Frances B. Deane, Jr., Letter

Member of the Virginia General Assembly from Campbell County from 1853 to 1858. Letter written June 28, 1857, to William Ballard Preston (1805-1862), a Montgomery County, Virginia, lawyer who rose to the office of Secretary of the Navy (1849-1850) under Zachary Taylor. In 1858 Preston was involved in the negotiations to establish a line of steamers from Norfolk, Virginia, to the west coast of Africa, which failed to materialize due to the Civil War. Deane writes Preston about the possibility of the state raising the capital for the line of steamships, and hopes that Preston will secure the cooperation of Mr. Hunter's friends in the Legislature. He refers to Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, a U.S. Senator at the time who later became the Confederate States of America Secretary of State.