- James Dixon
-
James Dixon United States Senator
from ConnecticutIn office
March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1869Preceded by Isaac Toucey Succeeded by William A. Buckingham Personal details Born August 5, 1814
Enfield, Connecticut, USADied March 27, 1873 (aged 58)
Hartford, Connecticut, USAPolitical party Whig, Republican, Democrat Alma mater Williams College Profession Politician, Lawyer James Dixon (August 5, 1814 – March 27, 1873) was a United States Representative and Senator from Connecticut.
Biography
Born in Enfield, Connecticut, Dixon pursued preparatory studies, and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1834, where he had been a charter member of The Kappa Alpha Society. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1834 and commenced practice in Enfield. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1837-1838 and 1844, and served as speaker in 1837; he moved to Hartford, Connecticut in 1839 and continued the practice of law. He was elected as a Whig to the House, serving during the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1849), and was a member of the State house of representatives in 1854. He declined the nomination for Governor of Connecticut in 1854, and was an unsuccessful candidate for United States Senator in 1854.
Dixon was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1856, and reelected in 1863,[1] serving from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1869. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses) and a member of the Committees on District of Columbia (Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses) and Post Office and Post Roads (Thirty-ninth Congress). He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in 1868, primarily because he had been the first Republican member of the Senate to oppose the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. He was appointed Minister to Russia in 1869 but declined; he engaged in literary pursuits and extensive traveling until his death in Hartford on March 27, 1873. He was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery.
References
- ^ Normally, the election would have been in the fall of 1862, but the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress says 1863 (see link)
External links
United States House of Representatives Preceded by
Thomas H. SeymourMember of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's 1st congressional district
March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1849Succeeded by
Loren P. WaldoUnited States Senate Preceded by
Isaac TouceyUnited States Senator (Class 1) from Connecticut
March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1869
Served alongside: Lafayette S. Foster and Orris S. FerrySucceeded by
William A. BuckinghamUnited States Senators from Connecticut Class 1 Class 3 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Categories:- 1814 births
- 1873 deaths
- Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut
- United States Senators from Connecticut
- Connecticut lawyers
- Williams College alumni
- Union political leaders
- People from Hartford, Connecticut
- People of Connecticut in the American Civil War
- Burials at Cedar Hill Cemetery (Hartford, Connecticut)
- Connecticut Whigs
- Connecticut Democrats
- Connecticut Republicans
- Republican Party United States Senators
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.