pro quo that allowed executive branch interference with the prerogatives of the legislative branch. Following his denial by the Senate, he returned to Virginia and resumed the practice of law and in addition, he presided over the 1835 Democratic National Convention. In February 1836, President Andrew Jackson renominated Stevenson for Minister to Great Britain. The second time around, he was confirmed 26 votes to 19, and served from 1836 to 1841. His term as Minister to the United Kingdom was marked by controversy: the abolitionist cause was growing in strength, and some sections of public opinion resented the choice of Stevenson, who was a slaveowner, for this role. The Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell was reported to have denounced Stevenson in public as a slave breeder, generally thought to be a more serious matter than simply being a slaveowner. Stevenson, outraged, challenged O'Connell to a duel, but O'Connell, who had a lifelong aversion to dueling, refused, and suggested that he had been misquoted. The controversy became public and the repeated references to slave breeding caused Stevenson a good deal of embarrassment; there was a widespread view that if O'Connell's charges were false Stevenson would have done better to simply ignore them rather than engaging in a public squabble. Later life In 1846, Stevenson purchased the Blenheim estate in Albemarle County, Virginia. In the 1850 U.S. Federal Census, the last of his lifetime, Stevenson owned 63 enslaved people in Albemarle County. He had owned eight enslaved people in Richmond during the 1820 federal census, and 1830 federal census. Stevenson presided over the 1848 Democratic National Convention. In 1845 he was elected to the board of visitors of the University of Virginia, and from 1856 to 1857, he served as the university's rector. Personal life Stevenson married three times. In 1809, he married Mary Page White, a granddaughter of Carter Braxton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. She died during childbirth in 1812, giving birth to: John White Stevenson (1812–1886), a Congressman, U.S. Senator, and who also served as Governor of Kentucky after the American Civil War. During his father's lifetime, e married Sibella Winston (1823–1904) in 1843. The marriage produced five children (this man's grandchildren): Sally C. (Stevenson) Colston, Mary W. (Stevenson) Colston, Judith W. (Stevenson) Winslow, Samuel W. Stevenson, and John W. Stevenson. In 1816, Stevenson married his second wife, Sarah "Sally" Coles (1789–1848), who was a cousin of Dolley