Orville H. Platt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orville H. Platt

Orville Hitchcock Platt (born July 19, 1827 in Washington , Litchfield County , Connecticut , †  April 21, 1905 in Meriden , Connecticut) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Connecticut in the US Senate .

After attending public school, Orville Platt graduated from Gunnery , a preparatory boarding school in his hometown of Washington. He was then in Litchfield in the law designed entered in 1850 into the Bar Association and began first in Towanda ( Pennsylvania to practice as a lawyer). In the same year he set up his law firm in Meriden. From 1855 to 1856 he worked as an administrative clerk in the Connecticut Senate , which he later belonged to in 1861 and 1862 himself. In the meantime, he served as Secretary of State of Connecticut in 1857 . In 1864 and 1869 he was a member of the State House of Representatives ; in his second term of office he was the speaker of this parliamentary chamber.

Platt was a prosecutor in New Haven County from 1877 to 1879 before he was elected a US Senator. On March 4, 1879, he succeeded the Democrat William Henry Barnum in Washington, DC . He was re-elected in 1885, 1891, 1897 and 1903, so that he remained in the Senate until his death in April 1905. During that time he chaired numerous committees including the Committee on Patents , the Committee on Pensions , the Committee on Territories , the Committee on Cuban Relations, and the Judiciary Committee . Because of his great influence in the Senate, he was temporarily counted among the so-called Senate Four , which also included John Coit Spooner from Wisconsin , William B. Allison from Iowa and Nelson W. Aldrich from Rhode Island . Because he voted against the Sherman Antitrust Act as well as against a law introducing the eight-hour day, he was heavily attacked by union representatives and described as a reactionary. The Platt Amendment of 1901, which regulated the conditions for the withdrawal of American troops from Cuba after the Spanish-American War and governed American-Cuban relations until May 1934, bears his name because he introduced this bill in the Senate.

Orville Platt died on April 21, 1905 in Meriden and was buried in his hometown of Washington. A high school in Meriden bears his name.

Web links

  • Orville H. Platt in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
personal data
SURNAME Platt, Orville H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Platt, Orville Hitchcock (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1905
Place of death Meriden , Connecticut