1.
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
–
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.
Benjamin Fitzpatrick
–
Benjamin Fitzpatrick was the 11th Governor of the U. S. state of Alabama and a United States Senator from Alabama. Born in Greene County, Georgia, Fitzpatrick was orphaned at the age of seven and was taken by his sister to Alabama in 1815, Fitzpatrick helped his brothers manage land they owned on the Alabama River, and served as deputy under the first sheriff of Autauga County. He worked in the law office of Nimrod E. Benson before he was admitted to the bar, Fitzpatrick studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1821, commencing practice in Montgomery, Alabama. Fitzpatrick served as solicitor of the Montgomery circuit from 1822 to 1823, but moved to his plantation in Autauga County in 1829 and engaged in planting. He was again appointed on January 14,1853 and subsequently elected to the Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William R. King and he served in this Congress as Chairman of the Committee on Printing and the Committee on Engrossed Bills. He was elected to the Senate again to fill the vacancy caused by the failure of the legislature to elect his own successor on November 26,1855, in this role he served several times as President pro tempore of the Senate. The country was plagued by depression as a result of the Panic of 1837. Fitzpatricks predecessor, Governor Arthur P. Bagby introduced measures to assist the state banks, all the state banks were closed by Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick withdrew from the Senate on January 21,1861, following the secession of his home state, Fitzpatrick did not take a particularly active role in the politics of the Confederacy, but did serve as president of the constitutional convention of Alabama in 1865. Fitzpatrick died on his plantation near Wetumpka, Alabama, on November 21,1869, biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Benjamin Fitzpatrick at Find a Grave
3.
Charles E. Stuart
–
Charles Edward Stuart was a U. S. Senator from the state of Michigan, Stuart was born in New York, either near Waterloo, New York, or in Columbia County. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1832 and he moved to Michigan in 1835 and settled in Portage, Michigan. He served in the U. S. House from December 6,1847, two years later, he defeated Sprague by being elected to the 32nd Congress, serving from March 4,1851 to March 3,1853. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State in the 32nd Congress. Stuart was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1852 and served in the 34th, 35th and he was the President pro tempore of the Senate during the 34th Congress, and chairman of the Committee on Public Lands in the 34th and 35th Congresses. He did not seek reelection to the Senate but was a candidate for Governor of Michigan in 1858. He resumed the practice of law in Kalamazoo and was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention from Michigan, during the Civil War, Stuart raised and equipped the 13th Michigan Infantry, of which he was commissioned colonel. He later resigned due to ill health, Charles E. Stuart died in Kalamazoo and was interred in Mountain Home Cemetery. His home in Portage at 427 Stuart Ave. is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the surrounding Stuart Area Historic District is also listed. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, retrieved on 2008-02-15 Charles E. Stuart at The Political Graveyard Works by or about Charles E. Stuart at Internet Archive Charles E. Stuart
4.
James Murray Mason
–
James Murray Mason was a United States Representative and United States Senator from Virginia. In November 1861, Mason was among those captured by Federal troops during the Trent Affair in November 1861 while on a mission to England. He was born on Analostan Island in the District of Columbia and he practiced law in Virginia and was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, and a member of the State house of delegates. He was elected to the Twenty-fifth United States Congress in 1836 as a Jackson Democrat, in 1847, he was elected to the Senate after the death of Isaac S. Pennybacker, and was reelected in 1850 and 1856. Mason famously read aloud the dying Senator John C, calhouns final speech to the Senate, on March 4,1850, which warned of disunion and dire consequences if the North did not guarantee the South permanently equal representation in Congress. Mason represented the majority view in leading the Senate committee which investigated the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry of October 1859, Mason was President pro tempore of the Senate during the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses but was expelled from the Senate in 1861 for support of the Confederacy. While traveling to his post as Confederate envoy to Britain and France, on the British mail steamer RMS Trent, the ship was stopped by USS San Jacinto on November 8,1861. Mason and John Slidell were confined in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, the Northern public erupted with a huge display of triumphalism at this dramatic capture, and even the cool-headed Lincoln was swept along in the celebratory spirit. But when he and his cabinet studied the likely consequences of a war with Britain, after some careful diplomatic exchanges, they admitted that the capture had been conducted contrary to maritime law, and that private citizens could not be classified as ‘enemy despatches’. Slidell and Mason were released, and war was averted, the two diplomats set sail for England again on January 1,1862. Mason represented the Confederacy there until April 1865, one of his first acts in London was to raise the issue of Union blockades. Until 1868 he lived in Canada, and then returned to the Clarens Estate near Alexandria, Virginia and he died at Clarens on 28 April 1871, age 72. and was interred in the churchyard of Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia. Mason married Eliza Margaretta Chew on 25 July 1822 at Cliveden in Germantown, a first cousin 5 times removed was Betty Mason first wife of Gen. Edward Porter Alexander. Sister Sarah Maria was the wife of Confederate general Adjutant Samuel Cooper, sister Anna Maria was the wife of Sydney Smith Lee-son of Henry Light Horse Harry Lee, they were the parents of Confederate Major General and Virginia Governor Fitzhugh Lee. Brother John T. married Catherine Macomb daughter of Gen. Alexander Macomb, Jr. Commanding General of the army {1828-1841)
5.
