John H. Rice

John Hovey Rice (born February 5, 1816 in Mount Vernon , Kennebec County , Massachusetts , †  March 14, 1911 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American politician . Between 1863 and 1867 he represented the state of Maine in the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Rice was born in 1816 in Mount Vernon, which was then still part of Massachusetts. Since 1820 the place is in the then newly created state of Maine. He attended the public schools in his homeland and then worked in the land registry in Augusta between 1831 and 1841 . Rice also started trading. At times he was also the deputy sheriff in his home country. During a border dispute with Canada in 1838, known as the Aroostook War , he was on General Bachelor's staff. In 1843 John Rice moved to Piscataquis County .

After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1848, he began to practice in his new profession. Between 1852 and 1860 he was a district attorney in Piscataquis County. Politically, Rice became a member of the Republican Party, founded in 1854 . In 1856 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia , where John Charles Frémont was nominated as the party's first presidential candidate.

In 1860 Rice was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the fifth constituency of Maine , where he succeeded Stephen Coburn on March 4, 1861 . After he was re-elected to Congress in the fourth district in 1862 and 1864 , he was able to complete three consecutive terms there until March 3, 1867. On March 4, 1863, he replaced Anson Morrill , who until then had represented the fourth district of Maine in the House of Representatives. Rice's time in Congress was overshadowed by the civil war and its aftermath. In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery . Since 1863, Rice was chairman of the public property committee.

In 1866, John Rice declined to run for Congress again. Until 1871 he worked for the customs authorities in the port of Bangor . Then he moved to the federal capital Washington, where he practiced as a lawyer for twelve years. In 1884 he moved to New York City . There he continued to practice as a lawyer until 1899. In May 1899 he moved to Chicago, where he spent his old age. He died there on March 14, 1911 at the age of 95.

Web links

• John H. Rice in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John H. Rice in the database of Find a Grave (English)