Ezekiel Bacon (September 1, 1776 – October 18, 1870) was an American lawyer and politician from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

and New York.

Early life

Ezekiel Bacon was born on September 1, 1776, in Boston, Massachusetts to Elizabeth (née Goldthwaite) and John Bacon. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1794. Then he attended

Litchfield Law School The Litchfield Law School of Litchfield, Connecticut, was the first independent law school established in America for reading law. Founded and led by lawyer Tapping Reeve, the proprietary school was unaffiliated with any college or university. (Wh ...

and studied law with

Nathan Dane Nathan Dane (December 29, 1752 – February 15, 1835) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress from 1785 through 1788. Dane helped formulate the Northwest Ordinance while in Congress, and ...

in Beverly, Massachusetts. He was admitted to the bar in 1800.

Career

Bacon commenced practice in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was 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 1805 to 1806. Bacon was elected as a

Democratic-Republican 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 ...

to the

10th United States Congress The 10th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1807, to March 4, 1809, during ...

to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of

Barnabas Bidwell Barnabas Bidwell (August 23, 1763 – July 27, 1833) was an author, teacher and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, active in Massachusetts and Upper Canada (now Ontario). Educated at Yale, he practised law in western Massachus ...

and took his seat on November 2, 1807. He was re-elected to the

11th 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first atteste ...

and

12th United States Congress The 12th 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 Washington, D.C. from March 4, 181 ...

es, holding office until March 3, 1813. He was the chairman of the

Committee on Ways and Means The Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other program ...

(12th Congress). He was chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the Western District of Massachusetts from 1811 to 1814, and Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury from 1814 to 1815. In 1816, he moved to

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the ...

, and was appointed an associate judge of the Oneida County Court in 1818. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1819, and a delegate to the

New York State Constitutional Convention The Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constituti ...

of 1821. In

1826 Events January–March * January 15 – The French newspaper '' Le Figaro'' begins publication in Paris, initially as a weekly. * January 30 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford, is opened between the island ...

, he ran again for Congress but was defeated by the incumbent

Henry R. Storrs Henry Randolph Storrs (September 3, 1787 – July 29, 1837) was a U.S. Representative from New York, brother of William Lucius Storrs. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, Storrs was graduated from Yale College in 1804. He studied law. He was ...

. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving Member of Congress and the last representative of the administration of President

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

Personal life

Bacon died on October 18, 1870, in Utica. He was buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica. Judge and congressman

William J. Bacon William Johnson Bacon (February 18, 1803 – July 3, 1889) was an American politician and a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from New York. Early life Bacon was born on February 18, 1803, in Williamstown, Massachusett ...

was his son.

Notes

References

*Barlow, William, and David O. Powell. “Congressman Ezekiel Bacon of Massachusetts and the Coming of the War of 1812.” Historical Journal of Western Massachusetts 6 (Spring 1978): 28-41.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Ezekiel 1776 births 1870 deaths Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Members of the New York State Assembly Yale College alumni Litchfield Law School alumni Lawyers from Boston New York (state) Democratic-Republicans Politicians from Utica, New York New York (state) state court judges Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts 19th-century American lawyers Burials at Forest Hill Cemetery (Utica, New York)