- Edward John Phelps
Edward John Phelps (July 1822 - March 1900) was a
lawyer anddiplomat fromVermont . Born in Middlebury, his father,Samuel S. Phelps had been aU.S. Senator from Vermont (he was a Yale graduate). Edward Phelps graduated fromMiddlebury College in 1840, and was a schoolmaster for a year inVirginia . He was admitted to the bar in 1843 and began practice at Middlebury, but in 1845 removed toBurlington, Vermont .From 1851 to 1853 he was second controller of the
United States Treasury , and then practised law inNew York City until 1857, when he returned to Burlington. Becoming a Democrat after the Whig party had ceased to exist, he was debarred from a political career in his own state, where his party was in the minority, but he served in the state constitutional convention in 1870, and in 1880 was the Democratic candidate forGovernor of Vermont . He was one of the founders of theAmerican Bar Association , and was its president in 1880-1881. From 1881 until his death he was Kent Professor of Law inYale University . He supported the founding of Wolf's Head Society and is the namesake of itsalumni association .He was Envoy to
Great Britain from 1885 to 1889, and in 1893 served as senior counsel for the United States before the international tribunal atParis to adjust theBering Sea controversy. His closing argument, requiring eleven days for its delivery, was an exhaustive review of the case. Phelps lectured on medical jurisprudence at theUniversity of Vermont in 1881-1883, and on constitutional law atBoston University in 1882-1883, and delivered numerous addresses, among them that on "TheUnited States Supreme Court and the Sovereignty of the People" at the centennial celebration of the Federal Judiciary in 1890 and an oration at the dedication of theBennington Battle Monument , unveiled in 1891 at the centennial of Vermont's admission to the Union. In politics Phelps was always conservative, opposing theanti-slavery movement before 1860, the free-silver movement in 1896, when he supported the Republican presidential ticket, and after 1898 becoming an ardent "anti-expansionist."Phelps died in
New Haven, Connecticut .References
*1911
External links
*gutenberg|no=18422|name=Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z, contains the text of Phelps' 1889 farewell speech in London.
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