Robert Craig (representative)

Robert Craig (* 1792 in Christiansburg, Montgomery County, Virginia; † November 25, 1852 in Salem, Virginia ) was an American politician. From 1829 to 1841 he represented two times the state of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Robert Craig attended the public schools of his home and then the Washington College in Lexington, emerged from the later the Washington and Lee University. Finally, he completed the Lewisburg Academy in Greenbrier County in present-day West Virginia. In the following years he worked as a planter. At the same time he embarked on a political career. In the years 1817 and 1818 and again from 1825 to 1829 he sat in the House of Representatives from Virginia. From 1820 to 1823 he was a member of the State Board of Public Works. In the 1820s he joined the movement to Andrew Jackson and became a member of the Democratic Party, founded in 1828 by this.

In the congressional elections of 1828 Craig was in the 20th electoral district of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of John Floyd on March 4, 1829. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1833 two legislative sessions. Since the inauguration of President Jackson in 1829, was discussed inside and outside of Congress vehemently about its policy. It was about the controversial enforcement of the Indian Removal Act, the conflict with the State of South Carolina, which culminated in the Nullifikationskrise, and banking policy of the President.

In 1832, Robert Craig was not re-elected. After the end of his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, he again worked in agriculture. In 1834 he was again elected to Congress, where he graduated in 1841 three other legislative periods between 4 March 1835 to 3 March. Since 1837 he was chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, which dealt with claims from the revolutionary period. In 1840 Craig decided not to another candidacy.

After his final farewell from Congress Craig continued his agricultural activities continued. Between 1850 and 1852 he was the last time a deputy in the state legislature of Virginia. He died on November 25, 1852 at his estate Greenhill near Salem, where he was also buried.