Charles Upson

Charles Upson (born March 19, 1821 in Southington , Hartford County , Connecticut , †  September 5, 1885 in Coldwater , Michigan ) was an American politician . Between 1863 and 1869 he represented the state of Michigan in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Charles Upson attended public schools in his home country. He then taught between 1840 and 1842 in Farmington himself as a teacher. After a subsequent law degree at Yale University and his admission as a lawyer in 1847, he began to work in Kalamazoo (Michigan) in his new profession. In the meantime, he had earned a living teaching in St. Joseph County in 1846 and 1847 . In 1847 he was also employed in the administration of that district as a Deputy County Clerk . From 1848 to 1849 he served there as a county clerk . Between 1852 and 1854, Upson served as a prosecutor.

Politically, Upson became a member of the Republican Party, founded in 1854 . He was a member of the Michigan Senate between 1855 and 1856 . In 1856 he moved to Coldwater, where he worked as a lawyer again. In 1857 he became a member of his state's railway committee. From 1861 to 1862, Upson was Attorney General of his state. In the congressional elections of 1862 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the second constituency of Michigan , where he succeeded Fernando C. Beaman on March 4, 1863 . After two re-elections, he was able to complete three legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1869 . These were shaped by the events of the civil war until 1865 . Over the next four years, a bitter conflict flared up between Upson's party and President Andrew Johnson over reconstruction in the southern states , which had been defeated in the Civil War . The dispute culminated in the impeachment proceedings against the president that had just failed in the US Senate . Between 1867 and 1869, Upson was chairman of the Department of Navy's Expenditure Control Committee.

In 1868 Upson declined to run again. Between 1869 and 1872 he was a judge in the 15th District of Michigan. In 1873 he was a member of a commission for the revision of the state constitution. In 1876 he refused an appointment as Indian commissioner. A year later, Upson was elected mayor of Coldwater. In 1880 he was once again a member of the State Senate; then he worked again as a lawyer. Charles Upson died on September 5, 1885 in Coldwater and was buried there.

Web links

• Charles Upson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Charles Upson in the database of Find a Grave (English)