Lyman TRUMBULL, Congress, IL (1813-1896)

TRUMBULL, Lyman, a Senator from Illinois; born in Colchester, Conn., October 12, 1813; attended Bacon Academy; taught school in Connecticut 1829-1833; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Greenville, Ga.; moved to Belleville, Ill., 1837; member, State house of representatives 1840-1841; secretary of State of Illinois in 1841 and 1843; justice of the supreme court of Illinois 1848-1853; elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress in 1854, but before the beginning of the Congress was elected to the United States Senate; reelected in 1861 and again in 1867, and served from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1873; was at various times a Democrat, then Republican, then Liberal Republican, then Democrat; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Thirty-seventh through Forty-second Congresses); resumed the practice of law in Chicago, Ill.; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Illinois in 1880; died in Chicago, Ill., June 25, 1896; interment in Oakwoods Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; DiNunzio, Mario. “Secession Winter: Lyman Trumbull and the Crisis in Congress.” Capitol Studies 1 (Fall 1972): 29-39; Krug, Mark M. Lyman Trumbull, Conservative Radical. New York: A.S. Barnes, 1965.

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