Elisha Phelps

Elisha Phelps, portrayed by Elkanah Tisdale

Elisha Phelps (born November 16, 1779 in Simsbury , Hartford County , Connecticut , †  April 6, 1847 ibid) was an American politician . Between 1819 and 1821 and again from 1825 to 1829 he represented the state of Connecticut in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Elisha Phelps attended Yale College until 1800 . After a subsequent law degree at Litchfield Law School and his admission to the bar in 1803, he began to practice in this profession in Simsbury. At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Republican Party . Between 1807 and 1818 he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives .

In the 1818 Congressional election , held in Connecticut state-wide, Phelps was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC for the fifth seat of his state . There he took over from Timothy Pitkin of the Federalist Party on March 4, 1819 . Until March 3, 1821, he could initially only complete one legislative period in Congress .

In 1821 Phelps was re-elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he succeeded David Plant as president . Between 1822 and 1824 he was a member of the State Senate . After the dissolution of his party in the 1820s, Elisha Phelps joined the faction around President John Quincy Adams and the resulting National Republican Party . As their candidate, he was elected for the sixth mandate in Congress in the congressional elections of 1824 , which were held nationwide again. After a re-election in 1826, he was able to spend two consecutive terms in the US House of Representatives between March 4, 1825 and March 3, 1829, which were determined by the political discussions between the supporters and opponents of the future President Andrew Jackson . In 1828, Phelps declined to run again.

Between 1831 and 1837, Phelps served as State Comptroller for the Connecticut Court of Auditors. From 1829 to 1835 he was again a member of the House of Representatives of his state; In 1829 he was its president. In 1835 he was on a commission to revise Connecticut's state law. Elisha Phelps died on April 6, 1847 in his native Simsbury. He was the father of John S. Phelps (1814-1886), who represented the state of Missouri in Congress between 1845 and 1863 and was governor of Missouri from 1877 to 1881 .

Web links

• Elisha Phelps in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Elisha Phelps in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Elisha Phelps at The Political Graveyard