Daniel Polsley

Daniel Polsley

Daniel Haymond Polsley (born November 28, 1803 in Fairmont , Marion County , Virginia , † October 14, 1877 in Point Pleasant , West Virginia ) was an American politician . Between 1867 and 1869 he represented the third electoral district of the state of West Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Daniel Polsley was born in 1803 near Fairmont, which was then still part of Virginia and later became part of West Virginia. He attended the public schools in his home country. After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1827, he began to work in his new profession in Wellsburg in what is now West Virginia. Between 1833 and 1845 Polsley published the Western Transcript newspaper. In 1845 he moved to Mason County , where he worked in agriculture while also practicing as a lawyer.

In the lead-up to the Civil War , Polsley was a supporter of the Union. He acted as a delegate to two meetings in Wheeling preparing the withdrawal of the western provinces from the state of Virginia and the establishment of the future state of West Virginia. In 1861 he became lieutenant governor of the loyal counter-government of Virginia, which had not joined the Confederate States . Politically, Polsley became a member of the Republican Party .

After West Virginia was founded, Polsley was a judge in the new state's seventh judicial district from 1863 to 1866. In 1866 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the third district of West Virginia , where he succeeded Kellian Whaley on March 4, 1867 . Since he refused to run again in 1868, he was only able to complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1869 . During this time, the failed impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson and the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution , through which the former slaves were given citizenship, fell.

After his tenure in Congress, Polsley returned to practice as a lawyer. He died in Point Pleasant in October 1877.

Web links

• Daniel Polsley in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Daniel Polsley in the database of Find a Grave (English)