Ira Harris

Ira Harris (born May 31, 1802 in Charleston , Montgomery County , New York , † December 2, 1875 in Albany , New York) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of New York in the US Senate .

Career

Raised on a farm, Ira Harris attended local schools as well as a private school in Homer . After graduating from Union College in 1824, he studied in Albany, the Law and was admitted to the Bar Association. 1828

As a member of the Whigs , he represented Albany County in the New York State Assembly between 1845 and 1846 ; in 1846 he also took part as a delegate to the New York Constitutional Convention. In 1847 Harris served a term in the New York Senate before he was appointed judge of the New York Supreme Court that same year and remained there until 1859. In 1850 and 1859 he served from this office as a judge on the New York Court of Appeals , the highest court of the state.

After the resignation of the Secretary of State appointed William H. Seward in the meantime to was Republicans had converted Ira Harris elected in 1861 to his successor as US Senator. In the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims ; he was also a member of the Foreign Affairs and Justice Committees . As a rule, he supported the government's policies, but he also did not hesitate to vote against measures that did not make sense to him. Harris made several visits to and became friends with President Abraham Lincoln at the White House . After resigning from the Senate in March 1867, Harris was a lecturer at Albany Law School until his death in 1875 .

family

Harris was married several times. His daughter Clara, born in 1845, was in a relationship with Henry Rathbone , son of Harris' second wife Pauline, and married him in 1867. The couple sat on April 14, 1865 as guests of Abraham Lincoln next to him and his wife Mary in the box of Ford's Theater in Washington when John Wilkes Booth shot the President. Rathbone fought with the assassin and was seriously injured by a knife. The son of Clara and Henry Rathbone, Ira Harris's grandson Henry Riggs Rathbone , was from 1923 to 1928 for Illinois to the United States House of Representatives on.

Web links

Ira Harris in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

personal data
SURNAME	Harris, Ira
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	May 31, 1802
PLACE OF BIRTH	Charleston , New York
DATE OF DEATH	December 2, 1875
Place of death	Albany , New York