William Henry Stiles

William Henry Stiles

William Henry Stiles (born January 1, 1808 in Savannah , Georgia , †  December 20, 1865 ) was an American politician . Between 1843 and 1845 he represented the state of Georgia in the US House of Representatives . He also served from 1845 to 1849 Ambassador of the United States in the Empire of Austria .

Career

William Stiles was a grandson of Joseph Clay (1741-1804), who had been elected to the Continental Congress for Georgia . He attended schools in his home country. After a subsequent law degree at Yale College and his admission to the bar in 1831, he began to work in Savannah in his new profession. Between 1833 and 1836 he was Attorney General ( Solicitor General ) for the eastern part of Georgia.

Politically, Stiles was a member of the Democratic Party . In the state-wide held congressional elections of 1842 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC for the second mandate of Georgia , where he succeeded Thomas Flournoy Foster on March 4, 1843 . Up until March 3, 1845, Stiles had only one term in Congress . This was shaped by the discussions about a possible annexation of the Republic of Texas , which had been independent of Mexico since 1836 . After his time in the House of Representatives, Stiles was appointed US Ambassador to Austria by the new President James K. Polk . He held this office until 1849. During his time in Vienna he experienced the revolution of 1848, which led to the overthrow of Klemens von Metternich in Austria .

After returning to Georgia, Stiles returned to practice as a lawyer in Savannah. He was also elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, of which he was president in 1858. In 1860, Stiles was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore . During the ensuing civil war he served as a colonel in the army of the Confederacy . After that he dealt with literary affairs. William Stiles died on December 20, 1865 in his native Savannah.

Web links

• William Henry Stiles in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• William Henry Stiles in the database of Find a Grave (English)