Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> William Walter Phelps





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 



William Walter Phelps

PHELPS, William Walter, congressman, born in New York city, 24 August, 1839. The first of his ancestors in this country was William Phelps, a brother of the John Phelps that was Oliver Cromwell's private secretary. He came to this country in 1630, arid settled near Simsbury, Connecticut The descendants long remained there, and one of them, William Walter's great-grandfather, represented the town for thirty consecutive terms in the Connecticut assembly. The grandson, , John J. Phelps, was the first to leave Simsbury for New York, where he made a fortune in business, organized and became president of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, and left the bulk of his property to his only son, William Walter. The latter was early sent to Yale, and, in spite of an affection of the eyes, which took him out of college for a year, and for another year prevented him from reading, he won many honors and stood second in his class at his graduation in 1860. In the Columbia law-school he secured the valedictory in 1863. Entering active practice, he became counsel for the Rock Island and the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroads, the United States trust company, the City bank, and other corporations, before he was thirty years old. Gay. Reuben E. Fenton offered him a judgeship, which he declined, and in 1869 the death of his father compelled him to retire from practice and give his time to the management of the estate and the trusts connected with it. Retaining an active interest in his college, he led in the "Young Yale" movement, which resulted in giving the alumni a share in the government of the institution. He was at once elected to the board of trustees by a heavy vote, and by successive elections has been kept there ever since. He had always taken a keen interest in politics, and was an enthusiastic Republican during the civil war. He had been the successful counsel for his sister's father-in-law, William E. Dodge, in his noted contest for a seat in the house of representatives, and in 1872 he was himself elected to the house from the New Jersey district where his country-place was situated. He took high rank as a debater almost at once, and became noted as one of the few men to whom the house would always listen. He discussed, in his first term, questions of banking and currency, the franking privilege, the Pacific mail subsidy, and the government of the southern states. The house sent him with Clarkson N. Potter and Governor Charles Foster, to New Orleans to investigate the outbreak of the White league against the Louisiana legislature, which had led General Sheridan to denounce the league as "banditti." Both parties finally agreed to abide by the committee's decision, and the legislature was organized in accordance with their report. From the outset of his congressional career Mr. Phelps showed independence, and on one party measure, the so-called Civil rights bill, which, as a lawyer, he declared unconstitutional (as the courts subsequently held), he voted against the Republicans. This vote cost him his re-election. He was defeated by seven votes in a district that he had previously carried by 2,715. He had become warmly attached to James G. Blaine, then speaker of the house, and was his ardent supporter in the presidential conventions of 1876, 1880, and 1884. In the last two National conventions he was a delegate-at-large from New Jersey. In 1881 President Garfield sent him as United States minister to Austria, where his familiarity with the language and customs of the country, his liberal mode of life, and his intense Americanism made him a valuable representative. On the change of administration he at once tendered his resignation, and finally retired in August, 1882. He was immediately elected to congress again from his old district, and has continued to serve through the 48th, 49th, and 50th congresses, always running hundreds, and sometimes thousands, ahead of his ticket. His assignment on committees required him to give much attention to foreign affairs, but he has also taken special interest in discussions on the tariff, the merchant marine, and the congressional library. Among his more notable speeches, separately published, are those on the Franking Privilege, 24 February, 1874; Sound Currency, 1 April, 1874; the Civil Rights Bill, 4 February, 1875; Fitz-John Porter's Case, 1 February, 1884; the Laskar Resolutions. 19 March, 1884; an oration before General Grant and his cabinet at a Grand army reunion in Paterson, New Jersey, on " The Dangers of War," and one at Mount Holly, New Jersey, on Decoration day, 1886, on "The Dangers of Peace"; a tariff address before the Agricultural society of New Jersey, 5 February, 1884, and one on Congress before the New England society, New York, 22 December, 1886. He is a regent of the Smithsonian institution and a fellow of the corporation of Yale college, was vice-president of the Yale alumni association, president of the Columbia law-school alumni association, and a founder of the Union league and University clubs.

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on William Walter Phelps.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum