University of Virginia Library

WILLIAM BRANCH GILES.

The ancestors of William Branch Giles were early seated in the
colony of Virginia. Christopher Branch, "ancient planter," appears as
a patentee of lands in 1624, and George Giles in 1630, both located in
Henrico County. William Giles conveyed lands in the same county to
Colonel William Byrd in 1681. Another of the name is mentioned, in
an humorous connection, by Colonel William Fontaine, an eye-witness
of the memorable surrender of York, October 19, 1781, who, in a letter
of graphic detail, dated October 26, 1781, and which is preserved in
the autographic collection of the Virginia Historical Society, narrates
the incidental embarrassing personal experience of the erst truculent and
redoubtable British trooper, Colonel Banastre Tarleton: "The hero was
prancing through the streets of York on a very fine, elegant horse, and
was met by a spirited young fellow of the country, who stopped him,
challenged the horse, and ordered him instantly to dismount. Tarleton
halted and paused awhile through confusion; then told the lad if it was
his horse, he supposed he must be given up, but insisted to ride him
some distance out of town to dine with a French officer. This was
more, however, than Mr. Giles was disposed to indulge him in; having
been forced, when he and his horse were taken, to travel a good part of
a night on foot at the point of a bayonet, he therefore refused to trust
him out of sight, and made him dismount in the midst of the street
crowded with spectators."

William Branch Giles was born in Amelia County, Virginia, August
12, 1762. After a preliminary course of instruction at the venerable
William and Mary College, he matriculated at Princeton College, New
Jersey, from whence he graduated with distinction in 1781. Adopting
the profession of the law, he was admitted to the bar, and in the courts
of Petersburg, Virginia, soon attained a lucrative practice. In August,
1790, he entered the arena of politics, first as a Federalist, and was
elected a delegate from Virginia to the United States House of Representatives.

In December of the same year, however, he separated himself
from the Federalists upon the question of establishing a United
States Bank, and entered the ranks of the Republican, or Democratic,
party, and was thereafter a bitter antagonist of his former party associates.
January 23, 1793, he charged Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary
of the Treasury, with corruption and peculation in office. In 1796
he opposed the creation of a National Navy, and the ratification of
Jay's treaty, and the proposed war with France in 1798. In that year
he declined a seat in Congress that he might aid James Madison in the
Virginia Assembly (to which body he was elected from Amelia County)
in passing the celebrated resolutions of 1798. In 1800 he was again
elected to Congress, and was one of the most zealous supporters of
President Jefferson, who is said to have conferred with him almost
nightly during the sessions of Congress, to assure himself that no untoward
conviviality of Mr. Giles might deprive him of efficient support
on the following day. In 1803 Mr. Giles declined a re-election to Congress,
and was succeeded in that body by John W. Eppes, the son-in-law
of Mr. Jefferson. In August, 1804, Mr. Giles was elected by the
Executive Council of Virginia to the United States Senate, to fill the
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Wilson Cary Nicholas, for
whose unexpired term he was first elected by the State Assembly early
in December following, and on the 4th of the month by the same body,
for the ensuing Senatorial term, commencing March 4, 1805, and ending
March 4, 1811. Mr. Giles was re-elected for another term by the
Assembly, January 2, 1811, but resigned his seat November 23, 1815,
before the completion of his term, which did not expire until March 4,
1817. He zealously and with conspicuous ability supported the administration
during the war with Great Britain, 1812-1815. He re-entered
public life in 1816 as the delegate from Amelia County, in the Virginia
Assembly, but ill-health demanded his retirement to his farm in Amelia
County. Some political essays from Mr. Giles which were published in
the Richmond Enquirer in 1824, attracting the attention of Henry Clay,
he sent to Mr. Giles, in the month of April of that year, a speech on
the Tariff which he had recently delivered in Congress, accompanying
the speech with an ironical epistle, in which after adroitly complimenting
Mr. Giles on his ability and statesmanship, of the exercise of which the
government had been so long and unfortunately deprived because of his
ill-health, he amusingly congratulates Mr. Giles upon his finding time to
withdraw himself from the disputes with his miller and overseer, in
which he had been contentedly engaged, and to again give the public
the benefit of his fine talents in such brilliant contributions to the press.
Mr. Giles, singularly enough, failed to discern the biting humor of this
effusion, and made a cordial response to Mr. Clay, who made merry
with his friends over the matter. This being reported to Mr. Giles,
he, in an irate mood, addressed, February 19, 1826, a communication
to Mr. Clay which was tantamount to a challenge to a deadly encounter.
The son of Mr. Giles, Thomas T. Giles, was the bearer of the communication,
which he tendered Mr. Clay in the presence of Hon.
William S. Archer. Mr. Clay declined to receive it upon the ground
that he could not "recognize Mr. Thomas T. Giles as an organ free
from objection." The whole correspondence was subsequently published
by Mr. Giles. In 1826 Mr. Giles again entered the Virginia
Assembly as a delegate from Amelia County, and in the spring of the
following year presented in that body certain resolutions calling for an
inquiry into the relative rights of the general and State governments.
In the same year he was elected by the Assembly Governor of Virginia,
which office he held by annual re-election until 1830. He was a
member also of that brilliant constellation of genius, the State Constitutional
Convention of 1829-30, and engaged prominently in the important
debates in that body. He died December 4, 1830, at his seat,
"The Wigwam," in Amelia County, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
In an obituary, which appeared in the Richmond Enquirer, he is recorded
as having been: "In his public life he was distinguished as a zealous
patriot, an honest politician and an able statesman, adoring liberty and
hating despotism—devoted to his country, but unprejudiced in his devotions—loving
the Constitution and jealous of its violation—attached
to the Federal Government, but despising its usurpations—he executed
to the last the best energies of his mind in endeavoring to maintain the
rights of the State and the liberties of the people. * * * The
most spotless integrity and liberality was conspicuous in all his intercourse
with his fellow-man, an unreserved candor in his communications
which disdained everything like concealment. A charm of conversation
and a courtesy of manner which passes all description, won for him
the love and admiration of all who could feel and estimate such qualities.
Having spent a life of usefulness and distinction, after sixteen
years of disease he gradually sunk into the arms of death with the
serenity and calmness of philosophy and the peace and quiet of an easy
conscience."

