FRELINGHUYSEN, Frederick Theodore (1817-1885)

Republican of New Jersey

0th congressional district

Served in Senate 1865-1869 , 1871-1877

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Biography

(Nephew and adopted son of Theodore Frelinghuysen, grandson of Frederick Frelinghuysen, cousin of Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, great-grandfather of Peter Hood Ballantine Frelinghuysen, Jr., great-great-grandfather of Rodney P. Frelinghuysen), a Senator from New Jersey; born in Millstone, N.J., August 4, 1817; graduated from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N.J., in 1836; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1839 and commenced practice in Newark, N.J.; city attorney of Newark in 1849; member of the city council 1850; trustee of Rutgers College 1851-1885; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; attorney general of New Jersey 1861-1866; appointed and subsequently elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Wright and served from November 12, 1866, to March 3, 1869; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1868; appointed United States Minister to England by President Ulysses Grant in July 1870; confirmed but declined the appointment; again elected to the United States Senate as a Republican and served from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1877; appointed a member of the Electoral Commission in 1877 to decide the contests in various States in the presidential election of 1876; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Forty-second through Forty-fourth Congresses); resumed the practice of law in Newark, N.J.; appointed Secretary of State by President Chester Arthur 1881-1885; died in Newark, N.J., May 20, 1885; interment in Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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