1.
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
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The president pro tempore of the United States Senate, also president pro tem, is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. Unlike the vice president, the president pro tempore is a member of the Senate. Selected by the Senate at large, the president pro tempore has enjoyed many privileges, during the vice presidents absence, the president pro tempore is empowered to preside over Senate sessions. Since 1890, the most senior senator in the majority party has generally chosen to be president pro tempore. This tradition has been observed without interruption since 1949, the current President pro tempore of the Senate is Utah Republican Orrin Hatch. Elected on January 6,2015, he is the 90th person to serve in this office, although the position is in some ways analogous to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the powers of the president pro tempore are far more limited. The president pro tempore is third in the line of succession, following the vice president. Additional duties include appointment of various officers, certain commissions, advisory boards. The officeholder is an ex member of various boards and commissions. With the secretary and sergeant at arms, the president pro tempore maintains order in Senate portions of the Capitol, the office of president pro tempore was established by the Constitution of the United States in 1789. The first president pro tempore, John Langdon, was elected on April 6 the same year, originally, the president pro tempore was appointed on an intermittent basis when the vice president was not present to preside over the Senate. Until the 1960s, it was practice for the vice president to preside over daily Senate sessions. Until 1891, the president pro tempore only served until the return of the president to the chair or the adjournment of a session of Congress. Between 1792 and 1886, the president pro tempore was second in the line of succession following the vice president. When President Andrew Johnson, who had no president, was impeached and tried in 1868. Wades radicalism is thought by historians to be a major reason why the Senate. The President pro tempore and the Speaker of the House were removed from the line of succession in 1886. Both were restored to it in 1947, though this time with the president pro tempore following the speaker, William P. Frye served as President pro tempore from 1896 to 1911 (54th–62nd Congress, a tenure longer than anyone else
2.
Matthew H. Carpenter
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Matthew Hale Carpenter was an American attorney and U. S. Senator representing the state of Wisconsin and he served in the Senate from 1869–1875 and again from 1879–1881. Recognized as an authority on law, he made some of the most important legal arguments of 19th century America. Carpenter presented cases before the U. S. Supreme Court involving such matters as states rights, originally a Democrat, he evolved into a Republican during the Civil War, and helped perpetuate the Wisconsin partys political machinery. A gifted orator, he was dubbed the Webster of the West, Carpenter was born in Moretown, Vermont in the Mad River Valley of the Green Mountain range. His pioneering forebears were English, and came to America soon after the Pilgrims and his grandfather Cephas Carpenter helped establish Moretown, owned a store, served as a colonel in the militia and took part in the War of 1812. Cephas Carpenter served in office including justice of the peace. His son Ira Carpenter was chiefly a farmer, but he gained prominence through positions such as justice of the peace, postmaster. Grandson Merritt displayed intelligence and oratorical talents at an age, impressing people with his abilities to recite Cicero. He also displayed an aversion to physical work, after an explosive argument with a schoolmaster, the 13-year-old Carpenter was expelled from school. He was dissatisfied with the limits of Moretown, and left home to live, for four years Carpenter attended the local grade school while absorbing Dillinghams law library. He returned to live in Dillinghams home and managed his law office while Dillingham was then a congressman in Washington, D. C. Upon Carpenters admission to the Vermont bar in November 1847 Dillingham offered to him his law partner. Choate was also impressed with Carpenter, and after a few months he too offered him a partnership, arriving in June 1848, Carpenter quickly established a reputation as a successful and affordable attorney, attracting much acclaim from the local community. His practice was interrupted by an inflammation of his eyes which rendered him blind. After traveling to New York to seek treatment, his sight gradually recovered after a year as he convalesced in the Waterbury home of his mentor Dillingham, before returning to Wisconsin he became engaged to Dillinghams daughter Catherine, and they married five years later. In 1850 Carpenter returned to resume his law practice in Beloit using a new name, Matthew Hale Carpenter, after Sir Matthew Hale, the noted English jurist of the 17th century. Despite an earlier warning from Choate to steer clear of politics, Carpenter successfully ran for Rock County district attorney, Carpenter put forth the theory that the original pre-emptor was still technically the owner of the property
3.