The success in public life of Mr. Giles, it is generally conceded, was
due scarce less to his proficiency in parliamentary tactics than to his
ability in debate. It is true that he was a man of chivalric impulse,
and his championship, in 1815, of the unfortunate cousin of John Randolph
of Roanoke (Miss Ann Cary Randolph, then Mrs. Gouverneur
Morris), in the inhuman assault of Randolph upon her, made John Randolph
his bitter enemy. Mr. Giles published a "Speech on the Embargo,"
in 1808; "A Political Letter to the People of Virginia," in 1813; a series
of letters, signed "A Constituent," in the Richmond Enquirer, in January,
1818, against the plan for a general education; letters of invective against
James Monroe and Henry Clay, arraigning them for their "hobbies," the
South American cause, the Greek cause, internal improvements and the

Tariff. He addressed a letter to Chief Justice John Marshall disdaining
the expressions, not the general sentiments, in regard to Washington,
ascribed to him in the Life of Washington. He also appeared before the
public as a correspondent of John Quincy Adams. His writings were
collected and published in 1827, under the general title of Miscellanies.
Giles County, Virginia, formed in 1806 from the counties of Monroe
and Tazewell, was named in his honor. He married, March 3, 1810,
Miss Frances Anne Gwynn. Of the issue of this happy marriage, a son,
Thomas T. Giles, a member of the Richmond bar, and long the zealous
chairman of the Executive Committee of the Virginia Historical
Society, died January 18, 1883, in the eightieth year of his age. Two
daughters married respectively the late A. D. Townes, and the late
Gustavus A. Myers, a distinguished lawyer. The son of the last, the
late Major William Branch Myers, was an artist of merit, and several
portraits executed by him are preserved in the collections of the Virginia
Historical Society, where also is an excellent full length portrait
of Governor Giles. He is represented seated before a table with writing
materials, and with a crutch, rendered necessary from rheumatic
affliction, resting against his chair. His countenance bears a shrewd
expression. His dress is that of his day—the striking ruffled shirt, blue
coat with brass buttons, etc. The tout ensemble impresses one as that of a
quondam fox-hunting English squire, who enjoyed the good things of this
world with keen zest.