Mason Tappan

Mason Tappan

Mason Weare Tappan (born October 20, 1817 in Newport , New Hampshire , †  October 25, 1886 in Bradford , New Hampshire) was an American politician . Between 1855 and 1861 he represented the state of New Hampshire in the US House of Representatives .

Career

In his childhood, Mason Tappan came to Bradford with his parents, where he attended private schools. He later graduated from the Hopkinton Academy and the Meriden Academy . After studying law and his admission as a lawyer in 1841, he began to practice in Bradford in his new profession. Politically, Tappan became a member of the short-lived American Party . Between 1853 and 1855 he was an MP in the New Hampshire House of Representatives .

In 1854, Tappan was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the second constituency of New Hampshire , where he succeeded Democrat George W. Morrison on March 4, 1855 . During his first term in Congress , Tappan switched to the Republican Party, founded in 1854 . As their candidate, he was confirmed in office in 1856. After another re-election as Republican in 1858, he was able to serve three consecutive terms in Congress by March 3, 1861, which were overshadowed by the events leading up to the Civil War . From 1859 Tappan was chairman of the committee that dealt with claims to the federal government.

In 1860 Tappan declined to run again. He was then again a member of the House of Representatives in his home state in 1861. At the beginning of the civil war that followed, he became a colonel in a volunteer infantry unit from New Hampshire that fought on the side of the Union. After his military service, Tappan worked again as a lawyer. In 1876 he became Attorney General of New Hampshire. He held this office until his death in 1886.

Web links

• Mason Tappan in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Mason Tappan in the database of Find a Grave (English)