Ezekiel BACON, Congress, MA (1776-1870)

1776-1870

BACON, Ezekiel, (son of John Bacon and father of William Johnson Bacon), a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Boston, Mass., September 1, 1776; received a liberal schooling and was graduated from Yale College in 1794; attended the Litchfield Law School and afterwards studied with Nathan Dane in Beverly; was admitted to the bar in 1800 and commenced practice in Stockbridge, Mass.; member of the State house of representatives in 1805 and 1806; elected as a Republican to the Tenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Barnabas Bidwell; reelected to the Eleventh and Twelfth Congresses and served from September 16, 1807, to March 3, 1813; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Twelfth Congress); chief justice of the court of common pleas for the western district of Massachusetts 1811-1814; First Comptroller of the United States Treasury from February 11, 1814, to February 28, 1815, when he resigned; moved to Utica, Oneida County, N.Y., in 1816; appointed associate justice of the court of common pleas in 1818; member of the State assembly in 1819; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1821; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1824 to the Nineteenth Congress; at time of his death he was the oldest surviving Member of Congress and the last representative of the administration of President Madison; died in Utica, N.Y., October 18, 1870; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery.

Bibliography

Barlow, William, and David O. Powell. “Congressman Ezekiel Bacon of Massachusetts and the Coming of the War of 1812.” Historical Journal of Western Massachusetts 6 (Spring 1978): 28-41.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present