Elisha R. Potter

Elisha Reynolds Potter Jr. ( born June 20, 1811 in Kingston, Rhode Iceland, † April 10, 1882 ) was an American politician. Between 1843 and 1845 he represented the second electoral district of the state of Rhode Iceland in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Elisha Potter was the son of Elisha Potter Sr. (1764-1835), who represented 1796-1797 the state of Rhode Iceland in the U.S. House of Representatives. The younger Potter visited the Kingston Academy and then to Harvard University in 1830. After a subsequent law degree in 1832 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he started in South Kingston to work in his new profession.

Between 1835 and 1836 he served as Adjutant General of Rhode Iceland head of the National Guard; 1838 to 1840 he sat as an MP in the House of Representatives of the State. At that time he joined the short-lived Law and Order Party as their candidate, he was elected in 1842 from Rhode Iceland in the U.S. House of Representatives in the second district. There he took over from the March 4, 1843 Joseph L. Tillinghast. Since he lost the Whig party already in the next election against Lemuel H. Arnold, Potter was able to complete only one term in Congress until March 3, 1845. He was chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business.

Between 1847 and 1852, and again from 1861 to 1863 Potter was a member of the Senate of Rhode Iceland. From 1849 to 1854 he was also charged with the supervision of the public schools of his state. Since 1868, he was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Iceland. This office he held until his death on 10 April 1882.