Thomas Laurens Jones

Thomas Laurens Jones

Thomas Laurens Jones (born January 22, 1819 in White Oak , Rutherford County , North Carolina , †  June 20, 1887 in Newport , Kentucky ) was an American politician . Between 1867 and 1871 and again from 1875 to 1877 he represented the state of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Thomas Jones came to Spartanburg , South Carolina with his parents when he was still a child . There he attended private schools. He then studied at Princeton College until 1840 . After studying law at Harvard University and being admitted to the bar in 1846, he began practicing this profession in Spartanburg. Before that he had toured Europe as a tourist for two years. In 1847 he moved his residence and his law firm to New York City . Since 1849 he was based in Newport (Kentucky), where he also worked as a lawyer.

In his new home, Jones began a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1853 and 1855 he was an MP in the Kentucky House of Representatives . Despite being an opponent of secession, Jones was imprisoned for three months during the Civil War as a supposed sympathizer of the South in 1862. In the congressional election of 1866 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the sixth constituency of Kentucky , where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1867. After a re-election in 1868, he was able to complete two terms in Congress until March 3, 1871 . Since 1865, the work of Congress has been marked by tension between the Republican Party and President Andrew Johnson , culminating in a narrowly unsuccessful impeachment trial.

In 1870 Jones decided not to run again. Four years later he was re-elected to Congress. There he replaced William Evans Arthur on March 4, 1875 . Until March 3, 1877 he was able to spend another legislative period in the US House of Representatives. During this time he was chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals . In the following elections in 1876, Thomas Jones did not run again. He withdrew from politics, went back to work as a lawyer and died on June 20, 1887 in Newport.

Web links

• Thomas Laurens Jones in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Thomas Laurens Jones in the database of Find a Grave (English)