William Lawrence (politician, 1819)

William Lawrence

William Lawrence (born June 26, 1819 in Mount Pleasant , Jefferson County , Ohio , †  May 8, 1899 in Kenton , Ohio) was an American politician . Between 1865 and 1871 and again from 1873 to 1877 he represented the state of Ohio in the US House of Representatives .

Career

William Lawrence attended the common schools and the Tidball's Academy near Knoxville ( Tennessee ). He then worked for some time as a teacher in Pennsville and McConnelsville . Then he continued his own education at Franklin College in New Athens until 1838 . After a subsequent law degree at the Cincinnati Law School and his admission to the bar in 1840, he began to work in this profession, first in Zanesville and then in McConnelsville. In 1841 he moved his residence and his office to Bellefontaine . Between 1841 and 1843 he also studied medicine. At the same time he embarked on a career in the public service. In 1842, Lawrence was a bankruptcy officer in Logan County . He became a district attorney there three years later. Between 1845 and 1847 he published the Logan Gazette . In 1846 and 1847 he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives ; from 1849 to 1851 and in 1854 he was a member of the State Senate . From 1857 to 1864 he worked as an appeal judge. Between 1859 and 1862, Lawrence was co-editor of the legal magazine Western Law Monthly . In 1862 he took part in the civil war for three months as a colonel in the Union army .

Politically, Lawrence was a member of the Republican Party, founded in 1854 . In the congressional elections of 1864 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the fourth constituency of Ohio , where he succeeded Democrat John F. McKinney on March 4, 1865 . After two re-elections, he was able to complete three legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1871 . During this time the civil war ended. Since 1865, the work of Congress has been overshadowed by tension between Republicans and President Andrew Johnson , which culminated in a narrowly unsuccessful impeachment trial. Lawrence was among the MPs drafting the indictment against the president. He was a member of the Justice Committee and in this capacity called for the establishment of a Justice Ministry . To this end, he introduced a bill in 1868, which at that time did not find a majority. In the following legislative period, his proposal was reintroduced and accepted by other MPs with only slight variations. This makes Lawrence one of the founders of the US Department of Justice . In 1865 and 1868, the 13th and 14th amendments were ratified.

In 1870, Lawrence was not re-elected. After his time in the US House of Representatives, he founded the Bellefontaine National Bank in 1871 and became its president. In the elections of 1872 he was re-elected to Congress in the eighth district of his state to succeed John Beatty . After being re-elected, he was able to spend two more terms in the US House of Representatives until March 3, 1877. From 1873 to 1875 he was chairman of the Committee on War Claims . In 1876 he was no longer nominated for re-election by his party.

Between 1880 and 1885 he was auditor ( Comptroller ) of the US Treasury Department ; in 1891 he became president of the National Wool Growers' Association . He was also involved in founding the American Red Cross and became its first vice-president. In 1882 he successfully campaigned for the US government to sign the Geneva Convention . William Lawrence died on May 8, 1899 in Kenton and was buried in Bellefontaine.

Web links

Commons : William Lawrence  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

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

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