biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1811–74)
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| biography:
| US senator, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. An exceptional law student, he originally rejected a law practice and political career to become a lecturer at Harvard Law School and an editor of legal textbooks. He travelled in Europe (1835–7) and emerged as a public figure when he denounced the Mexican War at an Independence Day speech in Boston (1845), and he toured as a lyceum lecturer. He then entered the US Senate through a coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats (Massachusetts, 1851–4), later becoming the Republican senator (1854–74). He became an outspoken abolitionist and was physically assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks (South Carolina) while sitting at his Senate desk (1856) and was left slightly crippled for life. He continued to advocate the emancipation of slaves, and as a Radical Republican after the Civil War, he pressed for imposing harsh terms on the former Confederate states and for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. He soon fell out with President Ulysses Grant's administration, but he remained a voice of moral integrity until his death. |
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