[1] Admitted to the bar in 1810, Archer began a private legal practice in Amelia and neighboring Powhatan Counties.

One historian reading his speeches considered his political stance undemocratic and noted that, despite his campaigns, Amelia County voters refused to elect him as one of their representatives to the Virginia constitutional conventions in 1829, nor in 1850.

In Congress, Archer rose to chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1829 to 1835, before being defeated for reelection in 1834 by Democrat John Winston Jones.

[9] Whigs gained power in the Virginia General Assembly by 1840, and on the second ballot Archer was elected to the United States Senate over the incumbent, William H. Roane.

Archer supported President Polk's effort to end British claims to the Oregon Territory, but not the annexation of Texas (fearing it would lead to war with Mexico, as happened).

Legislators elected Robert M. T. Hunter in 1846, over both Archer and then-Virginia governor and future Confederate general Extra Billy Smith.