In this second quarter of the nineteenth century, to which we have now come, the name of Charles Fenton Mercer, soldier, statesman and philanthropist, is writ large in Loudoun's records. Already we have read of him in his country home and of his founding the town of Aldie in 1810;[147] but the brief reference there made is wholly inadequate to the man and his accomplishments. Born in Fredericksburg on the 6th June, 1778, he was the son of James Mercer and grandson of that John Mercer of Marlboro whom we have already met.[148] His father, after a distinguished career, left at his death an estate so much involved that the son had some difficulty in securing his education. He, however, was able to graduate at Princeton in 1797 and the next year, at the time of friction with France, was given a commission by Washington as a captain of cavalry. When the danger of war passed, he studied law and, admitted to the Bar, practiced his profession with great success. He served as brigadier general in command of the defense of Norfolk in the War of 1812, removed to Loudoun, was a member of the Virginia Legislature from 1810 to 1817 and, as a Federalist, was elected a member of Congress, in 1816, over General A. T. Mason, the election being so close, however, that it had to be decided by the House of Representatives. In Congress he served until 1840, a longer continuous service "than that of any of his contemporaries." Always deeply interested in the project of the Chesapeake and Potomac Canal, he introduced the first successful bill for its construction and it was in tribute to him that those interested in the plan met in Leesburg on the 25th August, 1823. When the canal company was organized taking over, in effect, much of the plant of General Washington's cherished project the Potomac Company, Mercer became its first president and continued in that position during the period of Federal encouragement. Then came the Jackson administration and its opposition and, as a final blow, the organization of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The day of the canals gave place to that of the railroads; but that section of the canal in Maryland, across the river from Loudoun, was completed and placed in successful operation, affording to her people better and cheaper transportation to Washington and Alexandria for their products than they before had known. [147] See Chapter XIII. [148] See Chapter VII. Mercer was an ardent protectionist, intensely opposed to slavery and an advocate of the settlement of freed slaves in Liberia. He died near Alexandria on the 4th May, 1858, and was buried in the Leesburg Cemetery. On his headstone it is justly reaffirmed that he was "A Patriot, Statesman, Philanthropist and Christian."[149] [149] _Charles Fenton Mercer_, by James M. Garnett.