Robert Goodloe Harper was a Representative from South Carolina and a Senator from Maryland.

Early life

He was born near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in January 1765. Harper moved with his parents to Granville, North Carolina , about 1769. He received his early education at home and later attended grammar school. He joined a volunteer corps of Cavalry when only fifteen years of age and served in the Revolutionary Army. He made a surveying tour through Kentucky and Tennessee in 1783. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1785. He studied law in Charleston, South Carolina, teaching school at the same time. He was admitted to the bar in 1786 and commenced practice in the Ninety-Sixth District of South Carolina. He moved back to Charleston, S.C., in 1789.

Political career in South Carolina

Harper was a member of the South Carolina house of representatives from 1790 until 1795, when he was elected from South Carolina to the Third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Alexander Gillon . He was reelected to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Congresses but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1800 to the Seventh Congress, serving as a U.S Representative from February 1795 to March 1801. He was the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in the Fifth and Sixth Congresses. Harper was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1798 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against William Blount.

Political career in Maryland

Harper moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and engaged in the practice of law. He served in the War of 1812, attaining the rank of major general. He assisted in organizing the Baltimore Exchange Co. in 1815 and was a member of the first board of directors. He then became a member of the State senate of Maryland. He was elected from Maryland to the United States Senate for the term beginning March 4, 1815, and served from January 1816 until December 1816, when he resigned. He was an unsuccessful Federalist candidate for Vice President in 1816.

Retirement

Harper traveled extensively in Europe in 1819 and 1820. He took a prominent part in the ceremonies on the occasion of Lafayette’s visit to Baltimore in 1824. He died in Baltimore on January 14, 1825. He was initially interred in the family burial ground on his estate, ”Oakland”, and later reburied in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore.

References

• American National Biography
• Dictionary of American Biography; Cox, Joseph.
• Champion of Southern Federalism: Robert Goodloe Harper of South Carolina. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1972.