biography
| name: |
Crisp, Charles (Frederick)
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1845–96)
|
| biography:
| US representative, born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, N England, UK. His actor parents were visiting England when he was born. They returned to the USA and he was raised in Georgia, which he left at age 16 to join the 10th Virginia Infantry. After three years of service and one year in Morris I prison, he returned to Georgia (1865) to study law. Appointed solicitor general of the SW superior court region from Americus, Georgia (1872), he also served as judge there for five years. Elected to Congress (Democrat, Georgia, 1883–96), he mastered parliamentary procedure and became Democratic leader and Speaker of the House (1891–5). He championed the Interstate Commerce Act (1887) and supported the introduction of silver currency, running for the Senate against Hoke Smith, President Cleveland's secretary of the interior, who advocated maintaining the gold standard. Although Georgia voters supported Crisp, he died before the election. |
|
|
