DAWES, Henry Laurens, statesman, born in Cummington, Massachusetts, 30 October 1816. He was graduated at Yale in 1839, became a teacher, and edited the Greenfield "Gazette," and subsequently the Adams " Transcript." He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and served in the legislature from 1848 till 1850, when he became a member of the state senate. He was a member of the Constitutional convention in 1853, and attorney for the western district of Massachusetts, continuing until 1857, when he was elected to congress, and served as a member of the committee on Revolutionary claims. He remained in congress by successive reelections until 1873.

In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention in Philadelphia, and in 1875 he succeeded Charles Sumner in the senate, and was reelected in 1881 and 1887. He has been chairman of the committee on ways and means, has served on committee on public buildings and grounds, and inaugurated the measure by which the completion of the Washington monument was undertaken. He is the author of many tariff measures, and assisted in the construction of the wool and woolen tariff of 1868, which was the basis of all wool and woolens from.... that time until 'i, ";' ... 1883. He is also a member of the committees on approbations, civil service, fisheries, Revolutionary claims, and Indian and naval affairs. He was appointed on a special Committee to investigate the Indian disturbances in the Indian Territory, upon which he made a valuable report. Mr. Dawes created the entire system of Indian education due to legislation. Among the important bills of his authorship passed are the severalty bill, the Sioux bill, and the bill making Indians subject to and protected by our criminal laws. One of his most important measures was the introduction of the " Weather Bulletin," in 1869, at the suggestion of Professor Cleveland Abbe, for the purpose of collecting and comparing weather reports from all parts of the country. His daughter, ANNA LAURELS, is known as a writer on political topics.