William Preston (politician, 1816)

William Preston

William Preston (born October 16, 1816 in Louisville , Kentucky , †  September 21, 1887 there ) was an American politician . Between 1852 and 1855 he represented the state of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives . From 1858 to 1861 he was the American envoy to Spain .

Career

William Preston was a nephew of Francis Preston (1765-1836), who had represented the state of Virginia in Congress between 1793 and 1797 . He attended St. Joseph's College in Kentucky and then studied until 1835 at Yale College . After a subsequent law degree at Harvard University and his 1839 admission to the bar, he began in Louisville to practice in this profession. During the Mexican-American War he was a lieutenant colonel in a volunteer unit from Kentucky.

Politically, Preston was a member of the Whig Party . In 1849 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the Kentucky Constitution. In 1850 he was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives ; between 1851 and 1852 he was a member of the State Senate . After the resignation of MP Humphrey Marshall , he was elected as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC at the by-election due for the seventh seat of Kentucky , where he took up his new mandate on December 6, 1852. Since he also won the regular congressional elections of 1852, he could remain in Congress until March 3, 1855. This time was marked by the discussions leading up to the civil war .

In the elections of 1854 he was defeated by his predecessor Humphrey Marshall. Between 1858 and 1861 Preston served as the American envoy to Spain, where he succeeded Augustus C. Dodge . During the Civil War, Preston was Brigadier General in the Confederation Army until 1864 . In 1864 he became Confederate Ambassador to the Imperial Court in Mexico . Between 1868 and 1869 William Preston was once again a member of the House of Representatives from Kentucky. Then he withdrew from politics. He died on September 21, 1887 in his hometown of Louisville.

Web links

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

• William Preston in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• William Preston in the database of Find a Grave (English)