William Branch Giles

Background

William Branch Giles was born on August 12, 1762, in Amelia County, Virginia.

Education

Giles was sent first to Hampden-Sidney College and then, with a slave, to Princeton, where he graduated in 1781. He studied law under George Wythe at William and Mary, and in 1786 was admitted to the bar.

Career

Occupied as a practising lawyer, with his headquarters at Petersburg, Virginia, until he entered Congress on December 7, 1790, Giles gained considerable professional success, particularly in British debt cases, in which he represented the creditors and a nationalistic point of view.

Completely unsuccessful in his Anti-Federalist activities, in which he was more zealous than his own party leaders, he resigned from Congress in October 1798 and was elected to the Virginia General Assembly.

Here he supported the Resolution of 1798 and Madison’s Report of 1799. He went so far in his hostility to the administration as to declare, probably for political effect, that he was favorable to disunion.

Following the victory of Jefferson, Giles returned to Congress in 1801 and became administration leader.

Because of ill health, he did not stand for re-election in 1802, but in November 1804 entered the Senate, where he continued his loyal support of Jefferson and his war on the judiciary.

In March 1815, he retired with what grace he could and, though he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates for the session of 1816-17, remained practically aloof from politics until 1824, when he launched the first of many literary assaults on Monroe, Clay, and John Quincy Adams in the name of state rights.

In 1826, he returned to the Virginia Assembly, where he championed the well-known resolutions of 1827 against the tariff and internal improvements.

Elected governor in 1827, he served until 1830 and continued to inveigh against federal usurpations. A number of his speeches and pamphlets, chiefly falling within the last stage of his career, were published in 1829 under the title, Political Miscellanies.

Death came on December 4, 1830, at his spacious home in Amelia, “Wigwam, ” among constituents who had always been loyal.

Achievements

• Entering politics, Giles was elected to the First Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Theodorick Bland, reelected to the Second Congress and to the next three succeeding Congresses, serving (1790-98). After his term, he was a member Virginia State House of Delegates, (1798-1800) and elected as a Democratic Republican to the Seventh Congress, serving (1801-03). In 1803, he was appointed as a Democratic Republican to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Wilson C. Nicholas, serving until 1815. He was then again a member Virginia State House of Delegates. In 1827, he was elected as a Democratic Republican the 24th Governor of Virginia, serving until 1830. Giles County, Virginia and Giles County, Tennessee are both named in his honor.

Works

More photos

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  • To the honorable the Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Delegates of Virginia

    (The Making of the Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 ...)

  • Mr. Giles' Speech, Delivered in the Senate of the United States, on Thursday, 24th November, 1808, on the Resolution of Mr. Hillhouse, to Repeal the Embargo Laws. --

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Public defaulters brought to light: in a series of letters addressed to the people of the United States.

    (Title: Public defaulters brought to light : in a series o...)

  • Mr. Giles' Speech in the Senate of the United States, on the Resolution Offered by Mr. Hillhouse to Repeal the Several Acts Laying an Embargo, December 2, 1808 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Mr. Giles' Speech in the Senate of the Unite...)

  • Sspeech delivered in the Senate of the United States

    (Mr. Giles' speech, delivered in the Senate of the United ...)

Politics

From almost the beginning of his congressional career, Giles identified himself with the opposition to Hamilton’s centralizing policies.

He contributed to the Jeffersonian cause great skill in debate and a rash audacity which led at times to grave discomfiture. He introduced the famous resolutions inquiring into and condemning Hamilton’s conduct of the treasury, which resulted in the overwhelming victory and apparent vindication of that statesman.

He bitterly opposed Jay’s Treaty, ungraciously objected to the tone of adulation in the answer to Washington’s last message to Congress, and was a prime mover in the passage of the resolution which led to the revelation of the X. Y. Z. Papers, so disastrous to Republican fortunes.

He strongly championed the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, and again excelled his revered leader in partisanship.

In the impeachment of Justice Chase, he sought to establish a theory of impeachment which would permit of the subsequent removal of Marshall. He actively favored the election of Madison in 1808, but soon passed into the opposition.

He vented his hostility chiefly against Gallatin, whom he now detested, and later against Monroe. From 1809, he was a “War Hawk, ” advocating governmental vigor as strongly as he had denounced it in the days of Hamilton and John Adams, and during the War of 1812, he was a leader of the “malcontent junto, ” bitterly opposing the administration.

Though opposed to the calling of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829-30, he was a member of it. Here he stood for conservatism against reform, for Tidewater against the West, thus proving at last disloyal to Jefferson, the only statesman he had consistently supported.

Views

Quotations: "It is not the purpose nor right of Congress] to attend to what generosity and humanity require, but to what the Constitution and their duty require. "

Personality

Personal animosities frequently marred the clarity of Giles's political judgment and rendered his career erratic and essentially destructive. His unusual ability as a debater is attested by the analogy drawn by John Randolph and others between him and Charles James Fox.

Like Patrick Henry and Henry Clay, he learned more from men than books. Unprepossessing in person and with no graces of oratory, he was a formidable fighter in a legislative assembly.

Not without demagogy, he voiced the discontent of his district and state until he came at last to support local privilege. History has not been kind to him, but must at least recognize his courage and ability.

Connections

Giles was twice married: in 1797 to Martha Peyton Tabb, and on February 22, 1810, to Frances Ann Gwynn; and left issue.

Father:

William Giles

Died in 1727.

Mother:

Ann (Branch) Giles

Wife:

Martha Peyton Tabb Giles

October 1777 - July 1808

Wife:

Frances Ann Gwynn

Daughter:

Anne E. Giles Halyburton

9 May 1816 - 17 May 1883

Daughter:

Harriet Peyton Giles Nash

24 August 1805 - April 1874

Daughter:

Frances A. Giles Townes

9 June 1819 - 19 September 1861

Son:

Thomas Peyton Giles

1812 - 30 October 1854

Son:

Thomas Tabb Giles

22 December 1803 - January 1883

Son:

William Branch Giles

10 December 1811 - 24 January 1862

References

• William Branch Giles: A Study in the Politics of Virginia and the Nation From 1790 to 1830 (Classic Reprint)
• William Branch Giles: A Biography