Lewis Cass
–
During his long political career, Cass served as an American ambassador to France, and as a U. S. A Mason from his years as a man in Ohio, Cass was co-founder of the Grand Lodge of Michigan. Cass was nationally known in the antebellum period as a leading spokesman for the controversial Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty. It proposed allowing voters in the United States territories to determine whether to allow slavery in each jurisdiction rather than having Congress determine this, in 1848 Cass ran as a presidential candidate for the Democratic Party but lost to Zachary Taylor. Lewis Cass was born in 1782 in Exeter, New Hampshire and he attended the private Phillips Exeter Academy. His parents were Major Jonathan Cass, a Revolutionary War veteran, in 1800 the family moved to Marietta, Ohio, part of a wave of westward migration after the end of the war and defeat of Native Americans in the Northwest Indian War. Cass became an attorney, practicing in Zanesville, Ohio, on May 26,1806, Cass married Elizabeth Spencer. That same year, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, the following year, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Cass as the U. S. He achieved his Fellowcraft degree on April 2,1804, on June 24,1805, he was admitted as Charter member of Lodge of Amity 105, Zanesville. He served as the first Worshipful Master of Lodge of Amity in 1806, Cass was one of the founders of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, representing Lodge of Amity at the first meeting on January 4,1808. He was elected Deputy Grand Master on January 5,1809, and Grand Master on January 3,1810, January 8,1811, when the War of 1812 began against Great Britain, he took command of the 3rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment. He became colonel of the 27th United States Infantry Regiment on February 20,1813, soon after, he was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army on March 12,1813. Cass took part in the Battle of the Thames, a defeat of British Canadian forces, Cass resigned from the Army on May 1,1814. Overall, the war closed in, essentially, a draw, as a reward for his military service, Cass was appointed Governor of the Michigan Territory by President James Madison on October 29,1813, serving until 1831. As he was traveling on business, several territorial secretaries often acted as governor in his place. During this period, he helped negotiate and implement treaties with Native American tribes in Michigan, some were given small reservations in the territory. This helped open up areas of Michigan to settlement by European Americans and that same year, Cass was named to serve as Secretary of War under President James Monroe, but he declined the honor. In 1820, Cass led an expedition to the part of the Michigan Territory
6.
United States Senate
–
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
7.
Indiana
–
Indiana /ɪndiˈænə/ is a U. S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U. S. state on December 11,1816, before becoming a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Indiana has an economy with a gross state product of $298 billion in 2012. Indiana has several areas with populations greater than 100,000. The states name means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land and it also stems from Indianas territorial history. On May 7,1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier. The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking, the Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, such new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as axes, woodworking tools. During the latter part of the period, they built mounds and middens. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC, afterward, the Woodland period took place in Indiana, where various new cultural attributes appeared. During this period, the people created ceramics and pottery, an early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle portion of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods, nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with mounds and plazas defining ceremonial
8.
Albert Smith White
–
Albert Smith White was a U. S. Senator and Representative from the state of Indiana, White was born in Orange County, New York. He graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1822, after which he studied law, after a time he moved to Lafayette, Indiana, where he worked as the assistant clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1831–32, moving up to the full clerkship in 1832-35. He also ran for the House in 1832, but was defeated,1836 proved a more successful year for White, he served as a presidential elector on the Whig ticket, and was himself elected as a Whig to the 25th Congress. After a single term in the House, White ran for the Senate in the 1838 election, White won election to the Senate, where he served as chairman of two committees, the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. White declined to stand for reelection, in the 1860 election, he re-entered politics, running as a Republican for the House. White was elected to the House again, serving from March 4,1861 – March 3,1863 and he was a member of the select committee on emancipation. After his first term, he again did not run for reelection, after White left the House, President Abraham Lincoln named him a member of a commission that would judge claims from citizens against the government for not protecting them from Indian attacks. After his service there, he was made a judge on the U. S. District Court for Indiana and he served in this capacity until his death in Stockwell in 1864, when he was interred in Greenbush Cemetery in Lafayette. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, retrieved on 2009-03-21 Albert Smith White
9.
