David J. Baker

David Jewett Baker ( born September 7, 1792 in East Haddam, Connecticut; † August 6, 1869 in Alton, Illinois) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the state of Illinois for a month in the U.S. Senate. He is one of the senators with the shortest term of office.

As a boy, David Baker moved with his parents to Ontario County, New York, where he attended the public schools. In 1816 he graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton; after which he studied law and was admitted to the bar of Illinois in 1819. His first law firm he opened in Kaskaskia.

From 1827 to 1830 Baker was then Judge of the Guardianship Court of Randolph County. He resigned this office after he had been called for the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate. There he took from the November 12, 1830 the place of the late John McLean one. However, his term of office expired already on 11 December of the same year, after he was not prepared for the election; the mandate then went to John McCracken Robinson.

In 1833, David Baker was appointed to the Federal Attorney for the Judicial District of Illinois, which he remained until 1841. He then worked again as a lawyer.

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