, was fraught with legal problems. It included a sugar plantation, thousands of acres of land, and a share in the Dismal Swamp Company. After a prolonged trip to the sugar plantation in Antigua, and on to Martinique and Bermuda, he returned to Williamsburg and then determined his future was in the nearby state capital of Richmond, Virginia as a practicing attorney. Tucker ultimately succeeded in salvaging only part of his late wife's fortune.

Tucker arrived in Richmond in the summer of 1800 with a letter of introduction from St. George to Governor James Monroe. His cousin's letter accurately portrayed Tucker's character and also foretold his future there: "To the best qualities of the heart he unites an excellent understanding, which has been well cultivated, and a very comprehensive knowledge of the world; nature has blessed him with a most exuberant flow of spirits, which sometimes betray him into acts of levity " Tucker effectively entered the desired social circles in Richmond, bolstered by a well furnished home near the Governor's own, and soon could count among his acquaintances not only the Governor (whom Tucker called "that slow dull man"), but also George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, and George Hay. (Tucker later boasted that, with the exception of John Adams, he had conducted personal intercourse with every president from Washington to Buchanan.) While in Richmond, he met Charles Carter (1765–1829), who introduced him to daughter Maria Ball Carter—a granddaughter of Betty Washington Lewis and descendant of Robert Carter I. Tucker described her as, "being a decided beauty, she had a face distinguished for sweetness and intelligence, conversed sensibly and sang sweetly." They soon fell in love, and in February 1802 he married Maria, age seventeen and pregnant. While Tucker began writing for publication, as an attorney he was initially deficient, being disabled by his fear of speaking in the courtroom; he later gained the requisite self confidence. Tucker later became a founding member of the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society (now the Virginia Museum of History and Culture) in Richmond. This was an effort led by John Marshall and John Floyd; Tucker was named to the Society's Standing Committee. Politically, Tucker was a Jeffersonian Republican, who delighted at the split in the Federalists between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. He joined in the resentment toward Federalist attempts to "appoint a president" by party caucus; in time he became a pro bank Republican. He once gave a speech in support of a Federalist in a local election, and a staunch Republican, Lewis Harvey, called him a party traitor and liar. In reaction Tucker, routinely prone to a hot temper, took a swing at Harvey, but missed due to the intervention of a neutral party. Assuming his challenge unsuccessful, Tucker demanded satisfaction, which Harvey accepted. Tucker carefully arranged the duel, stipulating an extraordinary distance in paces, so as to diminish the superior marksmanship of his opponent. Fortunately for Tucker the duel was avoided at the last moment—though not before he had completed his will and arranged his estate for his expecting wife. Their first child, Daniel George, was born November 23, 1802.

Tucker sought out the foremost authors in Richmond to advance his interest in literature and the arts. A conspiracy of slaves initiated a futile attempt to destroy the city, and he was prompted to publish an essay suggesting a remedy to slavery, entitled Letter to a Member of the General Assembly of Virginia (1801). Tucker's Letter expressed his early opposition to slavery, portraying it as unproductive and uneconomical. He wrote that no country "can attain great heights in manufactures, commerce or agriculture where one half of the community labours unwillingly, and the other half does not labour at all." He recommended that revenues be secured (with a tax on slaveholders) and used to establish a colony for the slaves west of the Mississippi. He further asserted that the slave's inferiority was a result of time and circumstance, and not heredity. In the 1820s, however, Tucker's views of slavery changed notably with personal experience, and profit, realized in his purchase and sale of slaves for his account and that of his father in law, Charles Carter. For years, he opposed the concepts of abolition and colonization as impractical, but he later reverted to his earlier conclusion that a more beneficial, commercially oriented, society was inevitable. While noting the spurious benefits of slavery, he predicted its eventual demise; he ultimately freed his own slaves in 1845, 16 years before his death.

Tucker's law practice could not support the expenses essential to his extravagant social exploits, which included gambling at cards and races, and he proceeded to waste the capital from Mary Tucker's estate. He was drawn to speculative investments and ultimately was embroiled in a financial scandal. In 1803, he joined other prominent citizens in organizing a lottery to raise funds for the Richmond Academy. He bought several chances for himself and, as remaining chances dwindled, resold some of them for a profit; he also was said to have positioned himself as one of four or five holders sure to be a winner. He held the winning stub when his ticket was found lodged in a joint of the drawing drum. Tucker was asked for reimbursement, and after negotiation, paid it in part, borrowing the remainder from members of the academy board. He also acted as custodian of other funds, blended them with his own and spent it on overindulgence and land speculation. Later he was required to defend himself in these matters before the Virginia General Assembly. Though he was officially cleared of wrongdoing, the incidents tarnished his reputation and highlighted the style of his living in Richmond. Meanwhile, Maria gave birth to their eldest daughter, Eleanor Rosalie, on May 4, 1804. Tucker in his Autobiography confessed to frequently misplacing his pocketbook over the years, and estimated his loss in the aggregate to be more than a thousand dollars in cash (the equivalent of $26,000 in 2020). To this he added, "This heedlessness I had from a child, and during my practice of the law, I strewed the upper country as well with countless umbrellas, gloves, watches, cufflinks, handkerchiefs, and knives."

In 1806, Tucker relocated his family, including newborn daughter Maria, to the Carters' home in Frederick County, Virginia, and attempted to put his financial house in order. Business required his frequent return to Richmond, and on one occasion he was arrested there for a delinquency owed to a loan company. The immediate problem was solved with the intervention of St. George. Tucker economized for two years, living a rural life with the Carters and other family members and was able to purchase a home near the Dan River. In May 1808, the family moved to "Woodbridge" in Pittsylvania County, where daughter Eliza Lewis Carter was born in December. Maria was then faced with rearing four children in more rural, less favorable living conditions. For his part, Tucker was disappointed with the local social life. While he thought all his neighbors "friendly and civil," they were also "unpolished and plain." Tucker put greater effort into his law practice and became more successful, acquiring additional clients spread across four counties. He was also elected Commonwealth's Attorney for Pittsylvania County. Maria gave birth to daughter Lelia in October 1810 and Harriett in May 1813.