Uriah Tracy

Uriah Tracy
United States Senator from Connecticut
In office October 13, 1796 – July 19, 1807
Preceded by	Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.
Succeeded by	Chauncey Goodrich
Personal details
Born	February 2, 1755 Franklin, Connecticut
Died	July 19, 1807 (aged 52) Washington, D.C.
Political party	Federalist

Uriah Tracy (February 2, 1755 – July 19, 1807) was an American politician from Connecticut who served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Tracy was born in Franklin, Connecticut. In his youth he received a liberal education.^[1] His name is listed as amongst those in a company from Roxbury responding to the Lexington Alarm at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. He later served in the Roxbury Company as a clerk^[1]

Uriah subsequently graduated from Yale University (where his contemporaries included Noah Webster) in 1778. He was admitted to the bar in 1781 after which he practiced law in Litchfield for many years. He served in the state legislature in 1788–1793, and in the United States House of Representatives from April 8, 1793– October 13, 1796, having been chosen as a Federalist.

He resigned his seat when he was elected to the United States Senate in place of Jonathan Trumbull, who had resigned. Tracy served until the time of his death in Washington, D. C.. He has the distinction of being the first member of Congress interred in the Congressional Cemetery.^[1] His descendants include the mathematician Curtis Tracy McMullen.

In 1803, he and several other New England politicians proposed secession of New England from the union due to growing influence of Jeffersonian democrats and the Louisiana Purchase which they felt would further diminish Northern influence.

His portrait, painted by Ralph Earl, is in the collection of the Litchfield Historical Society in Litchfield, Connecticut.

External links

• Uriah Tracy at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Portrait at the Litchfield Historical Society

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Eyewitnesses Interred or Memorialized in the Congressional Cemetery". Congressional Cemetery. http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/Research/Rosters/Veterans/War_Revolution.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-25.^{[dead link]}

United States Senate
Preceded by Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.	United States Senator (Class 3) from Connecticut 1796–1807 Served alongside: James Hillhouse	Succeeded by Chauncey Goodrich
Political offices
Preceded by Samuel Livermore	President pro tempore of the United States Senate May 14, 1800–November 16, 1800	Succeeded by John E. Howard