The General Assembly consists of a Senate and a House of Delegates.
The House of Delegates is composed (1910) of eighty-six members, of whom each county chooses at least one.
He served in the Virginia house of delegates in 1823-1827, in the state constitutional convention of 1829-1830, and from 1831 to 1837 in the National House of Representatives, being chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in 1835-1836.
Richmond was first chartered as a city in 1782, and in 1788 it was allowed a representative in the House of Delegates.
In 1861 he was a delegate from Maryland to the peace convention at Washington; in1861-1862he was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
