Michel Vidal

Michel Vidal (born October 1, 1824 in Carcassonne , France , † unknown) was an American politician of French origin. Between 1868 and 1870 he represented the state of Louisiana in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Michel Vidal first attended schools in his French homeland. He later emigrated to the then independent Republic of Texas . Then he moved on to Louisiana. There he dealt with literary and scientific matters. In the following years Vidal was active as a journalist. He worked for various American, French and Canadian newspapers. In 1867 he moved to Opelousas , Louisiana. There, too, he continued his journalistic activity. After the Civil War he was appointed Registrar of the City of New Orleans by General Philip Sheridan .

Politically, Vidal then joined the Republican Party . In 1867 and 1868 he was a delegate to meetings to revise the Louisiana state constitution. After the resumption of the state of Louisiana into the Union, he was elected as his party's candidate to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he took up his new mandate on July 18, 1868. By March 3, 1869, he ended the current legislative period in Congress . On March 4, 1869, he took on another term. Because of an ongoing election challenge, he only retained his mandate until May 1870, when it fell to Joseph P. Newsham . The official end of this legislative period was March 3, 1871.

In 1868, Vidal was also one of the American negotiators with the state of Peru . It was about mutual claims of citizens of both countries. In 1870, Vidal was appointed American consul in Tripoli by President Ulysses S. Grant . He held this office until October 12, 1876. After that, his trace is lost; both his date and place of death are unknown.

Web links

• Michel Vidal in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)