Edwards Pierrepont was an American attorney, reformer, jurist, traveler, New York US Attorney, US Attorney General, US Minister to England, and orator.
74 Facts About Edwards Pierrepont
2.
Edwards Pierrepont initially supported President Andrew Johnson's conservative Reconstruction efforts having opposed the Radical Republicans.
3.
In both 1868 and 1872, Pierrepont supported Ulysses S Grant for president.
4.
In 1871, Edwards Pierrepont gained the reputation as a solid reformer, having joined New York's Committee of Seventy that shut down Boss Tweed's corrupt Tammany Hall.
5.
In 1872, Edwards Pierrepont modified his views on Reconstruction and stated that African American freedman's rights needed to be protected.
6.
Edwards Pierrepont ruled that a naturalized Prussian immigrant's son born in the US was not obligated to serve in the Prussian military as an adult.
7.
Edwards Pierrepont was born in North Haven, Connecticut, on March 4,1817.
8.
Edwards Pierrepont was the son of Giles Pierepont and Eunice Munson Pierepont.
9.
Pierrepont's baptised name was Munson Edwards Pierepont he changed his name to Edwards Pierrepont, dropping Munson and adding an extra "r" to his last name.
10.
Edwards Pierrepont attend several schools in the North Haven area, enrolled at Yale University, and graduated in 1837.
11.
Edwards Pierrepont passed the bar in 1840, and tutored at Yale University from 1840 to 1841.
12.
Edwards Pierrepont then moved to Columbus, Ohio where he practiced law with Phineas B Wilcox from 1840 to 1845.
13.
In 1846, Edwards Pierrepont moved to New York where he established his own practice.
14.
On May 27,1846, Edwards Pierrepont married Margaretta Willoughby, from Brooklyn, the daughter of Samuel Willoughby.
15.
In 1852, Edwards Pierrepont completed the construction of his estate house at 103 Fifth Avenue in New York.
16.
In 1867, Edwards Pierrepont built a country estate house in Garrison, designed by architect Alexander Jackson Davis; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as the Hurst-Edwards Pierrepont Estate.
17.
Edwards Pierrepont first served in office when he was elected Superior Court Judge on the New York Supreme Court; he served from 1857 to 1860.
18.
Edwards Pierrepont was believed to have a pulse on the nation and served as Abraham Lincoln's personal advisor before and after Lincoln was elected president.
19.
In 1862, during the Civil War Edwards Pierrepont was appointed by President Lincoln a member of the military commission to try the cases of state prisoners in the custody of the federal military authorities.
20.
Edwards Pierrepont stated Lincoln stood for freedom, liberty and national glory.
21.
In 1867 Pierrepont conducted the case for the government against John H Surratt, indicted as an accomplice in the murder of President Lincoln.
22.
Edwards Pierrepont argued that Surratt was involved in the conspiracy to overthrow the US Government and involved with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.
23.
Edwards Pierrepont argued that the military trial was suited for Surratt's case and quoted Bible verses that he viewed supported government was created by God for the express purpose of finding the guilty.
24.
Edwards Pierrepont argued that because Surratt had assumed an alias name, John Harrison, in staying at a hotel, and had fled the country that this proved his guilt.
25.
From April 25,1869 to July 20,1870 Pierrepont served as US Attorney for the Southern District of New York appointed by President Ulysses S Grant.
26.
On Tuesday June 15,1869, US Attorney Edwards Pierrepont arrested and indicted members of the Cuban Junta, an organization to aid the Cuban Rebellion.
27.
Edwards Pierrepont retired as US Attorney and resumed his private law practice.
28.
Edwards Pierrepont was appointed to and actively served on the legislation commission of the Committee of Seventy.
29.
On September 25,1872 reformer Edwards Pierrepont gave a speech at the Cooper Union Institute in New York that supported President Grant's reelection.
30.
Edwards Pierrepont stated that Grant's opponent Horace Greeley had pointed out that Grant had made a better President than expected and that his second term would be better than his first.
31.
Edwards Pierrepont stated that President Grant had been unjustly slandered by the press, and that he believed "security, confidence, development and unexampled prosperity" would take place during President Grant's second term in office.
32.
Edwards Pierrepont had observed that southern whites in poverty supported Greeley, while African Americans were loyal to President Grant.
33.
Edwards Pierrepont believed that Grant's southern policy was good for the Southern people; that African Americans needed to be protected in their rights; and that government needed to govern justly and generously.
34.
Edwards Pierrepont believed that electing Greeley would turn over the state governments to a rebellious people and reminded his audience of Union prisoner deaths that had taken place at Andersonville and harsh conditions at Libby Prison.
35.
On October 11,1872 Edwards Pierrepont spoke in Ithaca, New York supporting President Grant and the Republican ticket.
36.
Edwards Pierrepont related a story of President Grant unworried he would not win North Carolina.
37.
Edwards Pierrepont predicted Grant would win New York for seven reasons including that Grant had already won the state in 1868 when the Democratic coalition was at its height, the Republicans had carried the state government, and that Grant would receive 17,000 votes from African Americans.
38.
