Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the R. L. Caruthers Papers #1416, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mary Moore Martin of Lebanon, Tenn., in October 1947.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Suzanne Ruffing, July 1996

Encoded by: Lynn Holdzkom, February 2006

This collection was processed with support from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Caruthers, R. L. (Robert Looney), 1800-1882.
• Cumberland University--History.
• Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 1799-1871.
• Foster, Ephraim Hubbard, 1794-1854.
• Green, Nathan, 1792-1866.
• Lawyers--Tennessee--History--19th century.
• Lebanon (Tenn.)--History--19th century.
• Plantations--Tennessee.
• Practice of law--Tennessee--History--19th century.
• Stewart, Alexander Peter, 1821-1908.
• Tennessee--Politics and government--To 1865.
• United States--Politics and government--1841-1845.
• Zollicoffer, Felix Kirk, 1812-1862.

Robert Looney Caruthers was born in Smith County, Tenn., on 31 July 1800. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits from 1817-1819, then attended Woodward's Academy near Columbia, Tenn., and Greenville College, 1820-1821. He studied law in the office of Judge Samuel Powell at Greenville and was admitted to the bar in 1823. In 1824, Caruthers was clerk of the State House of Representatives, then clerk of the chancery court of Smith County, and editor of the Tennessee Republican. He moved to Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., in 1826; was State's attorney, 1827-1832; and was made Brigadier-General of the Tennessee militia in 1834. In 1835, Caruthers was elected to the State House of Representatives and, in 1841, was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress (4 March 1841-3 March 1843). He was the founder of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1842 and of its Law Department in 1847.

Caruthers served as presidential elector on the Whig ticket of Clay and Frelinghuysen in 1844; was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee in 1852 to fill a vacancy; and then elected to the position in 1854, which he held until the beginning of the Civil War. He was a member of the Peace Congress of 1861 held in Washington, D.C. He was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1862, but never served because of the occupation of the state by federal forces.

At the close of the Civil War, Caruthers became dean of the Law Department at Cumberland University, in which capacity he served until his death. He was also the first president of the board of trustees of Cumberland University. Caruthers was at one time "Worthy Patriarch" of the Sons of Temperance for Tennessee and was also a ruling elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He died in Lebanon, 2 October 1882, and was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery.

For further information see Biographical Dictionary of the American Congress.

The collection pertains to only a part of lawyer, politican, and law professor R. L. Caruthers's political career and consists in bulk of letters received, 1840-1849, and lesser amounts, 1823-1839 and 1866-1870. There are no papers from 1854 to August 1865. The papers chiefly concern Caruthers's law practice, state and national politics, Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tenn., before and after the Civil War and, after the war, plantation management. Correspondents include Andrew Jackson Donelson, Ephraim Hubbard Foster, Nathan Green, Alexander Peter Steward, and Felix K. Zollicoffer.

Separated folder (SEP-1416/1)