Theodore Sedgwick

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:TheodoreSedgwick.jpg Theodore Sedgwick (May 9, 1746-January 24, 1813), a Delegate, a Representative, and a Senator from Massachusetts and the fifth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, was born in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Sedgwick attended Yale College, where he studied theology and law. He did not graduate, but went on to study law under Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington, the grandfather of Mark Hopkins, the distinguished later president of Williams College. He was admitted to the bar in 1766 and commenced practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts; moved to Sheffield, Massachusetts; during the American Revolution served in the expedition against Canada in 1776.

A Federalist, Sedgwick's political career began in 1780 and lasted until he became a judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts in 1802, a position he held until his death in Boston, Massachusetts in 1813. He was buried in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

As a lawyer, he pled the case for Elizabeth Freeman (called Mumbet) a negro slave who had fled from her master on account of cruel treatment. The court ruled that she was free, thus making this case the earliest application of the declaration of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights that "all men are born free and equal." This decision was later upheld by the state Supreme Court after Judge Sedgwick became a member. Mumbet was so grateful that she became a member of the Sedgwick household for life and is buried in the family plot - her grave is marked by a monument beside the grave of his daughter Catharine Maria Sedgwick, the first noted female writer in the United States. (New Haven Colony Historical Society)

Political career

• Member, State House of Representatives 1780, 1782-1783,
• Member, State Senate 1784-1785
• Member of the Continental Congress 1785, 1786, and 1788
• Returned to the Massachusetts House of Representatives 1787-1788
  • Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
• Delegate to the state convention that adopted the Federal Constitution in 1788
• Elected to the First and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1789, until his resignation in June 1796
• Elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Caleb Strong and served from June 11 1796, to March 3 1799
  • President pro tempore of the Senate June 27 - December 5 1798
• Returned to the United States House of Representatives March 4 1799-March 3 1801
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives March 4 1799-March 3 1801
• Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts 1802-1813

External link

• Template:CongBio

Template:Start box {{succession box | title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's District 4 | before=(none) | after=Henry Dearborn, George Thatcher, Peleg Wadsworth (General ticket) | years=March 41789 – March 31793}} {{succession box | title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's District 2 (General ticket) | before=Benjamin Goodhue | after=William Lyman | years=March 41793 – March 31795}} {{succession box | title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's District 1 | before=Fisher Ames | after=Thomson J. Skinner | years=March 41795 – June 1796}} {{U.S. Senator box | state=Massachusetts | class=2 | before=Caleb Strong | after=Samuel Dexter | alongside=Benjamin Goodhue | years= June 111796 – March 31799}} {{succession box | title=President pro tempore of the United States Senate | before=Jacob Read | after=John Laurance | years=June 271798 – December 51798}} {{succession box | title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's District 1 | before=Thomson J. Skinner | after=John Bacon | years=March 41799 – March 31801}} {{succession box | title=Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives | before=Jonathan Dayton | after=Nathaniel Macon | years=December 21799 – March 31801}} Template:End box Template:USHouseSpeaker Template:USSenPresProTemp