US Congressman. Elected to represent New York's 14th District in the Thirty-fourth Congress, he served from 1855 to 1857. Dickson was born in what is now New Scotland, Albany County, New York, and graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1825. He then studied medicine, and from 1829 was a practicing physician in his hometown. Although he had never held public office, he was drawn into politics by the controversial passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), with its provisions for the expansion of slavery. He joined the Opposition Party, which won a majority in the US House of Representatives in 1854; Dickson was among those who took a seat in Congress. The Oppositionists were actually a group of former Whigs, Know-Nothings, abolitionists, and inexperienced idealists like Dickson, opposed to slavery in general but to the Democrats in particular. As such they lacked a united platform and failed to take control of the US House. The concurrent rise of the new, better organized Republican Party quickly spelled the Oppositionists' doom as a political force. Dickson did not seek reelection in 1856, and on completion of his term returned to New Scotland, where he died the following year.
US Congressman. Elected to represent New York's 14th District in the Thirty-fourth Congress, he served from 1855 to 1857. Dickson was born in what is now New Scotland, Albany County, New York, and graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1825. He then studied medicine, and from 1829 was a practicing physician in his hometown. Although he had never held public office, he was drawn into politics by the controversial passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), with its provisions for the expansion of slavery. He joined the Opposition Party, which won a majority in the US House of Representatives in 1854; Dickson was among those who took a seat in Congress. The Oppositionists were actually a group of former Whigs, Know-Nothings, abolitionists, and inexperienced idealists like Dickson, opposed to slavery in general but to the Democrats in particular. As such they lacked a united platform and failed to take control of the US House. The concurrent rise of the new, better organized Republican Party quickly spelled the Oppositionists' doom as a political force. Dickson did not seek reelection in 1856, and on completion of his term returned to New Scotland, where he died the following year.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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