Martin Chittenden

Martin Chittenden ( born March 12, 1763 in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, † September 5, 1840 in Williston, Vermont ) was an American politician, lawyer, congressman and governor of the U.S. state of Vermont.

Youth - the son of a career politician

Martin Chittenden was born in 1763 in Salisbury, the son of politician and jurist Thomas Chittenden, who with his family moved 13 years later to Vermont there mitzubegründen the city of Williston. Here the older Chittenden launched an impressive political career that made ​​him the longtime governor of his new home. Between 1777 and 1797 Thomas Chittenden was around 18 years, the first man in the state.

The lawyer

1789 Martin Chittenden made ​​the conclusion at Dartmouth College in Hanover in the neighboring state of New Hampshire, had previously also studied his father in the year. Shortly thereafter, he was a delegate part in the Constituent Assembly, which was to adopt the Constitution of the United States. After Martin Chittenden had completed several posts in the judiciary of the state in the vicinity of Jericho, he was appointed in 1796 to the chief judge of Chittenden County, what corresponded to a certain irony, but ultimately was a result of the dominant position of his family.

Congressman

In 1803 he was elected as a Federalist to the House of Representatives of the United States, where he took his seat until 1813. In the same year the electors him certain Vermont governor of their state. Before that time, his ten year older brother Jonas Galusha, the husband of his sister Mary, from who, though since moved into the opposing political camp of the Democratic Republicans, however, should even replace him as well in office.

Political failure as governor

Chittenden had taken over his duties in a politically precarious situation makes. As a result of the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States military clashes threatened the border to nearby Canada and thus the existence of Vermont.

As in the knowledge that British troops were moving towards Plattsburgh, New York, members of the militia begged to be allowed to intervene Vermont. Chittenden rejected this officially on November 10, 1813, since it "beyond the limits of this state", ie the affairs of Vermont would not affect, even if the militia leaders claimed that this would have been a result of pressure from his political advisers. Indirectly, however, put to him this attitude personally as opportunism or even cowardice, so that his political career had ended after being voted out in 1815 so, although Chittenden had brought himself up to Major General of Militia (1803 ).

After retiring from politics Martin Chittenden worked from 1821 to 1823 for judges Testament confirmations and died at the age of 77 in 1840 in Williston, where he was also buried in the old cemetery.