Theodore Frelinghuysen
Theodore Frelinghuysen | |
---|---|
Mayor of Newark | |
In office November 10, 1837 – November 10, 1838 | |
Preceded by | William Halsey |
Succeeded by | James Miller |
United States Senator from New Jersey | |
In office March 4, 1829 – March 3, 1835 | |
Preceded by | Mahlon Dickerson |
Succeeded by | Garret D. Wall |
12th Attorney General of New Jersey | |
In office February 6, 1817 – March 4, 1829 | |
Governor | Isaac Halstead Williamson |
Preceded by | Aaron Woodruff |
Succeeded by | Samuel L. Southard |
Personal details | |
Born | Franklin Township, New Jersey, U.S. | March 28, 1787
Died | April 12, 1862 New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S. | (aged 75)
Political party | Federalist (Before 1829) National Republican (1829–1834) Whig (1834–1854) |
Spouses | Charlotte Mercer
(m. 1809, died)Harriet Pumpelly
(m. 1857–1862) |
Relatives | Frelinghuysen family Frederick Frelinghuysen (Father) |
Education | Princeton University (BA) |
Signature | |
Theodore Frelinghuysen (March 28, 1787 – April 12, 1862) was an American politician who represented
Born in
Frelinghuysen was selected as Clay's running mate at the 1844 Whig National Convention. In the 1844 election, the Whig ticket was narrowly defeated by the Democratic ticket of James K. Polk and George M. Dallas. Frelinghuysen served as president of New York University from 1839 to 1850, and as president of Rutgers College from 1850 to 1862. Upon its incorporation in 1848, Frelinghuysen Township, New Jersey, was named after him.[1]
Early life
He was born in 1787 in
Frelinghuysen married Charlotte Mercer in 1809, but she died in the same year. They had no children together, but when Theodore's brother, Frederick Frelinghuysen (1788–1820) died, Theodore adopted his son,
He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now
Political career
He became
As a Senator, he led the opposition to Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830.[4] His six-hour speech against the Removal Act was delivered over the course of three days, and warned of the supposed dire consequences of the policy:
Let us beware how, by oppressive encroachments upon the sacred privileges of our Indian neighbors, we minister to the agonies of future remorse.
Jackson supporters chided Frelinghuysen for mixing his evangelical Christianity with politics, and the Removal Act was passed.1
He was Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, from 1837 until 1838.
At the 1844 Whig National Convention, competing with Millard Fillmore, John Davis and John Sergeant, he was selected as the Whig vice-presidential candidate. He took the lead on the first ballot and never lost it, eventually being chosen by acclamation. The Whig presidential candidate, Henry Clay, was not present at the convention and expressed surprise upon hearing the news. Frelinghuysen's rectitude might have been intended to correct for Clay's reputation for moral laxity, but his opposition to Indian removal may have put off those southern voters who had suffered from their raids (William Lloyd Garrison praised his speech opposing removal in the poem "To the Honorable Theodore Freylinghusen, on reading his eloquent speech in defence of Indian Rights"[5]). Frelinghuysen was also unpopular with Catholics because groups of which he was a member, such as the Protestant American Bible Society, promulgated the idea that Catholics should convert to Protestantism. Clay and Frelinghuysen lost the 1844 election.
Institutional positions
Frelinghuysen was the second president of New York University between 1839 and 1850 and seventh president of Rutgers College between 1850 and 1862. He was president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1841 – c. 1857), American Bible Society (1846–1862), and American Tract Society (1842–1846), as well as vice president of the American Sunday School Union (1826–1861), and American Colonization Society (ACS). In his public advocacy for colonization, or the deportation of free people of color from the United States, Frelinguysen described black people as “licentious, ignorant, and irritated” and therefore not suited for full citizenship within their present country.[6] His moniker was the "Christian Statesman."
Death
He died in
Notes
- ^1 Anthony F.C. Wallace, The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), pp. 68–9, and Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, Volume I (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), pp. 204–5.
References
- ^ Brief History of Frelinghuysen Township[permanent dead link], Frelinghuysen Township, New Jersey. Accessed August 15, 2007.
- ^ Atkinson, Joseph. The History of Newark, New Jersey: Being a Narrative of Its Rise and Progress, from the Settlement in May, 1666, by Emigrants from Connecticut to the Present Time, Including a Sketch of the Press of Newark, from 1791 to 1878, W.B. Guild, 1878. Accessed February 2, 2015. "THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, though not 'native here and to the manner born,' was to the extent of the best and busiest years of his life, essentially a Newarker. He was born in Franklin Township, Somerset County, N.J., March 28th, 1787, of an ancestry distinguished for its piety and learning."
- ^ Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 481.
- ^ Jon Meacham. American Lion. p. 142.
- ^ "The American Commonplace Book of Poetry" (1832), Rev. George B. Cheever, ed., pg. 201
- ^ White, Deborah Gray. "The Findings". Scarlet and Black Project. Rutgers University. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- ^ "Death of Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen". The New York Times. April 13, 1862. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen died at 2 o'clock to-day, at his residence, in New-Brunswick, New-Jersey.
External links
- Media related to Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787-1862) at Wikimedia Commons
- United States Congress. "Theodore Frelinghuysen (id: F000373)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Leadership on the Banks: Rutgers' Presidents, 1766–2004
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress