John Letcher (1813-1884), American politician, was a U.S. congressman before becoming Confederate governor of Virginia during the Civil War.

John Letcher was born in Lexington, Va., on March 29, 1813. He attended Washington College (today Washington and Lee University) and subsequently studied law. In 1839 he established a law practice in Lexington and in the same year became editor of the Valley Star, a Democratic newspaper in a local Whig stronghold. Intensely interested in politics, Letcher was active in the presidential campaigns of 1840, 1844, and 1848, serving as Democratic elector in 1848. Although never a true abolitionist, he signed the Ruffner Pamphlet of 1847, which proposed the abolition of slavery in that part of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge; however, he soon repudiated this antislavery stand. Letcher attended the state constitutional convention of 1850-1851 and was a vigorous advocate of retaining the Caucasian basis of representation in both houses of the legislature.

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