Tazewell, Littleton Waller, Sr.  (1774-1860) 

By Kevin Geisert, SMC Reference Librarian, February 2024.

Littleton Waller Tazewell, Sr. was a prominent nineteenth century Virginia politician.  Born on December 17, 1774 in Williamsburg, Virginia to parents Henry Tazewell (the namesake of Tazewell County, Virginia) and Dorothy Elizabeth Waller, he played a major role in Virginia politics for four decades.[1]  During his life, he managed four plantations.  King’s Creek, New Quarter, and Old Plantation were located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  The Sandhills Plantation was in Princess Anne County (present day Virginia Beach).[2]  Tazewell completed his schooling at the College of William & Mary and then decided to embark on a law career.  He moved to Richmond in 1795 and became acquainted with John Wickham who was a well-known attorney in the area.  Under the tutelage of Wickham, he studied the law and eventually earned his license.  Tazewell then brought his newfound legal expertise back to Williamsburg where he served as a lawyer.[3]

At a very young age, Tazewell launched a political career that would ultimately take him to the Governor’s Mansion in Richmond over three decades later.  Then while at the peak of his power, he abruptly resigned from office and quickly faded from public view.  As he began a life in politics, Tazewell received much guidance and instruction from his father.  The younger Tazewell won his first election to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1798 representing James City County.  For three years (a term for the House of Delegates was just one year), he served his constituents in Richmond before voters promoted him to the United States House of Representatives to fill a vacancy.  One of his first acts as a congressman was to help resolve the deadlocked presidential election of 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.  A tied Electoral College meant that the U.S. House of Representatives would choose the third President of the United States.  When Virginia cast its vote, Tazewell wholeheartedly backed Jefferson who also hailed from the Old Dominion.[4]

Delegate Tazewell only served four months in the lower chamber before returning to his law practice in Virginia.  At this point in life, Tazewell decided his talents were much better spent representing clients.  He specialized in commercial and maritime law, which drew him to Norfolk by 1802.  Still a bachelor, Tazewell began courting Miss Ann Nivison and they soon tied the knot in July of that year.[5]  The Tazewells would eventually have at least nine children together.  They are as follows: Louisa Nivison Tazewell (1804-1873), Henry Tazewell (1805-1828), John Nivison Tazewell (1807-1869), Sarah Tazewell (1809-1810), Sarah Ann Tazewell (1812-1892), Littleton Waller Tazewell, Jr. (1815-1848), Ann Elizabeth Tazewell Bradford (1817-1898), Mary Tazewell Waller (1822-1886), and Ella Wickham Tazewell (1826-1885).[6]  As their family continued to grow, religion played a central role for the Tazewells.  Like many Virginians of the time, Mr. Tazewell was an Episcopalian.[7]  

He made a return to politics in 1804 when Norfolk voters elected him to the Virginia House of Delegates where he served for two sessions (1804-1806).  Following the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair (brief maritime battle off the coast of Virginia) in 1807 that caused tensions to boil between America and Great Britain, Norfolk leaders called upon Tazewell to defuse the situation.  He vehemently opposed the War of 1812 just five years later.  Tazewell later returned to the House of Delegates following his election in 1816.  During his political career, Littleton Waller Tazewell, Sr. remained apart from his beloved Ann and their children for what seemed like interminable periods of time.  Ann tended the home during these years since she disliked traveling and could only envision herself living in Norfolk.  Although he missed his family, Tazewell felt that he was needed in the political realm and accepted his responsibilities with a sense of obligation.  The Tazewells moved into their new spacious residence on Granby Street in downtown Norfolk (today known as the Boush-Tazewell House located on Powhatan Avenue) sometime during the 1820s.  However, their life of tranquility ended abruptly in 1828 when 22-year-old son Henry committed suicide, which left a tremendous void for the Tazewell family.[8]

Tazewell won his first U.S. Senate election in 1824 to complete the term of his predecessor John Taylor who died while in office.  Virginia legislators chose Tazewell (until passage of the 17th amendment in 1913 state legislatures elected U.S. senators) at least in part for an ability to communicate clear policy positions on the issues that mattered in his state.  Articulating a view in favor of low tariffs, states’ rights, and limited federal government, Tazewell proved to be a quintessential southern politician.  He won reelection to the Senate in 1829 and eventually served as the president pro tempore.[9]  When the state called for a constitutional convention in Richmond, which was held from October 1829-January 1830, Senator Tazewell played a leading role in rewriting Virginia’s constitution.[10]  Tazewell began his Senate career as a strong Jacksonian Democrat, but he later had a public falling-out with President Andrew Jackson over the nullification crisis of 1832-1833.  The senator thought Jackson had crossed a line by threatening to use force on South Carolina for its actions in nullifying a tariff enacted by Congress.  Although a firm believer in states’ rights, Tazewell disagreed with Vice President John C. Calhoun about the validity of any state to declare a federal law unconstitutional within its borders.  However, he also expressed shock and was deeply troubled by Jackson’s militant posture toward South Carolina during this dispute.  As a result, his relationship with President Jackson suffered severe and irreparable damage.  The widening schism between Tazewell and Jacksonian Democrats in Virginia ultimately led him to resign from the Senate in October 1832.  As he left Congress, Tazewell made clear there was no interest in returning to politics, but this is a stance he could not maintain for long.[11]

