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Senate Years of Service: 1865-1871 Party: Republican
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WILLIAMS, George Henry, a Senator from Oregon; born in New Lebanon, Columbia County, N.Y., March 26,
1823; completed preparatory studies; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1844 and commenced
practice at Fort Madison, Iowa Territory; judge of the first judicial district of Iowa 1847-1852;
presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1852; chief justice of the Territory of Oregon
1853-1857; reappointed by President James Buchanan but declined; member of the State
constitutional convention of Oregon in 1858; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and
served from March 4, 1865, to March 3, 1871; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; Attorney
General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Ulysses Grant 1872-1875; nominated by
President Grant as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1873, but subsequently
his name was withdrawn; mayor of Portland, Oreg., 1902-1905; died in Portland, Oreg., April 4,
1910; interment in Riverview Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Teiser, Sidney. Almost Chief-Justice: George H.
Williams. Oregon Historical Quarterly 47 (September 1946): 256-80, 47
(December 1946): 417-40; Williams, George H. Political History of Oregon from 1853 to 1865. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 2 (March 1901): 1-35.
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