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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Pennsylvania

James COOPER

(1810-1863)

Senate Years of Service:

1849-1855

Party:

Whig

COOPER, James, a Representative and a Senator from Pennsylvania; born in Frederick County, Md., May 8, 1810; pursued academic studies, and graduated from Washington (now Washington and Jefferson) College, Washington, Pa., in 1832; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1834 and commenced practice in Gettysburg, Pa.; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1839-March 3, 1843); chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Twenty-seventh Congress); member, State house of representatives 1843-1844, 1846, 1848, and served as speaker one term; moved to Pottsville, Pa.; attorney general of Pennsylvania in 1848; elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1855; moved to Philadelphia; authorized by President Abraham Lincoln to raise a brigade of loyal Marylanders, and commissioned brigadier general in 1861; served in West Virginia under General Frémont; appointed commandant at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, and died there March 28, 1863; interment in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, Md.