Frederick Theodore FRELINGHUYSEN, Congress, NJ (1817-1885)

FRELINGHUYSEN, Frederick Theodore, (nephew and adopted son of Theodore Frelinghuysen, grandson of Frederick Frelinghuysen, cousin of Joseph Sherman Frelinhuysen, uncle 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.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Rollins, John William. ”Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 1817-1885: The Politics and Diplomacy of Stewardship.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1974; Sayles, Stephen. “The Romero-Frelinghuysen Convention: A Milestone in Border Relations.” New Mexico Historical Review 51 (October 1976): 295-311.

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