WHITE, Edward Douglass, Congress, LA (1845-1921)

Senate Years of Service: 1891-1894
Party: Democrat

WHITE, Edward Douglass, (son of Edward Douglass White [1795-1847] and grandson of James White), a Senator from Louisiana; born near Thibodaux, Lafourche Parish, La., November 3, 1845; attended Mount St. Mary’s College, near Emmitsburg, Md., the Jesuit College in New Orleans, La., and Georgetown College, Washington, D.C.; served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in New Orleans, La., in 1868; member, State senate 1874; associate justice of the supreme court of Louisiana 1879-1880; resumed the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1891, until his resignation, effective March 12, 1894; chairman, Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Fifty-third Congress); appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Grover Cleveland in 1894; appointed Chief Justice of the United States in 1910, and served until his death in Washington, D.C., May 19, 1921; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Bibliography American National Biography ; Dictionary of American Biography ; Highsaw, Robert. Edward Douglass White, Defender of the Conservative Faith . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981; Klinkhammer, Marie. Edward Douglass White, Chief Justice of the United States . Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1943.

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