Biography
A Representative and a Senator from Connecticut; born in Stratford, Conn., December 31, 1780; completed preparatory studies and graduated from Yale College in 1802; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Fairfield, Conn., in 1807; clerk of the State house of representatives in 1817; member, State house of representatives 1818, serving as speaker; elected as a Democratic Republican to the Sixteenth and to the succeeding Congress, reelected as an Adams-Clay Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, and reelected as an Adams candidate to the Nineteenth Congress (March 4, 1819-March 3, 1827); chairman, Committee on Commerce (Nineteenth Congress); Governor of Connecticut 1827-1831, when he resigned; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1831, to March 3, 1837; chairman, Committee on Pensions (Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses); trustee of Trinity College 1832-1836; retired to private life; died in Fairfield, Conn., October 8, 1854; interment in the Old Congregational Cemetery, Stratford, Conn.
Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress