Lyman Trumbull
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| Lyman Trumbull | |
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| In office March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1873 |
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| Preceded by | James Shields |
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| Succeeded by | Richard J. Oglesby |
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| Born | October 12, 1813 Colchester, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | June 25, 1896 (aged 82) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democrat, Republican |
| Spouse | Julia Maria Janyne Trumbull Mary Jane Ingraham Trumbull |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer |
Lyman Trumbull (October 12, 1813 – June 25, 1896) was a United States Senator from Illinois during the American Civil War, and co-author of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Trumbull was born in Colchester, Connecticut. He attended Bacon Academy and was a school teacher from 1829 to 1833. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Greenville, Georgia until moving to Belleville, Illinois in 1837.
By 1840, he was serving in the Illinois House of Representatives and was Secretary of State from 1841 to 1843. From 1848 to 1853 he was a justice on the Supreme Court of Illinois. Although elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1854, he was elected to serve in the U.S. Senate before he could take his seat. He served from 1855 through 1873, during which time he claimed party affiliations with the Democrats, the Republicans, the Liberal Republicans, and finally the Democrats again. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee (1861-1872), he co-authored the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited all kinds of slavery in the United States.
During President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial, Trumbull and six other Republican senators[1] were disturbed by how the proceedings had been manipulated in order to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence.[2] All seven broke party ranks and defied public opinion, voting for acquittal in a principled act of political suicide.[3] None was reelected.
In 1873, Trumbull set up a law practice in Chicago and remained in private practice except for a brief period when he ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor (as a Democrat) in 1880. During his explorations in the west John Wesley Powell named Mt. Trumbull (and now the Mt. Trumbull Wilderness) in northwestern Arizona after the senator. The Lyman Trumbull House is a National Historic Landmark.
[edit] References
- ^ These seven senators were William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, James W. Grimes, John B. Henderson, Lyman Trumbull, Peter G. Van Winkle, and Edmund G. Ross.
- ^ "Andrew Johnson Trial: The Consciences of Seven Republicans Save Johnson".
- ^ "The Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868".
[edit] Further reading
White, Horace. The life of Lyman Trumbull (biography), Published by Houghton Mifflin, 1913. OCLC 824101
[edit] External links
- Lyman Trumbull at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Lyman Trumbull at Find A Grave
- Trumbull at OurCampaigns.com
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Stephen A. Douglas |
Secretary of State of Illinois 1841 – 1843 |
Succeeded by Thompson Campbell |
| United States Senate | ||
| Preceded by James Shields |
United States Senator (Class 3) from Illinois March 4, 1855 – March 4, 1873 Served alongside: Stephen A. Douglas, Orville H. Browning, William A. Richardson, Richard Yates, John A. Logan |
Succeeded by Richard J. Oglesby |
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