Edwards Pierrepont stated the Tammany Ring would no longer be instrumental in securing the Democratic vote through fraud.
39.
Edwards Pierrepont had earlier been instrumental in prosecuting the Tammany Ring that was completely shut down.
40.
In 1874, Edwards Pierrepont hired a young and upcoming Irish born sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a marble bust of himself.
41.
Edwards Pierrepont, who practiced phrenology, believed that having a wide head was a sign of intelligence.
42.
Edwards Pierrepont was an admirer of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle and he wanted his head to be wide as theirs were.
43.
Edwards Pierrepont turned out to be a demanding patron as he insisted Saint-Gaudens make his head larger on the bust.
44.
Saint-Gaudens said that Edwards Pierrepont's bust "seemed to be affected with some dreadful swelling disease".
45.
Edwards Pierrepont was involved with Reconstruction, as President Grant administered Southern policy through the Attorney General's Justice Department and the War Department.
46.
In terms of southern Reconstruction, Edwards Pierrepont continued his predecessor Att.
47.
Edwards Pierrepont was more concerned for the restoration of the United States "international influence and political clout" after the American Civil War and was primarily known for his rulings on international law, naturalization, and extradition.
48.
When Edwards Pierrepont assumed the office of US Attorney General, he immediately implemented overdue reform in the South's US Marshal and US Attorney departments.
49.
Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont had given specific reform orders to US Attorneys and US Marshals in the South that were vigorously enforced.
50.
Edwards Pierrepont ran extensive investigations into the conduct of the US Attorneys and US Marshals, exposing fraud and corruption.
51.
Edwards Pierrepont was fully sustained by President Grant's endorsement of the investigations, reforms, and persons to be removed and replaced from office.
52.
In July 1875 Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont ruled on the naturalization case of the son of a Prussian immigrant, Steinkoanler, who had immigrated to the United States in 1848.
53.
Edwards Pierrepont ruled that Steinkoanler's son, had both United States and Prussian citizenship, and was only obligated to serve in the Prussian military while under his father's care.
54.
On July 25,1875, Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont ruled on what was denounced as a fraud known as the Chorpenning claim.
55.
Edwards Pierrepont ruled that Postmaster General Creswell was not an arbitrator between Chorpenning and Congress.
56.
Edwards Pierrepont argued citing Gordon v United States that the Postmaster served as in a ministerial position rather than judicial, and therefore Creswell's adjustment was not binding.
57.
Edwards Pierrepont referred the Chorpening claim to the Court of Collections and allowed the next Congress to decide the fate of the Chorpening claim, unless the statute of limitations stopped the claim.
58.
Edwards Pierrepont told Governor Ames to use federal troops only if the white liners used violence on election day.
59.
Under orders from Grant Edwards Pierrepont controversially sent circular letters to district attorneys in Milwaukee, Chicago, and St Louis denying immunity to offenders who would testify against the ring.
60.
Bristow and Edwards Pierrepont, stayed behind after a cabinet meeting with President Grant and showed him correspondence between Babcock and William Joyce in St Louis, indicted in the Ring, cryptic telegram messages as evidence of Babcock's involvement in the Ring.
61.
Babcock was summoned to the Oval Office for an explanation and was told to send a telegram to bring Wilson to Washington, DC After Babcock did not return to the Oval Office, Edwards Pierrepont discovered Babcock was in the process of writing a letter warning Wilson to be on his guard.
62.
In March 1876, a rumor spread throughout Washington, DC, that Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont had given information to aid the defense counsel of Orville Babcock in St Louis.
63.
Edwards Pierrepont denied the rumor that himself and Secretary Bristow were at odds with each other.
64.
Edwards Pierrepont produced a letter from October 1875 to Bluford Wilson, Bristow's assistant during the Whiskey Ring raids, that proved Bristow and Edwards Pierrepont were working together in harmony during the Whiskey Ring prosecutions.
65.
On June 5,1877 Pierrepont gave a reception for former President Ulysses S Grant at his elaborate house on Cavendish Square.
66.
The Grants accepted, and on June 26,1877 Edwards Pierrepont introduced the former president to the Queen.
67.
Edwards Pierrepont received them in an appropriate setting, the castle's magnificent 520 feet quadrangle.
68.
The year before Edwards Pierrepont had submitted a letter published by The Atlanta Constitution on bimetalism, a topic of popular discussion during the 1880s.
69.
Edwards Pierrepont favored a bimetalist economy believing that having two metal currencies would alleviate poverty and would keep a few wealthy businessmen from monopolizing a single gold standard currency.
70.
Edwards Pierrepont believed Atlanta was a model city for Southern industrialization.
71.
On Wednesday, March 2,1892, Edwards Pierrepont suffered a massive stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body and he lost the ability to speak.
72.
Edwards Pierrepont's body was transferred to Garrison where he was buried at St Philip's Cemetery, accompanied by 10 prominent pallbearers.
73.
Edwards Pierrepont is primarily known for his success as an attorney appearing for well-known clients in important cases, and for fighting political corruption in federal, state, and city offices.
74.
Edwards Pierrepont is known for his publications of pamphlets on financial questions, mainly supporting bimetallic standard of US currency.