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Senate Years of Service: 1833-1844 Party: Jacksonian; Democrat
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WRIGHT, Silas, Jr., a Representative and a Senator from New York; born in Amherst, Mass., May 24,
1795; moved with his father to Wyebridge, Vt., in 1796; graduated from Middlebury (Vt.) College in
1815; moved to Sandy Hill, Washington County, N.Y., in 1816; studied law; admitted to the bar in
1819 and commenced practice in Canton, St. Lawrence County, N.Y.; surrogate of St. Lawrence
County 1821-1824; member, State senate 1824-1827; appointed brigadier general of State militia in
1827; elected to the Twentieth Congress and served from March 4, 1827, to February 16, 1829,
when he resigned; successfully contested the election of George Fisher to the Twenty-first Congress,
but declined to qualify; comptroller of the State of New York 1829-1833; elected to the United
States Senate in 1833 as a Jacksonian (later Democrat) to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
William L. Marcy; reelected in 1837 and served from January 4, 1833, to November 26, 1844,
when he resigned, having been elected Governor; chairman, Committee on Finance (Twenty-fourth
through Twenty-sixth Congresses); declined the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the
United States in 1844; Governor of New York 1844-1846; unsuccessful candidate for reelection;
died in Canton, N.Y., August 27, 1847; interment in Silas Wright Cemetery (formerly Old Canton) in
Canton, New York.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Chancelloor, William E. A Life of Silas Wright,
1795-1847. New York: W.C. ODonnell, Jr., 1913; Garraty, John. Silas Wright. 1949. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1970.
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