Thomas W. Ferry
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Thomas White Ferry was a U. S. Senator from the state of Michigan, Ferry was born in the old Mission House on Mackinac Island. The community on Mackinac at that time included the garrison, the main depot of John Jacob Astors American Fur Company. His father was a Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. William Montague Ferry, Rev. Ferry also was the pastor of the Protestant church on the island. Thomas moved with his parents to Grand Haven, Michigan, attended the public schools and he worked as a store clerk in Elgin, Illinois for two years from 1843 to 1845 before returning to Michigan. He was a member of the Michigan State House of Representatives 1850-1852, on January 26,1857, Ferry, with his father William Montague Ferry, platted the village of Ferrysburg, Michigan, which his father had first settled in 1834. He was a delegate to the Loyalist Convention at Philadelphia in 1866 and he was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives for the 39th, 40th, and 41st Congresses, serving from March 4,1865 to March 4,1871. He was re-elected to the U. S. House for the 42nd Congress in the election of November 8,1870. The Michigan Legislature subsequently elected him to the U. S. Senate on January 18,1871, Ferry was reelected to the Senate in 1877, and served from March 4,1871 to March 4,1883. He was a candidate for reelection in 1882. Ferry was the first person from Michigan to have served in both houses of the Michigan State Legislature and in houses of the United States Congress. The second person to do so is Debbie Stabenow and he delivered an address as the presiding officer of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition on July 4,1876. As Ulysses Grant was no longer the President, and Hayes had not, at least in Ferrys view, assumed the office, while Senator, Ferry was chairman, Committee on Rules, Committee on Post Office and Post Roads. Ferry died in Grand Haven, Michigan, aged 69, and is interred in Lake Forest Cemetery, William Montague Ferry, Jr. brother Dictionary of American Biography Ziewacz, Lawrence E. The Eighty-First Ballot, The Senatorial Struggle of 1883, biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Thomas W. Ferry at The Political Graveyard Thomas W. Ferry at Find a Grave Ferry, Thomas White
4.
Benjamin Wade
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Benjamin Franklin Bluff Wade was a United States Senator during Civil War reconstruction known for his leading role among the Radical Republicans. Had the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1868 led to a conviction at the trial in the Senate, he would have assumed the presidential powers, Wade was born in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, on October 27,1800 to Mary and James Wade. Benjamin Wades first job was as a laborer on the Erie Canal and he also taught school before studying law in Ohio with Elisha Whittlesey. After being admitted to the bar in 1828, he began practicing law in Jefferson, Wade formed a partnership with Joshua Giddings, a prominent anti-slavery figure, in 1831. He became the attorney of Ashtabula County by 1836, and as a member of the Whig Party, Wade was elected to the Ohio State Senate. He established a new law practice with Rufus P. Ranney and was elected presiding judge of the district in 1847. Between 1847 and 1851, Wade was a judge of common pleas in what is now Summit County, after the decline of the Whigs power, Wade joined the Republican Party, and in 1851 he was elected by his legislature to the United States Senate. There, he associated with such eventual Radical Republicans as Thaddeus Stevens and he fought against the controversial Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. He was one of the most radical politicians in America at that time, supporting womens suffrage, trade union rights and he was also critical of how certain aspects of capitalism were practiced in the 19th century. In March 1861, he became chairman of the Committee on Territories, there, he was almost captured by the Confederate Army. After arriving back at Washington, D. C. he was one of those who blamed the attack on the incompetence of the leadership of the Union Army. Wade was also critical of Lincolns Reconstruction Plan, in December 1863, he and Henry Winter Davis sponsored a bill that would run the South, when conquered, their way. The Wade–Davis Bill mandated that there be a fifty-percent White male Iron-Clad Loyalty Oath, Black male suffrage, and Military Governors that were to be confirmed by the U. S. Senate. Tradition has it that Zachariah Chandler asked him if he plan on signing it or no. and Lincoln replied. On July 4,1864, he vetoed the bill by refusing to sign it. Lincoln later said that he didnt want to be held to one Reconstruction policy and this action drove Wade to sign, along with Davis, the Wade–Davis Manifesto, which accused the president of seeking reelection by the executive establishment of new state governments. On July 28,1866, the 39th Congress passed an act to adjust the peacetime establishment of the United States military, Wade proposed that two of the cavalry regiments should be composed of African American enlisted personnel. These units made up of black enlisted personnel and white officers were not the first of such units to serve on the Western Frontier, Wade, along with most other Radical Republicans, was highly critical of President Andrew Johnson
5.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
6.
