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Joseph Bradley Varnum (January 29, 1750/1751September 21, 1821) was an American politician from
. He served as a
U.S. representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
and
United States senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...
, and held leadership positions in both bodies. He was a member of the
Democratic-Republican Party
The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
.
Born in
Dracut in the
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...
, Varnum was the son of farmer, militia officer and local official Samuel Varnum and Mary Prime. He received a limited formal education, but became a self-taught scholar. Varnum became a farmer, and at age 18 received his commission as a captain in the Massachusetts militia. He commanded Dracut's militia company during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
and remained in the militia afterwards, eventually attaining the rank of major general in 1805.
Varnum took part in the government of Massachusetts following independence, including as a member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
from 1780 to 1785 and a member of the
Massachusetts State Senate
The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member sen ...
from 1786 to 1795. Despite not being an attorney, Varnum also served as a judge, including terms as a Justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Court of General Sessions. He was a member of the U.S. House from 1795 to 1811, and was
Speaker of the House
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
Usage
The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
from 1807 to 1811. Varnum served in the U.S. Senate from 1811 to 1817, and was the Senate's
president pro tempore
A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...
from 1813 to 1814.
After leaving the U.S. Senate, Varnum served in the Massachusetts State Senate until his death. He died in Dracut on September 21, 1821, and was buried at Varnum Cemetery in Dracut.
Biography
Joseph Bradley Varnum was born in
Dracut, Massachusetts
Dracut is a town in Middlesex County. At the 2020 census, the town's population was 32,617, making it the second most populous town in Massachusetts with an open town meeting system of governance. The town covers a total area of 21.36 square m ...
, in Middlesex County, on January 29, 1750, or 1751.
At the age of eighteen, he was commissioned captain by the committee of
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
, and in 1787 colonel by the
. He was made brigadier general in 1802, and in 1805 major general of the state militia, holding the latter office at his death in 1821.
After serving in the
Massachusetts militia
This is a list of militia units of the Colony and later Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
*Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (1638)
*Cogswell's Regiment of Militia (April 19, 1775)
*Woodbridge's Regiment of Militia (April 20, ...
during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, Varnum helped to destroy the
Shays insurrection before he was elected to the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
(1780–1785) and then the
Massachusetts State Senate
The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member sen ...
(1786–1795). He also served as a Justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas and as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Court of General Sessions.
In 1794, Varnum was elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
, where he served from March 4, 1795, until his resignation on June 29, 1811. During his last four years in the House, he served as its
Speaker
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
.
Varnum was elected to the
U.S. Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
in 1811 to fill the vacancy in the term. He became the only U.S. Senator from the
Democratic-Republican Party
The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
in Massachusetts history.
Varnum served as
President ''pro tempore'' of the U.S. Senate from December 6, 1813, to February 3, 1814, during the
Thirteenth Congress. He was also the Chair of the Senate Committee on Militia during the
Fourteenth Congress
The 14th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in the Old Brick Capitol in Washingto ...
.
After returning to Massachusetts in 1817, Varnum again served in the Massachusetts State Senate, until his death on September 21, 1821.
Varnum died in Dracut, and is interred in Varnum Cemetery in that town. His brother was Major General
James Mitchell Varnum
James Mitchell Varnum (December 17, 1748 – January 9, 1789) was an American legislator, lawyer, generalHeitman, ''Officers of the Continental Army'', 559. in the Continental Army, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country.Wilkins, ''Memoirs of the Rho ...
who commanded the
1st Rhode Island Regiment
The 1st Rhode Island Regiment (also known as Varnum's Regiment, the 9th Continental Regiment, the Black Regiment, the Rhode Island Regiment, and Olney's Battalion) was a regiment in the Continental Army raised in Colony of Rhode Island and Pro ...
from 1775 to 1777, served as a brigade commander at the
Battle of Rhode Island
The Battle of Rhode Island (also known as the Battle of Quaker Hill) took place on August 29, 1778. Continental Army and Militia forces under the command of Major General John Sullivan had been besieging the British forces in Newport, Rhode Isl ...
and later served as the major general in command of the Rhode Island Militia.
Slavery
Henry Wilson
Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was an American politician who was the 18th vice president of the United States from 1873 until his death in 1875 and a senator from Massachusetts from 1855 to ...
, in his ''History of Slavery'', quotes Varnum in the debate on the bill for the government of the
Mississippi Territory
The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. T ...
before the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
in March 1798 as having been very strong and outspoken in his opposition to Negro servitude. Varnum developed a strong friendship with
Silas Royal
Silas Royal (1740s–1826), originally known as Silas Varnum and sometimes written as Ryal Varnum, was an Slavery, enslaved person and Black Patriot, black patriot in the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War. Though bought as an infant ...
, a former slave freed by the Varnum family, who also served with him during the war.
On March 3, 1805, Varnum submitted a Massachusetts Proposition to amend the Constitution
[In the 1786 US Constitution there was a provision in Article I – the part of the document dealing with the duties of the legislative branch:
Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.
In other words, the government could not ban the importation of slaves for 20 years after the adoption of the Constitution. And as the designated year 1808 approached, those opposed to slavery began making plans for legislation that would outlaw the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
]
and Abolish the Slave Trade.
This proposition was tabled until 1807, when under Varnum's leadership
the amendment moved through Congress and passed both houses on March 2, 1807. President Thomas Jefferson signed it into law on March 3, 1807.
[
''Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States 1804–1807'' March 3, 1805
Congressman Joseph Bradley Varnum, one of the members for the State of Massachusetts, presented to the House a letter from the Governor of the said State, enclosing an attested copy of two concurrent resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Massachusetts, passed the fifteenth of February, in the present year, "instructing the Senators, and requesting the Representatives in Congress, from the said State, to take all legal and necessary steps, to use their utmost exertions, as soon as the same is practicable, to obtain an amendment to the Federal Constitution, so as to authorize and empower the Congress of the United States to pass a law, whenever they may deem it expedient, to prevent the further importation of slaves from any of the West India Islands, from the coast of Africa, or elsewhere, into the United States, or any part thereof:" Whereupon,
A motion was made and seconded that the House do come to the following resolution:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said Constitution, to wit:
"That the Congress of the United States shall have power to prevent the further importation of slaves into the United States and the Territories thereof."
The said proposed resolution was read, and ordered to lie on the table.
]
Notes
References
External links
* Varnum, Joseph. “Autobiography of General Joseph B. Varnum.” Edited by James M. Varnum. ''Magazine of American History'' 20 (November 1888): 405–14.
Attribution:
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varnum, Joseph Bradley
1750s births
1821 deaths
Massachusetts militiamen in the American Revolution
Speakers of the United States House of Representatives
Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
United States senators from Massachusetts
Democratic-Republican Party United States senators
Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Massachusetts state senators
Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
People from Dracut, Massachusetts