United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
Search the website

TUCKER, John Randolph

1823–1897

Office

Representative

State/Territory

Virginia

Party

Democrat

Congress(es)

44th (1875–1877), 45th (1877–1879), 46th (1879–1881), 47th (1881–1883), 48th (1883–1885), 49th (1885–1887)

Leadership Positions

Democratic Caucus Chair - 49th

Jump To

Biography

TUCKER, John Randolph, (son of Henry St. George Tucker [1780–1848] and father of Henry St. George Tucker [1853–1932]), a Representative from Virginia; born in Winchester, Frederick County, Va., on December 24, 1823; attended a private school and Richmond Academy, and was graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1844; was admitted to the bar in 1845 and commenced practice in Winchester, Va.; attorney general of Virginia 1857-1865; professor of equity and public law at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., in 1870; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1887); chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on the Judiciary (Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth Congresses); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1886; elected professor of constitutional law at Washington and Lee University in 1888, and served until his death; president of the American Bar Association in 1894; died in Lexington, Va., February 13, 1897; interment in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Winchester, Va.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

[ Top ]

External Research Collections

Boston Public Library

Boston, MA
Papers: 1 letter.

College of William and Mary
Earl Gregg Swem Library

Williamsburg, VA
Papers: In the Brown, Coalter, Tucker Papers, 1780-1929, approximately 3,433 items. Persons represented include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Samuel Bassett French Papers, 1858-1892, 52 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Warner Throckmorton Jones Papers, ca. 1807-1891, approximately 2,674 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.

Duke University Libraries
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library

Durham, NC
Papers: 1848-1879, 3 items. Letters of John Randolph Tucker concerning his family, his law practice, the family of Edmund Randolph, and a request for help in securing a Federal job.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: In the Thomas S. Bocock Papers, 1760-1897, 2.5 feet. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the James J. White Papers, 1851-1894, approximately 375 items. Persons represented include John Randolph Tucker.

The Library of Virginia
Archives Branch

Richmond, VA
Papers: 1842, 28 items. The papers consist of correspondence from John Randolph Tucker to Muscoe R.H. Garnett, written between October 30, 1842 and January 24. The correspondence begins immediately after Garnett's completion of his law degree at the University of Virginia while Tucker was attending his last year. Tucker's letter to his intimate friend largely comment on and describe his love affairs and other personal relationships, but also record his developing political, religious, and social views including states' rights, western development, and individual campaigns and political personalities.
Papers: In the Garnett-Mercer-Hunter Families Papers, 1713-1853, 80 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Lewis Edwin Harvie Letters, 1876-1885, 283 pages and 17 leaves. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In Tucker-Randolph family papers, 1781-1885. 1 reel of microfilm. Originals at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Finding aid in repository.

University of North Carolina
Southern Historical Collection

Chapel Hill, NC
Papers: In the Tucker Family Papers, 1790-1932, 22 feet. Persons represented include John Randolph Tucker.

University of Virginia Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Charlottesville, VA
Papers: In the Barbour Family Papers, 1672-1930, 1600 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Hubard Family Papers, 1749-1951, approximately 9,600 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Hunter-Garnett Family Papers, ca. 1703-1970, approximately 2000 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Irvine, Saunders, Davis, and Watts Families Papers, 1745-1914, 3000 items. Persons represented include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Papers of the Thornhill Family and of Thomas S. Bocock 1760-1897, approximately 2.6 linear feet. Persons represented include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Virginia Political Correspondence, 1779-1930, 431 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Washington Family Papers, 1770-1883, 50 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.

Washington and Lee University Library

Lexington, VA
Papers: In the Juliet S. Bradford Correspondence, 1884, 1 folder. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the Tucker Family Papers, ca. 1794-1931, approximately 80 items. Correspondents include John Randolph Tucker.
Papers: In the James J. White Papers, 1851-1894, approximately 375 items. Other authors include John Randolph Tucker.
[ Top ]

Bibliography / Further Reading

Cummings, Homer Stillé. Address by Honorable Homer Cummings, Attorney General of the United States, delivered at the dedication of the new law school building erected in honor of John Randolph Tucker at the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, June 11, 1936. [Washington: Government Printing Office, 1938].

Davis, J. W. "John Randolph Tucker: The Man and His Work." John Randolph Tucker Lectures, pp. 11-36. Lexington, Va.: Washington and Lee University, 1952.

Election of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, of the State of Virginia, on Thursday the 28th day of May 1863. State ticket. For Governor, George Wythe Munford, of the City of Richmond. For Lieutenant Governor, Samuel Price, of Greenbrier. For Attorney General, John Randolph Tucker, of Frederick. [Richmond: N.p., 1863].

Hamilton, Alexander. Memorial of Hon, John Randolph Tucker, presented and read at the ninth annual meeting, held at the Hot Springs of Virginia, August 3, 4 and 5, 1897. Richmond: James E. Goode Printing Company, 1897.

Tucker, John Randolph. Address delivered before the graduating class of the Law Department of the University of Maryland, at the annual commencement, June 1, 1877. Baltimore: Printed for the law faculty and the graduates by King Bros., 1877.

------. An address delivered before the Society of alumni of the University of Virginia, at its annual meeting ... on the 28th June, 1851. Pub. by order of the Society. Richmond: H. K. Ellyson, printer, 1851.

------. Address of John Randolph Tucker, Esq. Richmond: C. H. Wynne, printer, 1854.

------. The American Bar Association. Philadelphia: Dando Printing and Publishing Company, 1888.

------. Centennial celebration of American independence. Speech of Hon. J. Randolph Tucker ... in the House of Representatives, January 19, 1876. Washington: [Government Printing Office], 1876.

------. The Constitution of the United States: A critical discussion of its genesis, development, and interpretation. Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1899. Reprint, Edited by Henry St. George Tucker. Littleton, Colo.: F.B. Rothman, 1981.

------. The history of the Federal convention of 1787 and of its work. An address delivered before the graduating classes at the sixty-third anniversary of the Yale Law School, on June 28th, 1887. New Haven: Law Department of Yale College, 1887.

------. Influence of Presbyterian polity on civil and religious liberty in Virginia: An address delivered before the Centennial Meeting of the Synod of Virginia, at New Providence Church, Rockbridge Co., Va., October 24, 1888. Rickmond, Va.: Whittet & Shepperson, printers ..., 1889.

------. Oration delivered by Hon. John Randolph Tucker, April 7, 1888, at the celebration of the centennial of the founding of the Northwest at Marietta, Ohio. Columbus: Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, 1888.

------. Oration of Hon. John Randolph Tucker, LL. D. Columbus: N.p., [1889].

------. Paper read before the Social Science Association, September 6, 1877, at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on the relations of the United States to each other, as modified by the war and the constitutional amendments. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1877.

------. Revision of the tariff. Speech of John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia, in the House of Representatives, May 8, 1878. Washington: [Government Printing Office], 1878.

------. The southern church justified in its support of the South in the present war: A lecture, delivered before the Young Men's Christian Association, of Richmond, on the 21st May, 1863. Richmond: W.H. Clemmitt, printer, 1863.

[ Top ]

Committee Assignments

  • House Committee - Ways and Means - Chair
[ Top ]
Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov