US Congressman. Following a public education, he pursued a brief business career and Democratic politics. A partisan of President James Knox Polk, he won a patronage appointment to a clerkship in the New York custom house in 1845, and later under Democratic President Franklin Pierce he was appointed a public appraiser. He won election to the 37th Congress in 1860, representing New York's 2nd District in the United States House of Representatives, serving as Treasury Department Committee chairman and on the Indian Affairs Committee. On December 10, 1861, as a War Democrat, he accepted an important seat on the joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a body dominated by Radical Republicans. Reelected to the 38th Congress, this time representing the 3rd District, he joined the Military Affairs Committee; on this and the Joint Committee he exerted unusual Democratic influence in investigation of Union military personalities and operations. He declined a third congressional term, and his tenure in office stretched from March 4, 1861 to March 3, 1865. He then accepted an appointment as naval agent for the port of New York from former Joint Committee member President Andrew Johnson in 1865. Stricken by cancer, he died in Brooklyn, New York.
US Congressman. Following a public education, he pursued a brief business career and Democratic politics. A partisan of President James Knox Polk, he won a patronage appointment to a clerkship in the New York custom house in 1845, and later under Democratic President Franklin Pierce he was appointed a public appraiser. He won election to the 37th Congress in 1860, representing New York's 2nd District in the United States House of Representatives, serving as Treasury Department Committee chairman and on the Indian Affairs Committee. On December 10, 1861, as a War Democrat, he accepted an important seat on the joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a body dominated by Radical Republicans. Reelected to the 38th Congress, this time representing the 3rd District, he joined the Military Affairs Committee; on this and the Joint Committee he exerted unusual Democratic influence in investigation of Union military personalities and operations. He declined a third congressional term, and his tenure in office stretched from March 4, 1861 to March 3, 1865. He then accepted an appointment as naval agent for the port of New York from former Joint Committee member President Andrew Johnson in 1865. Stricken by cancer, he died in Brooklyn, New York.
Bio by: Ugaalltheway
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