Jacob Merritt HOWARD, Congress, MI (1805-1871)

HOWARD Jacob Merritt , a Representative and a Senator from Michigan; born in Shaftsbury, Bennington County, Vt., July 10, 1805; attended the district schools and the academies of Bennington and Brattleboro; graduated from Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., in 1830; studied law; moved to Detroit, Mich., in 1832; admitted to the bar in 1833 and commenced practice in Detroit; city attorney of Detroit in 1834; member, State house of representatives 1838; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); was not a candidate for renomination in 1842; helped draw up the platform of the first Republican convention in 1854; attorney general of Michigan 1855-1861; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Kinsley S. Bingham; reelected in 1865 and served from January 17, 1862, to March 3, 1871; chairman, Committee on Pacific Railroads (Thirty-eighth through Forty-first Congresses); died in Detroit, Mich., April 2, 1871; interment in Elmwood Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Republican Centennial Committee of Shaftesbury [Vermont]. The Story of Shaftesbury, Vermont: With an Account of Jacob Merritt Howard Who Wrote the Resolutions On Which the Republican Party Was Founded. Shaftsbury: Town Republican Centennial Committee, 1954.

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