Background
PURYEAR, Richard Clauselle was born on February 9, 1801 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of John and Sally (Clausel) Puryear.
PURYEAR, Richard Clauselle was born on February 9, 1801 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of John and Sally (Clausel) Puryear.
Public school.
He attended the common schools, married, and, in the 1830s, became a planter near Huntsville, North Carolina. He was a Baptist. At one time, Puryear was magistrate of Surry County, North Carolina. In 1838, 1844, 1846, and 1852, he was elected to the state House, and he also served at one time in the state Senate.
He was a Whig in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857 but lost a campaign for reelection in 1856. In 1859, he was elected to the House on the American party ticket. At the time of the North Carolina state secession convention, Puryear was a unionist, but he was later a delegate to the provisional Confederate Congress at Richmond.
He was a member of the Committee on Naval Affairs. When his term ended, he returned to his farm in North Carolina. Nothing further is known of his wartime career, save that he supported William W. Holden’s peace movement.
After the war, he planted and in 1866, was a delegate to a peace congress in Philadelphia. He was an ally of Governor Jonathan Worth and sought to make an alliance between the Republican party and its southern Democratic supporters.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.