Samuel S. Phelps

Samuel S. Phelps

Samuel Shethar Phelps (born May 13, 1793 in Litchfield , Connecticut , †  March 25, 1855 in Middlebury , Vermont ) was an American lawyer and politician ( Whig Party ) who represented the state of Vermont in the US Senate .

Samuel Phelps graduated from Yale in 1811 , studied law , became a member of the bar and began practicing law in Middlebury in 1812. During the British-American War he served as a paymaster in the US armed forces.

As a result, he began to be politically active. In 1821 Phelps first moved into the Vermont House of Representatives , of which he was a member until 1832. He was then appointed as a judge to the Vermont Supreme Court and remained there until 1838. In that year he returned to politics and became a member of the State Senate , from which he moved to the US Senate in Washington, DC in 1839 . During his twelve-year tenure, which ended on March 3, 1851, Phelps was, among other things, chairman of the pension and patent committee.

When William Upham , who had represented Vermont with him in the Senate since 1843, died on January 14, 1853, Phelps was appointed his successor. However, this second term ended on March 16, 1854, when a Senate committee determined that he was not entitled to exercise the mandate. Samuel Phelps left Congress and died in Middlebury the following year.

His son Edward also became a politician and, as a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Vermont in 1880 . From 1885 to 1889 he was US Ambassador to Great Britain.

Web links

• Samuel S. Phelps in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Samuel S. Phelps in the database of Find a Grave (English)