John Minor Botts (September 16, 1802 – January 8, 1869) was a nineteenth-century politician, planter and lawyer from Virginia. He was a prominent Unionist in Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Early and family life Botts was born in Dumfries, Virginia, to prominent lawyer Benjamin Gaines Botts (1776 - 1811) and his wife Jane Tyler Botts (1782 - 1811). Both of his parents died in the Richmond Theatre fire on 26 December 1811, so John and his siblings were raised by relatives in Fredericksburg. Botts attended the common schools in Richmond, Virginia, then studied law. He married Mary Whiting Blair (1801-1841), and they had several children. Two sons (John and Alexander) died very young; their firstborn son, Archibald Blair Botts (1826-1847), joined the U.S. Army and died in Mexico in 1847, and their daughter Virginia A. Botts (1840-1862) also predeceased her father. Thus, only Beverly Blair Botts (1830-1897), Rosalie S. Botts Lewis (1837-1878), and Isabella McLain Botts Lewis (1841-1928) survived their parents. Career After admission to the Virginia bar in 1830, Botts moved to Henrico County, Virginia, outside Richmond. He operated a plantation called "Half Sink" on the Chickahominy River in Varina Farms area about nine miles east of downtown Richmond. He used the progressive agricultural methods advocated in the 'Southern Planter', as well as slave labor. Botts also raised racehorses and practiced law. Political career Botts lost his first run for political office in 1831, but won the following year and represented Henrico County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1833 to 1839. In 1835, he seemed to lose to William B. Randolph, but successfully challenged the results in court. In 1836, he again appeared to lose, to William N. Whiting, but again won a court challenge and was seated. In 1838, voters elected Botts as a Whig to the United States House of Representatives and William N. Whiting succeeded him as Henrico's state delegate. Unlike most Whigs, Botts opposed the Second Bank of the United States on constitutional grounds, but also considering President Andrew Jackson's veto of the bank's renewed charter encroachment upon Congress's powers, therefore by 1841 Botts favored a national bank. Botts was one of the few southern representatives to oppose the Democrats' "gag rule" (refusing to receive or air) antislavery petitions, he argued that violated the constitutional right to petition the government and also eliminated an important safety valve which relieved sectional agitation.