Horatio SEYMOUR, Congress, VT (1778-1857)

SEYMOUR, Horatio, (uncle of Origen Storrs Seymour), a Senator from Vermont; born in Litchfield, Conn., May 31, 1778; attended the common schools and graduated from Yale College in 1797; taught school in Cheshire, Conn.; pursued legal studies in Litchfield Law School; admitted to the bar in 1800 and commenced the practice of law in Middlebury, Vt.; postmaster of Middlebury 1800-1809; member, State executive council 1809-1814; State’s attorney for Addison County 1810-1813, 1815-1819; elected as a Democratic Republican (later Adams-Clay Republican) to the United States Senate in 1821; reelected as an Adams Democrat in 1827 (later Anti-Jacksonian) and served from March 4, 1821, to March 3, 1833; was not a candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Eighteenth and Nineteenth Congresses), Committee on Agriculture (Twenty-second Congress); unsuccessful Whig candidate for governor of Vermont in 1836; judge of the probate court 1847-1856; died in Middlebury, Addison County, Vt., November 21, 1857; interment in West Cemetery.

Bibliography

Degree, Kenneth A. “The Watershed Election: Cornelius Peter Van Ness, Horatio Seymour, and the United States Senate Campaign of 1826.” Vermont History 71 (2003): 152-179.

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