Of the most significant issue facing nineteenth-century Americans, Tazewell equivocated when it came to taking a position on slavery.  As a slaveholder, he recognized the controversy brewing in Congress but believed it to be an inappropriate subject for public discourse.  In his mind, there was never a right time to argue over the fate of this peculiar institution.  Although he deliberated on the matter himself, Senator Tazewell failed to bring forth any proposals of his own.  His strategy was to kick the can down the road so a future generation might ultimately settle the slavery question.  He only commented publicly when circumstances compelled him to give a response.  One such instance occurred during the 1820s when actions by the newly formed American Colonization Society (ACS) brought slavery to the forefront.  ACS leaders had begun lobbying Congress for financial backing so that freed slaves could be settled in western Africa (present day Liberia).  Tazewell reviewed their petitions and concluded that avoiding the issue was no longer possible.  He bashed this scheme as unconstitutional.  It was his conviction that the federal government could not infringe upon a state’s jurisdiction by relocating some of its residents in an area outside America, thereby diminishing the political clout of that state.[12]  However, his general attitude on colonization changed within just a few years.  In 1831, Tazewell supported a gradual emancipation plan, which called for owners to receive compensation before blacks would be exiled from Virginia.  The impetus for his sudden policy reversal was Nat Turner’s August revolt that caused much bloodshed and widespread panic among white Virginians.  Tazewell had thus been converted to the colonization movement and became a prominent supporter.[13] 

Despite his pledge to be done with politics when he left the Senate, other notable Virginians persuaded Tazewell to run for governor a few years later.  Elected as a Democrat, he took office in March 1834 as the 26th governor of Virginia.[14]  The slavery issue flared-up again over the next two years.  By 1835, Northern abolitionists had begun a widespread mail campaign designed to expose the evils of slavery.  By circulating pamphlets and other publications across the South, they achieved their intended effect of bringing national attention to their cause.  Southerners were driven into an excited frenzy, which led to civil unrest throughout the region.  In response, Tazewell urged Virginia’s legislature to reach out to northern states in the hope they would crack down on abolitionist societies for disseminating such provocative propaganda.  He also suggested state lawmakers pressure the federal government into quashing the well-coordinated campaign.  The governor demanded that any further distribution of abolitionist literature through the mail must cease immediately.[15] 

It did not take long for Governor Tazewell to become fed-up with the constant partisan bickering that defined his term in Richmond.  The chasm between Tazewell and the Jacksonians seemed just too wide to bridge.  His best efforts at preventing discord were to no avail.  By 1836, just two years since the inauguration, his frustration reached a boiling point.  He could not accede to a demand made by the Jacksonians who had recently won a majority in Richmond.  As a man of principle, instead of capitulating, he resigned as governor and retired from public life.[16]

After departing the Governor’s Mansion, he spent the next several years tending his plantations.  Although he no longer held office, Tazewell remained interested in the nation’s affairs and quietly offered guidance to other leaders.  His family suffered more anguish after youngest son, thirty-two-year-old Littleton Waller Tazewell, Jr. passed away unexpectedly in 1848.  Littleton Waller Tazewell, Sr. outlived his wife who preceded him in death by a few years.  Following the loss of Ann in September 1858, he experienced a swift decline in health until finally succumbing on May 6, 1860.  He was eighty-five years old.  They are both interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk.  Tazewell lived during a time when the issue of slavery engendered mutual distrust between North and South, but he died before the Union was torn asunder less than a year later.[17]  

Sources:

1.               Norma Lois Peterson, “Littleton Waller Tazewell,” Virginia Cavalcade, Spring 1973, 6;

                             “Tazewell County, Virginia,” Wikipedia, accessed January 17, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tazewell_County,_Virginia.

2.        Norma Lois Peterson, Littleton Waller Tazewell (Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1983), x.

3.        Peterson, 1973, 6-7.

4.        Ibid, 7.

5.        Ibid, 8;

                            George H. Tucker, “A Public Man Who Longed for Privacy,” The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Virginia), February 5, 1967, B1.

6.       “Littleton Waller Tazewell,” Findagrave, accessed January 5, 2024,

       https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6654609/littleton-waller-tazewell.

7.       Peterson, 1973, 8. 

8.       Ibid, 7-9.

9.       Ibid, 9.

10.       Peterson, 1983, 176. 

11.      Peterson, 1973, 9-11;

                          Tucker, B2.

12.      Peterson, 1983, 150-151.    

13.      Ibid, 194-196.

14.      Peterson, 1973, 11;

                          “Littleton Waller Tazewell,” Wikipedia, accessed January 4, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littleton_Waller_Tazewell.

15.      Peterson, 1983, 242-243.

16.      Peterson, 1973, 11.

17.      Ibid, 11;

                          Findagrave.

Full Name: Littleton Waller Tazewell, Sr.

Also Known as: Governor Tazewell, Senator Tazewell, Representative Tazewell

Birth Date: December 17, 1774

Birthplace: Williamsburg, Virginia

Parents: Henry Tazewell and Dorothy Elizabeth Waller

Ethnicity: American

Race: Caucasian

Spouse: Ann Stratton Nivison Tazewell

Children: Louisa Nivison Tazewell, Henry Tazewell, John Nivison Tazewell, Sarah Tazewell, Sarah Ann Tazewell, Littleton Waller Tazewell, Jr.,                        Anne Elizabeth Tazewell Bradford, Mary Tazewell Waller, Ella Wikham Tazewell

Marriage Date: July 1802

Marriage Place: Unknown

Death Date: May 6, 1860

Death Place: Norfolk, Virginia

Burial Date: Unknown

Burial Place: Originally interred on Eastern Shore of Virginia. He is currently buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.