US Con Bright, Jesse David - U.S. Senator, IN

Jesse David Bright:​

Born: December 18, 1812
Birthplace: Norwich New York
Father: David Grant Bright 1775 – 1851
(Buried: Fairmont Cemetery Madison Indiana)
Mother: Rachel Graham 1780 – 1835
(Buried: Fairmont Cemetery Madison Indiana)

Wife: Mary Elizabeth James Turpin 1817 – 1877
(Buried: Green Mount Cemetery Baltimore Maryland)

Children:
George Graham Bright 1836 – 1852
(Buried: Fairmont Cemetery Madison Indiana)
Mary Jane Turpin Bright Riggs 1837 – 1919
(Buried: Green Mount Cemetery Baltimore Maryland)
Margaret Anna "Maggie" Bright Moss 1839 – 1904
Jesse Jackson Bright 1842 – 1923
Sarah Virginia Bright 1844 – 1870
Indiana C. Bright Smedberg 1853 – 1888
(Buried: Linden Grove Cemetery Covington Kentucky)


Political Party: Democratic Party


Occupation before War:
1831 – 1834: Attorney in Madison Indiana
1834 – 1839: Jefferson County Indiana Probate Judge
1840 – 1841: United States Marshal for Indiana District
1841 – 1843: Indiana State Senator
1843 – 1845: Lt. Governor of Indiana
1845 – 1862: United States Senator from Indiana
1845 – 1847: Chairman of Senate Public Buildings Committee
1845 – 1847: Member of Senate Public Lands Committee
1847 – 1849: Member of Senate Territories Committee
1849 – 1855: Member of Senate Finance Committee
1851 – 1853: Member Senate Audit and Control of Expenses Committee
1854 – 1856: President Pro Tempore of United States Senate
1856 – 1857: President Pro Tempore of United States Senate
1857 – 1861: Chairman Senate Public Buildings and Grounds Committee
1857 – 1862: Member of Senate Finance Committee
1860: President Pro Tempore of United States Senate

Civil War Career:
1845 – 1862: United States Senator from Indiana
1857 – 1862: Member of Senate Finance Committee
1861 – 1862: Member Senate Public Buildings and Grounds Committee
1862: Expelled from United States Senate for support of rebellion
The evidence of expulsion was a letter of introduction he wrote an army merchant addressed to Confederate President Jefferson Davis
1863: Unsuccessful candidate for election to U.S. Senate
1863 – 1871: Attorney in Covington Kentucky

Occupation after War:
1863 – 1871: Attorney in Covington Kentucky
1867 – 1871: Kentucky State Representative
1871 – 1875: President of Raymond City Coal Company
1874 – 1875: Citizen of Baltimore Maryland

Died: May 20, 1875
Place of Death: Baltimore Maryland
Age at time of Death: 62 years old
Burial Place: Green Mount Cemetery Baltimore Maryland

 

[Pollaco]

Served as President Pro Tempore on 3 occassions.

 

[Pollaco]

It wasn't just for acknowledging Jefferson Davis as President in a letter that got him expelled from the Senate. The content of the letter addressed to "President" Davis also involved firearms and their trade.The March 1, 1861 letter was found on a captured gun trader just after 1st. Manassas.

 

[Pollaco]

It wasn't just for acknowledging Jefferson Davis as President in a letter that got him expelled from the Senate. The content of the letter addressed to "President" Davis also involved firearms and their trade.The March 1, 1861 letter was found on a captured gun trader just after 1st. Manassas.

It was Minnesota Senator Morton S. Wilkinson who introduced the letter and probably started the expulsion proceedings.

 

[USS ALASKA]

University of Kentucky
UKnowledge
Theses and Dissertations--History
2013

Indiana's Southern Senator: Jesse Bright and the Hoosier Democracy
John J. Wickre
University of Kentucky

This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the History at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--History by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Copyright © John J. Wickre 2013

ABSTRACT
Without northern doughface Democrats, and northern states like Indiana, the South could not have held dominance in American politics during the sectional crisis. Anchoring the extreme end of the doughface North was Indiana's slaveholding senator Jesse Bright (his holdings were in Kentucky). Yet, he was no flailing radical pushed to the margins of northern politics. Bright was the chief party boss who by the mid to late 1850s controlled the state of Indiana. He was one of the most influential leaders getting James Buchanan into the presidency. He did this, in part, because Indiana was a conservative state that disliked antislavery agitators. Still, most Hoosiers were not partisans in favor of slavery. Bright was able to lead Indiana politics during the 1850s because he had become a powerful political boss. American politics in the 1840s and 1850s was built around state level organizations. With elections going through constant and irregular cycles, hopeful candidates needed a strong organization capable of providing money, press literature and mobilization of voters. They needed someone with grit, savvy and energy to organize various groups, and no one was more successful at this in Indiana than Bright. Bright did this, in part, by understanding the baser motives of men, and more importantly, could satisfy these wants with graft, bribery, patronage and other inducements. If that was not enough to motivation, he used fear, bullying and good old fashioned steam rolling tactics to bludgeon his enemies into submission. Bright's extreme doughface attitudes did not make him popular, but his organizing skills made him a powerful leader. He helped prop the slave-power in American politics through the 1850s, but his efforts also alienated a wide swath of northerners, especially in Indiana. By 1860, a northern Republican Party took control of American politics, as northerners came to reject the slave-masters and the slave-power. This dissertation argues that Bright played a pivotal role in propping the slave-power. But ultimately Bright's political downfall was part of a larger rejection of southern politics.

https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=history_etds

Because of copyright, please see above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[SWS]

He makes me think of Henry Adams' Silas P. Ratcliffe.