Alexander Mitchell PALMER, Congress, PA (1872-1936)

PALMER, Alexander Mitchell, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born near White Haven, Luzerne County, Pa., May 4, 1872; attended the public schools and prepared for college at the Moravian Parochial School, Bethlehem, Pa.; was graduated from Swarthmore (Pa.) College in 1891; appointed offical stenographer of the forty-third judicial district of Pennsylvania in 1892; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1893 and practiced in Stroudsburg, Pa.; director of various banks and public-service corporations; member of the Democratic State executive committee of Pennsylvania; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first, Sixty-second, and Sixty-third Congresses (March 4, 1909-March 3, 1915); was not a candidate for renomination in 1914, but was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912 and 1916; member of the Democratic National Committee 1912-1920; appointed Alien Property Custodian October 22, 1917, by President Wilson, and served until March 4, 1919, when he resigned to become Attorney General of the United States, in which capacity he served from March 5, 1919, until March 4, 1921; engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D.C., and Stroudsburg, Pa.; died in Washington, D.C., May 11, 1936; interment in Laurelwood Cemetery, Stroudsburg, Pa.

Bibliography

Coben, Stanley. A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1972.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present