biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1806–79)
|
| biography:
| Judge, soldier, and US senator, born in Altmore, Co Tyrone, Ireland. Setting out for Quebec c.1822, he was shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland, where he then spent several years as a tutor. In c.1826 he arrived in New York City, then settled in Illinois where he taught, fought in the Black Hawk War, and became a lawyer. As state auditor he was drawn into a quarrel with another lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, whom Shields allegedly challenged to a duel, but they resolved the issue and became firm friends. After serving on the Illinois Supreme Court (1843–6), he was briefly the commissioner of the US General Land Office, but resigned to serve in the Mexican War (1846–8), where his actions gained him the brevet rank of major-general. He served briefly as governor of the Oregon Territory, but resigned to take a seat in the US Senate (Democrat, Illinois, 1849–55). He then moved on to the Minnesota Territory and encouraged Irish immigrants there, and when Minnesota became a state he was one of the first two US senators (Democrat, Minnesota, 1858–9). He volunteered for service with the Union army and saw combat as a brigadier-general (1861–3). Settling in Missouri, he lectured on behalf of charitable, religious, and Irish causes, served in the state legislature, and then went back to the US Senate (Democrat, Missouri, 1879), thereby becoming the only person to serve three different states as a US senator. Illinois placed his statue in the US Capitol. |
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