the Upshur family was Abel Parker Upshur, jurist, cabinet official, and
publicist.
The Upshur family on the Eastern Shore dates back to the 17th
century when Arthur Upshur settled in this region. Abel Parker Upshur, one of
twelve children, was the son of Littleton and Anna (Parker) Upshur. He was born
in Northampton County on June 17, 1791. His father, Littleton, was such a
staunch individualist and rabid Federalist that when he was a member of the
Virginia Legislature in 1809 he voted against resolutions expressing thanks to
President Thomas Jefferson for his services to America. Later, although the
Federalists in general opposed the war, he served as captain in the War of 1812.
Abel Parker Upshur inherited some of this spirit from his father. While
studying at Princeton in 1807 young Abel was expelled for participating in a
student rebellion. After this he entered Yale where he continued his classical
education but did not graduate. He started out on his chosen career of law by
studying with William West of Richmond where he also began his legal practice.
Although he did not return to his estate in Northampton County until the 1820's,
it seems that he began to represent his native county in the Virginia House of
the Legislature as early as 1812-13 and again in 1825 after he returned to the
Shore.
As a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-30, he was a
strong opponent of proposed democratic changes in the state constitution. In
denying the existence of any original principles of government, Upshur argued
instead that the interest and necessities of the people decided the principles
of government. He argued further that the theory of natural law should be
rejected, that the only natural law was the "law of force...the only rule
of right." In American politics Upshur associated with the pro-slavery
group and the extreme state-rightists.
Although Upshur held higher positions of honor and authority, it was probably
as a jurist that he is best viewed. From 1826 to 1841 he was on the bench of the
Virginia Supreme Court. And it was during this stage of his life that he did
much writing on such subjects as slavery, banks and government. These writings,
as one authority has expressed it, characterized Upshur as a
"particularistic jurist and planter-philosopher of Tidewater
Virginia."
Representing the extreme conservative Southerner of pre-Civil War decades,
Upshur considered the South as the only bulwark of conservatism against the
growing forces of radicalism, agrarianism, and leveling theories of democracy
which were growing in the North. In 1839 he expressed such views when he wrote:
"In this country Liberty is destined to perish a suicide...And perish when
she may, I am much deceived if her last entrenchment, her latest abiding place,
will not be found in the slave holding states."
Somewhat in agreement with the famous doctrine of John C. Calhoun, Upshur
rejected the rule of numerical majority for one of law, which he believed to be
the basis of true liberty. In a letter to a friend concerning Forr's Rebellion
of Rhode Island in 1841, Upshur wrote: "This is the very madness of
democracy, and a fine illustration of the workings of the majority
principle." Upshur's friends regarded his pamphlet, "A Brief Enquiry
into the True Nature and Character of Our Federal Government," (1840) as an
excellent refutation of the nationalistic theory of the federal constitution,
and in 1863 it was reprinted by the Northern Democrats to explain the political
philosophy of the Confederacy.
At the College of William and Mary in 1841, he spoke before an assembly of
the various literary societies upon the subject, "The True Theory of
Government." In the address he claimed the philosophy of natural rights is
one that "overlooks all social obligations, denies the inheritable quality
of property, unfrocks the priest, and laughs at the marriage tie."
Besides his various writings and speeches concerning the theories of
government, Upshur often expressed his views on banks, specie, credit, and
indebtedness. On one occasion he urged the minimum regulation of banks,
believing that the general laws of the country and common law afford the people
with ample means of keeping banks within proper limits.
President Tyler in September of 1841 appointed Upshur to Secretary of the
Navy, a post which he held until 1843 when he succeeded Daniel Webster as
Secretary of State. As an ardent Southerner and expansionist, Upshur felt that
Texas was vital to the security of the South. Thus he was largely responsible
for the reopening of negotiations with the Republic of Texas for annexation to
the United States. This work, however, was interrupted by his sudden accidental
death. In 1844 he was with a group of officials on board the battleship
Princeton to witness some experiments with a large wrought-iron gun. Upon third
firing of the gun, there was an explosion, which killed Upshur along with
several others. Thus his work for the annexation of Texas to be completed by his
successor, John C. Calhoun.
Abel Parker Upshur married twice during his lifetime, first to Elizabeth
Dennis and next to his cousin, Elizabeth Upshur, who with their daughter
survived him. The famous Upshur estate, Vaucluse, is located on Hungars Creek,
near Bridgetown, Northampton County, Virginia. Built in 1784, Vaulcluse is today
one of the showplaces of the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
Return to
Delmarva Heritage Series article index