Joseph A. Wright
–
Joseph Albert Wright was the tenth Governor of the U. S. state of Indiana from December 5,1849 to January 12,1857, most noted for his opposition to banking. His positions created a rift between him and the Indiana General Assembly who overrode all of his anti-banking vetoes and he responded by launching legal challenges to the acts, but was ruled against by the Indiana Supreme Court. The states second constitutional convention was held during 1850-1851 in which the current Constitution of Indiana was drafted and he was a supporter of the new constitution and gave speeches around the state urging its adoption. He was opposed throughout his term by Senator Jesse D. Bright, after his term as governor, he was appointed to serve as United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia where he served until the outbreak of the American Civil War. Following the war he was reappointed to his ambassadorial post where he remained until his death in Berlin, Joseph Albert Wright was born in Washington, Pennsylvania on April 17,1810 the son of John and Rachel Seaman Wright. He moved with his family to Bloomington, Indiana in 1820 and his father was a bricklayer, and worked as one of the laborers who built the first halls of Indiana State Seminary. He was the brother of future Iowa Senator George G. Wright and his father died when he was fourteen, and his family become impoverished. Wright worked as a janitor, bell ringer, and occasional bricklayer, in order to pay for his schooling, living in Bloomington, he was able to attend the seminary while living at home, making the education affordable for him. Many of his classmates were from families, and he earned money by selling them nuts and fruits he picked in the forest around his home. Wright received an education, learning Greek and Latin. He graduated in 1828 and decided to become a lawyer and he studied law in the office of Craven Hester, one of southern Indianas leading judges and political figures, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He then moved to Rockville where he opened a law practice where he met Louisa Cook and she was an ardent Methodist who converted Wright before the couple married on November 30,1831. The couple had a son, but Louisas poor health and several bouts with malaria prevented her from having more children, Wright became very active in the Methodist Church and an outspoken advocate of Sunday School and religious study in public schools. Much of his support came from the church and many of his campaign rallies were held in Methodist churches. Through his law office, Wright became a friend of state representative William Perkins Bryant, in 1832, Bryant moved to Kentucky, leaving his seat vacant, and urged Wright to take it. With his support, Wright was elected and served as Park Countys representative to the Indiana House of Representatives, during the term he supported the charter for the Bank of Indiana, an unpopular act in his district, and he was defeated in his reelection bid. He left the General Assembly to become the prosecuting attorney of the Indiana 1st circuit in 1838 and he ran for the Indiana State Senate in 1839. The campaign was fought, occurring in the same year that the Indiana Territorys popular former governor, William Henry Harrison
10.
Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
–
The Lieutenant Governor of Indiana is a constitutional office in the US State of Indiana. Republican Suzanne Crouch, who assumed office 9 January 2017, is the incumbent, Lieutenant governors have succeeded ten governors following their deaths or resignations. The lieutenant governor holds statutory positions, serving as the head of the agricultural and rural affairs bureaus. The annual salary of the lieutenant governor of Indiana is $88,000, the lieutenant governor is elected on the same election ticket as the Governor in a statewide election held every four years, concurrent with United States presidential elections. Should a lieutenant governor die while in office, resign, or succeed to the governorship, historically, the position has generally remained vacant during such events. The last attempt to fill such a vacancy in 1887 led to the outbreak of violence in the state known as the Black Day of the General Assembly. However, in recent years the Governor has appointed a Lieutenant Governor if a vacancy arises, the position of lieutenant governor was created with the adoption of the first Constitution of Indiana in August 1816. The position was filled by an October election, the position was retained and the current requirements established in the states second and current constitution adopted in 1851. To become lieutenant governor of Indiana, a candidate must have been a United States citizen, the candidate must also be at least thirty years old when sworn into office. The lieutenant governor may not hold any federal office during his term, before taking the office, the candidate must swear an oath of office administered by the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, promising to uphold the constitution and laws of Indiana. The lieutenant governor of Indiana serves as acting governor when the governor becomes incapacitated, in the states early history, lieutenant governors would serve as acting governor while the governor was away from the capital. Christopher Harrison was the first lieutenant governor to serve as acting governor while Jonathan Jennings negotiated treaties far from the capital, if the governor dies in office, becomes permanently incapacitated, resigns, or is impeached, the lieutenant governor becomes governor. In total, ten lieutenant governors become governor by succession, the first occurrence was when Jonathan Jennings resigned to become a congressman and was succeeded by Ratliff Boon. In the event that both the governorship and lieutenant-governorship are vacant, the constitution stipulates that the Senate President pro tempore becomes governor, historically, governors appointed the pro tempore to serve as acting lieutenant governor as a formality. This practice ended in the twentieth century. Although the constitution did not specify a method to fill a vacancy in the lieutenant governorship, an attempt to fill a vacancy occurred in 1887. When the winner of the election attempted to be seated, the Senate erupted into violence known as the Black Day of the General Assembly, the lieutenant governor has two constitutional functions. The primary function is to serve as the President of the Indiana Senate, in the Senate the lieutenant governor is permitted to debate on legislation, introduce legislation, and vote on matters to break ties
.svg)
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.
