MORSE, Freeman Harlow (1807-1891)

Republican of Maine

4th congressional district

Served in House 1843-1845 , 1857-1861

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Biography

Representative from Maine; born in Bath, Maine, February 18, 1807; attended private schools and the academy in Bath; engaged in business as a carver of figureheads for ships; member of the State house of representatives 1840-1844; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1845); mayor of Bath, Maine, in 1849, 1850, and again in 1855; again served in the State house of representatives in 1853 and 1856; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Thirty-sixth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1860; delegate to the peace convention held in Washington, D.C., in 1861, in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; appointed by President Lincoln as United States consul at London March 22, 1861, and consul general April 16, 1869, and served until July 1870; resided in England after his retirement from office; died in Surbiton, Surrey, England, February 5, 1891; interment in the parish churchyard of St. Mary's, Long Ditton, Surrey County, England.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

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