James Warren Nye (June 10, 1815 – December 25, 1876) was an American attorney and politician. He was most notable for his service as
Governor of Nevada Territory and a
United States senator from
Nevada.
Biography
He was born in
DeRuyter, New York, and attended the common schools and Homer Academy in
Homer, New York.
He then
studied law with Lorenzo Sherwood and Martin P. Sweet of
Hamilton, New York, and was
admitted to the bar.
Nye practiced with Sherwood in Hamilton as the firm of Sherwood & Nye.
In 1843, Nye was appointed a
master in chancery. Nye served as surrogate of Madison County from 1844 to 1847 and county judge from 1847 to 1851.
Nye was active in the
New York Militia; in the early 1840s he was commander of the 17th Division's 35th Brigade as a
brigadier general. In 1846 he was appointed commander of the 17th Division with the rank of
major general.
During the New York Democratic Party's fight between the
Barnburners and Hunkers in the late 1840s, Nye was identified with the anti-slavery Barnburners. He supported
Martin Van Buren's candidacy as the
Free Soil Party's nominee for president
in 1848, and was an unsuccessful Free-Soil candidate for election to the Thirty-First Congress.
He lived in
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
from 1852 to 1857, where he continued the practice of law.
In 1857, he moved to
New York City, where he served as president of the
Metropolitan Board of Police from 1857 to 1860.
In 1861, Nye was appointed by President
Abraham Lincoln to be Governor of the newly created
Nevada Territory.
Upon the admission of Nevada as a state into the Union in 1864, he was elected a
Republican to the U.S. Senate.
He was reelected in 1867 and served from February 1, 1865, to March 3, 1873.
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection. While in the Senate, Nye was chairman of the Committee on Enrolled Bills (Thirty-ninth Congress), a member of the Committees on Revolutionary Claims (Fortieth Congress), and a member of the Committee on Territories (Forty-first Congress).
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
was briefly Nye's Senate secretary. In ''Sketches Old and New'' he gave an account of their parting, which occurred after Twain supposedly wrote ridiculous letters to constituents following Nye's instructions not to address controversial issues.
Nye was considered insane during his later years, and resided in an asylum.
He suffered from delusions, including the belief that he was dead and waiting for his coffin to arrive.
Nye died in
White Plains, New York on December 25, 1876, and
was interred at
Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.
Nye County, Nevada
Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behi ...
was named for him.
References
External links
* Retrieved on 2009-5-12
Welcome to Nye County, Nevada* Mark Twai
My late senatorial secretaryship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nye, James W.
1815 births
1876 deaths
American militia generals
Governors of Nevada Territory
Nevada Republicans
New York (state) Free Soilers
New York (state) Republicans
New York (state) state court judges
People of Nevada in the American Civil War
Republican Party United States senators from Nevada
Union (American Civil War) state governors
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
19th-century American judges