Berkeley-Jefferson County WV Archives Biographies.....Faulkner, Charles James Sr. 1806 - 1884j ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Alice Warner http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 June 9, 2009, 6:55 pm Author: Virgil A. Lewis Charles James Faulkner, Sr., who at the age of eight years was left an orphan without a relative in America, was born in Martinsburg, July 2, 1806. He was the son of Major James Faulkner, a distinguished officer in the war of 1812, and Sarah Mackay, whose father, William Mackay, was an officer in the Revolutionary War. He entered Georgetown College in 1816, and graduating therefrom in 1822, he attended the law school of Chancellor Tucker at Winchester, and in 1829 was admitted to the bar. In 1832, he represented Berkeley county in the General Assembly, where his argument favoring the gradual emancipation of slaves in Virginia at once rendered him a prominent figure in State politics. At this time Maryland instituted a suit against Virginia, the object being to establish the claim of the former to a large tract of territory on the northern boundary of the latter. Mr. Faulkner was appointed by Virginia to prepare a report on the boundary between the two States. This he did, and so elaborate, and such a lucid exposition of the points involved was it, that it at once settled the controversy. The legal proceedings were dismissed, nor has the claim of Maryland to the disputed territory ever been revived. His report is found in full in Part First of this work. In 1833, he again represented Berkeley county in the Assembly, after which, having wedded the daughter of General Elisha Boyd, he retired from public life, and for eight years devoted his energies to the practice of his profession, and the material development of his native county. In 1841, he was elected a member of the United States Senate, but resigned his seat before the expiration of his term. He was an earnest advocate of the annexation of Texas, and in 1846, actively supported the government in its declaration of war against Mexico. In 1848, he was again a member of the Assembly, in which body he submitted a report, most of the provisions of which Congress the next year embodied in the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1850, he was one of the representatives from Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the State Constitutional Convention, in which he championed the views of the people of the western part of the State. He was elected to Congress in 1851, and by consecutive reflections served four terms. Upon the election of Buchanan to the Presidency, Mr. Faulkner was given the mission to France, and being promptly confirmed by the Senate, arrived in Paris, February 18, 1857, and was officially presented to the Emperor on the 4th of March. Upon the election of Mr. Lincoln, he resigned his mission, and returning to Washington, was arrested and held as a hostage for Henry S. Magraw, State Treasurer of Pennsylvania, and confined in the city jail. Subsequently he was removed to Fort Lafayette, New York Harbor, and later to Fort Warren, near Boston, where, December 9, 1881, he was released by exchange, and returned to Virginia. He served as Adjutant-General on the staff of Stonewall Jackson, and after the war, as soon as permitted by the laws of West Virginia, resumed the practice of his profession at Martinsburg. He was one of the counsel on behalf of West Virginia in the suit brought by Virginia to determine which should exercise jurisdiction in the counties of Berkeley and Jefferson. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention which framed the present State Constitution, and in 1872 he was again elected to Congress, but declined reelection. He died November 1, 1884, and was laid to rest in the family burying ground at Martinsburg. Additional Comments: From History of West Virginia in Two Parts by Virgil A. Lewis, Berkeley County entry. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/berkeley/bios/faulkner27gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wvfiles/ File size: 4.2 Kb