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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—IllinoisBREESE, Sidney
(1800—1878)
Senate Years of Service:
1843-1849
Party:
Democrat
BREESE, Sidney, a Senator from Illinois; born in Whitesboro, N.Y., July 15, 1800; attended Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., and graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1818; moved to Illinois; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1820 and commenced practice in Kaskaskia; appointed postmaster of Kaskaskia in 1821; prosecuting attorney of the third judicial circuit 1822-1826; United States district attorney for Illinois 1827-1829; was the first reporter of the proceedings of the State supreme court in 1831; held several commissions in the militia and served as a lieutenant colonel of Volunteers in the Black Hawk War in 1832; circuit judge of the second district 1835-1841; judge of the State supreme court in 1841-1842; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1849; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1849; chairman, Committee on District of Columbia (Twenty-ninth Congress), Committee on Public Lands (Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses); member, State house of representatives 1851-1852, serving as speaker in 1851; judge of the circuit court of Illinois 1855-1857; judge of the supreme court of Illinois from 1857 until his death; served as chief justice 1867-1870, 1873, and 1874; died in Pinkneyville, Perry County, Ill., June 27, 1878; interment in Carlyle Cemetery, Carlyle, Ill.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography
; McNulty, John W. ‘Sidney Breese: His Early Career in Law and Politics in Illinois.’ Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
61 (Summer 1968): 164-81; Breese, Sidney. The Early History of Illinois
. Edited by Thomas Hoyne. Chicago: E.B. Myers Co., 1884.
Breese, Sidney. The Early History of Illinois
. Edited by Thomas Hoyne. Chicago: E.B. Myers Co., 1884. Includes a biographical memoir by Melville W. Fuller.
Chicago Bar Association. Proceedings of the Chicago Bar in Memory of the Hon. Sydney Breese, Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois
. Chicago: Press of Beach, Barnard Co., 1878.
McNulty, John Wesley. “Chief Justice Sidney Breese and the Illinois Supreme Court: A Study of Law and Politics in the Old West.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1962.
___. “Sidney Breese: His Early Career in Law and Politics in Illinois.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
61 (Summer 1968): 164-81.
___. “Sidney Breese, the Illinois Circuit Judge, 1835-1841.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
62 (Summer 1969): 170-86.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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