Richard Spaight Donnell

Richard Spaight Donnell ( born September 20, 1820 New Bern, North Carolina, June 3, 1867 † ) was an American politician. Between 1847 and 1849 he represented the state of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Richard Spaight Donnell was a grandson of Congressman and Governor Richard Spaight ( 1758-1802 ). He attended New Bern Academy and then studied at Yale College, and until 1839 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After studying law and his 1840 was admitted to the bar he began to work in New Bern in this profession.

Politically, Donnell joined the Whig party to. In the congressional elections of 1846 he was in the eighth constituency of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Henry Selby Clark on March 4, 1847. Since he resigned in 1848 to run again, he was able to complete only one term in Congress until March 3, 1849. This was marked by the events of the Mexican-American War.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives Donnell practiced law in Washington (North Carolina). In 1861 he was a delegate to the meeting at which the discharge of his state, it was decided from the Union. In the years 1862 and 1864 he was a member of the House of Representatives from North Carolina and its president. 1865 Donnell took as a delegate at a convention to revise the state constitution in part. He died on June 3, 1867 in New Bern.