"Connecticut Senator" Lafayette S. Foster Hand Written Letter Todd Mueller COA

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"Connecticut Senator" Lafayette S. Foster 4 Page Hand Written Letter.
This item is authenticated by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.
ES-8596
Lafayette Sabine Foster
(November 22, 1806 – September 19, 1880) was a nineteenth-century American politician and lawyer from
Connecticut
. He served in the
United States Senate
from 1855 to 1867 and was a judge on the
Connecticut Supreme Court
from 1870 to 1876. Born in
Franklin, Connecticut
, Foster attended
common schools
as a child and graduated from
Brown University
in
Providence, Rhode Island
, in 1828. He taught school in Providence for some time and studied law back in
Norwich, Connecticut
. He took charge of an academy in
Centerville, Maryland
, where he was admitted to the
Maryland
bar in 1830, then returned to Norwich and was admitted to the federal bar in 1831. Foster was editor of the
Republican
, a
Whig
newspaper out of
Connecticut
, and served in the
Connecticut House of Representatives
from 1839 to 1840, 1846 to 1848 and 1854, serving as Speaker of the House for three years. He was the
Whig
nominee for
Governor of Connecticut
in 1850 and 1851, but lost both elections. He served as mayor of
Norwich, Connecticut
, from 1851 to 1852 before being elected as an
Oppositionist
to the
United States Senate
in 1854, and reelected in 1860 as a
Republican
, serving from 1855 to 1867. There, he served as chairman of the
Committee on Pensions
from 1861 to 1867. His wife, Joanna Boylston Lanman, died on April 11, 1859. Foster was elected
President pro tempore of the Senate
at the beginning of the
39th Congress
in 1865, and held that title until the end of his term in 1867. Six weeks after he was elected,
President
Abraham Lincoln
was assassinated by
John Wilkes Booth
. Two of Booth's accomplices also intended to assassinate
Vice President
Andrew Johnson
as well as
Secretary of State
William H. Seward
. Seward's assassin,
Lewis Powell
, struck but failed to kill, whereas Johnson's assassin,
George Atzerodt
, never acted. With Johnson's accession to the presidency, Foster became first in the
United States presidential line of succession
. Had Atzerodt followed through and successfully assassinated Johnson, Foster would have become
Acting President
(in accordance with
Article II
, section 1 of the
United States Constitution
). In 1866 Foster was elected as a Companion of the Third Class (i.e. an honorary member) of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
- a military society of officers who served in the Union armed forces during the
American Civil War
and their descendants. Foster sought reelection to a third term in
1866
, but was defeated by
Orris S. Ferry
; his Senate career ended on March 3, 1867. He became a professor of law at
Yale College
in 1869 and returned to the
Connecticut House of Representatives
in 1870. He was once again elected Speaker of the House, but resigned to take a seat on the
Connecticut Supreme Court
. He was a
Democratic
candidate for the
United States House of Representatives
in 1874, but was unsuccessful and resigned from the court in 1876, retiring from public life. Foster died in
Norwich, Connecticut
, on September 19, 1880, and was interred there in Yantic Cemetery.