James Pleasants
James Pleasants Jr. was an American politician who served in the U.S. Senate from 1819 to 1822 and was the 22nd Governor of Virginia from 1822 to 1825.
Early and family life
Pleasants was born in Goochland County in the Colony of Virginia on October 24, 1769. He pursued classical studies and graduated from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. He later read law under the guidance of Judge Fleming.Pleasants was the son of prominent Quaker James Cocke Pleasants and his wife Ann Randolph, the daughter of Isham Randolph of Dungeness and granddaughter of William Randolph. He had a sister, Susan.
Career
After admission to the Virginia bar, Pleasants began his legal practice in Amelia County, Virginia in 1791.Goochland County voters elected Pleasants to represent them in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1797. Although the initial victor of that contest appeared to be Smith Payne, a court determined Pleasants won, and he was re-elected many times to that par-time position. He was a Democratic Republican aligned with Thomas Jefferson and supported the declarations of 1798-90. However, in the turbulent politics of that era, voters repeatedly refused to re-elect his fellow delegate, so Pleasants served alongside Thomas Miller, Heath Jones Miller, William Lee, James Carter and his initial rival, Smith Payne. Beginning in 1802, Pleasants served as clerk of the House of Delegates. According to one source, Pleasants resigned upon being elected to Congress as discussed below. On January 30, 1811, he was appointed to the Court of Appeals but resigned almost immediately. William Munford succeeded him as Clerk of the House of Delegates.
In 1810, Pleasants successfully ran for Congress as a Democratic-Republican to the Twelfth and the four succeeding Congresses. He served from March 4, 1811, to December 14, 1819, when he resigned, having been elected a United States Senator. Pleasants served as chairman of the Committee on Public Expenditures, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Navy.
He was elected on December 10, 1819, as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John W. Eppes and served from December 14, 1819, to December 15, 1822, when he resigned. He was chair of the Naval Affairs Committee. He was chosen as Governor of Virginia, serving 1822–1825. Pleasants was a delegate to the State constitutional conventions in 1829 and 1830. He retired and lived on his estate, "Contention," near Goochland, Goochland County, Virginia.
Slavery
By the time this man's grandfather, John Pleasants III died in 1771, Quakers reformers had come to oppose slavery, believing that ownership of other individuals was contrary to their belief in the religious equality of all persons. This boy's uncle, Robert Pleasants, influenced his father to write a will manumitting all his slaves as well as naming Robert as executor of the estate. However, freeing slaves was illegal under colonial law, and only became legal in Virginia in 1782. Another uncle, Jonathan Pleasants, who died in 1776, wrote a similar will, and also named Robert Pleasants as executor. Robert Pleasants freed the enslaved allocated to him, and tried to convince other relatives to do the same, but other family members objected. Robert Pleasants filed many legislative petitions, then hired future U.S. Supreme Court justice John Marshall to try to enforce the manumission provisions in both wills. The result was a lawsuit against Cary Pleasants and other family members. The 1798 decision by Chancellor George Wythe in Pleasants v Pleasants, was ultimately affirmed by Edmund Pendleton and other judges of the Virginia Court of Appeals in 1799, but on much narrower grounds.This James Pleasants was not a lawyer directly involved in the legal case. He enslaved 17 people in Goochland County in 1810, 18 people in Goochland County in 1820 and 16 people in Goochland County in 1830.
Death and legacy
Pleasants died at Contention on November 9, 1836. He was buried on his estate. His brother-in-law and law partner, Eugene C. Massie, named his son James Pleasants Massie after Pleasants. The name has been handed down now to a total of four generations.Death and legacy
His son John Hampden Pleasants founded the Richmond Whig newspaper, married twice, and later died in a duel with Thomas Ritchie, Jr.Pleasants is the namesake of a residence hall at William and Mary. Pleasants County, West Virginia, was named after him in 1851.