Rhode Island
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Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, the state also shares a short maritime border with New York. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution, on May 29,1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution. Rhode Islands official nickname is The Ocean State, a reference to the fact that the state has several large bays, Rhode Island covers 1,214 square miles, of which 1,045 square miles are land. Despite its name, most of Rhode Island is located on the mainland of the United States, the official name of the state is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which is derived from the merger of four settlements. Rhode Island is now commonly called Aquidneck Island, the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay, Providence Plantation was the name of the colony founded by Roger Williams in the area now known as the city of Providence. This was adjoined by the settlement of Warwick, hence the plural Providence Plantations and it is unclear how Aquidneck Island came to be known as Rhode Island, although there are two popular theories. Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano noted the presence of an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay in 1524, subsequent European explorers were unable to precisely identify the island that Verrazzano had named, but the Pilgrims who later colonized the area assumed that it was Aquidneck. A second theory concerns the fact that Adriaen Block passed by Aquidneck during his expeditions in the 1610s, historians have theorized that this reddish appearance resulted from either red autumn foliage or red clay on portions of the shore. The earliest documented use of the name Rhode Island for Aquidneck was in 1637 by Roger Williams, the name was officially applied to the island in 1644 with these words, Aquethneck shall be henceforth called the Isle of Rodes or Rhode-Island. The name Isle of Rodes is used in a document as late as 1646. Dutch maps as early as 1659 call the island Red Island, Williams was a theologian forced out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Seeking religious and political tolerance, he and others founded Providence Plantation as a proprietary colony. Providence referred to the concept of providence, and plantation was an English term for a colony. State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is the longest official name of any state in the Union, advocates for excising plantation asserted that the word specifically referred to the British colonial practice of establishing settlements which disenfranchised native people. Advocates for retaining the name argued that plantation was simply an archaic English synonym for colony, the referendum election was held on November 2,2010, and the people voted overwhelmingly to retain the entire original name. It shares a maritime border with New York State between Block Island and Long Island
7.
Philip Allen (politician)
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Philip Allen was an American manufacturer and politician from Rhode Island. He served as Governor of Rhode Island and as a Democratic member of the United States Senate, Allen was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Zachariah Allen and Nancy Crawford Allen. He was educated by tutors and attended Taunton Academy and Robert Rogers School in Newport. In 1803, he graduated from the College of Rhode Island, after graduation, he engaged in mercantile pursuits and foreign commerce before becoming a manufacturer of cotton goods in Smithfield, Rhode Island. He was president of the Providence Insurance Company, and in 1831 he began manufacturing cotton goods in Providence and he began his political career as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, serving from 1819 to 1821. In 1827, he was appointed pension agent and president of the Rhode Island branch of the United States Bank, Allen was elected as the Democratic Governor of Rhode Island in 1851. He served as Governor until 1853, when he resigned office after being elected to represent Rhode Island in the United States Senate. He was not a candidate for renomination, and retired from politics and he died in Providence on December 16,1865, and is interred in the North Burial Ground in Providence. He married Phoebe Aborn in 1815, and they had eleven children, in 2016, Allen was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, philip Allen at Find a Grave National Governors Association
8.
William Paine Sheffield Sr.
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William Paine Sheffield was a United States Representative and Senator from Rhode Island. In 1841 and 1842 he was a delegate to the State constitutional conventions and was a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1842 to 1845, from 1849 to 1853 and he moved to Tiverton and returned to Newport. He was appointed as a Republican to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry B, anthony and served from November 19,1884, to January 20,1885, after which he resumed the practice of his profession. In 1892 Sheffield was elected as a member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati. Sheffield died in Newport in 1907, interment was in the Island Cemetery, Sheffield was the father of William Paine Sheffield, Jr. also a U. S. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, William Paine Sheffield Sr. at Find a Grave
9.
Governor of Rhode Island
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On May 30,2013, while in office, he switched his party affiliation to Democratic. This is a table of congressional seats, other federal offices, all representatives and senators mentioned represented Rhode Island except where noted. * denotes those offices which the governor resigned to take, as of January 2017, there are five former U. S. governors of Rhode Island who are currently living at this time, the oldest U. S. governor of Rhode Island being Philip W. Noel. The most recent U. S. governor of Rhode Island to die was J. Joseph Garrahy who died on January 24,2012, the most recently serving U. S. governor of Rhode Island to die was Bruce Sundlun, on July 21,2011. List of lieutenant governors of Rhode Island
Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Anthony, Henry Bowen". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "
