Berkeley County WV Archives Biographies.....Faulkner, Charles James Sr. And Jr. 1806 - November 1, 1884
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Author: James Grant Wilson and John Fiske

FAULKNER, Charles James, lawyer, b. in Martinsburg, Va., in 1806; d. in
Boydville, W. Va., 1 Nov., 1884. He was graduated at Georgetown university, D.
C., studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. Three years later he
became a member of the Virginia house of delegates, where he introduced a
measure for the gradual abolition of slavery in Virginia, declaring that all
children born of slave parents after 1 July, 1840, should be free, but the
proposition was defeated. Mr. Faulkner after this devoted himself with success
to his profession. He served as a commissioner on the disputed boundary-line
between Virginia and Maryland. He was elected a state senator in 1841 but
resigned in the following year. In 1848 he was elected to the house of
delegates, and introduced a bill that was passed and sent to congress, which
became the famous fugitive slave law of 1850. He was a member of the convention
for the revision of the state consitution in 1850. The next year he was elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was re-elected by the Democratic vote
for four successive terms, serving from 1 Dec., 1851 till 3 March, 1859. When
James Buchanan became president in 1857, he offered Mr. Faulkner the mission to
France, which he at first declined, but accepted in 1859. Louis Napoleon was
encouraged by him to sympathize with the south in the approaching contest,
rather than with the nation, and accordingle President Lincoln recalled Mr.
Faulkner, who, on his return to the United States, was arrested and confined in
Fort Warren as a disloyal citizen. When released in exchange for Alfred Ely, a
member of congress who was imprisoned in Richmond, he joined the Confederate
army, and served on the staff of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson until the death of
that officer. For some years he was debarred the rights of citizenship on
account of having borne arms against the government, but in 1872 his political
disabilities were removed. He was a member of the State constitutional
convention of West Virginia in 1872, and in 1874 was elected to the U.S. house
of representatioves for the term that expired on 3 March, 1877. He was an
unsuccessful candidate subsequently for the U.S. senate and for the governorship
of West Virginia, after which he retired to private life.-- His son, Charles
James, senator, b. in Martinsburg, W. Va., about 1840, was graduated at the
University of Virginia, served as a private in the Confederate army during the
civil war, and after its close studied law, and rose rapidly in the profession.
In 1880 he was appointed a circuit judge, to fill an unexpired term, and in 1882
was elected to the same office. On 5 May 1887, he was elected as a Democrat to
the U.S. Senate from West Virginia.

Additional Comments:
p. 421-422 of Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography

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