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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Indiana

Joseph Albert WRIGHT

(1810-1867)

Senate Years of Service:

1862-1863

Party:

Unionist

WRIGHT, Joseph Albert, (brother of George Grover Wright), a Representative and a Senator from Indiana; born in Washington, Pa., April 17, 1810; moved to Indiana about 1820 with his parents, who settled in Bloomington, Monroe County; attended the common schools; graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1825; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1829 and commenced practice in Rockville, Parke County, Ind.; member, State house of representatives 1833, 1836; member, State senate 1840; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1845); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1844 to the Twenty-ninth Congress; Governor of Indiana 1849-1857; appointed by President James Buchanan as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia 1857-1861; appointed as a Unionist to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the expulsion of Jesse D. Bright and served from February 24, 1862, to January 14, 1863; was not a candidate for the succeeding term; appointed United States commissioner to the Hamburg Exhibition in 1863; again appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia in 1865, and served until his death in Berlin, Germany, May 11, 1867; interment in New York City.