Richard M. Young

Richard M. Young

Richard Montgomery Young (born February 20, 1798 in Lexington , Kentucky , †  November 28, 1861 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer and politician ( Democratic Party ) who represented the state of Illinois in the US Senate .

After attending village school and a private school in Jessamine County , Richard Young studied law and was inducted into the Kentucky Bar in 1816. The following year he moved to Illinois and established a lawyer in Jonesboro . There he also joined the state militia, in which he held the rank of captain .

Young began his political career as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1820 to 1822. From 1825 to 1837 he was a judge for the United States' fifth district. He resigned from this office after being elected to the US Senate. He took up his mandate in Washington from March 4, 1837 and served a full six-year term. During this time he was among other things chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals ; He was also a member of a diplomatic delegation that negotiated a loan to Illinois in England in 1839 .

After leaving the Senate, Young was first appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois and remained there until 1847. Among other things, he presided over the trial of the murder of Joseph Smith , the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , in which all five defendants were acquitted by the jury. US President James K. Polk then appointed him as Commissioner of the General Land Office ; from 1850 to 1851 he was the clerk of the US House of Representatives, the official responsible for organizing the work flow in parliament. Eventually Young returned to work as a lawyer in Washington, where he died in 1861.

Web links

• Richard M. Young in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Richard M. Young in the database of Find a Grave (English)