Elisha Reynolds Potter
Elisha Reynolds Potter ( born November 5, 1764 in Kingston, Rhode Iceland, † 26 September 1835 at South Kingston, Rhode Iceland ) was an American politician. Between 1796 and 1797, and from 1809 to 1815, he represented the state of Rhode Iceland in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Career
Elisha Potter learned the blacksmith's trade, and was additionally employed in agriculture. He took as a private part of the War of Independence. He attended Plainfield Academy. After studying law, he was admitted to the year 1789 as a lawyer. Then he began in his native Kingston to work in his new profession.
Politically, he was a member of the Federalist Party, founded by Alexander Hamilton. Between 1793 and 1796, he sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from Rhode Iceland, where he was its president for the past two years. Following the resignation of Congressman Benjamin Bourne Potter was elected in a by-election against Peleg Arnold as his successor in the U.S. House of Representatives. This mandate he entered on 15 November 1796 practiced it out until 1797. Then he stepped back also.
Between 1798 and 1808 he was again a member of the House of Representatives of his State, where he occasionally officiated again as its president. In 1808 he was re-elected for the second deputy seat of Rhode Iceland, which has been determined all across the state in Congress, where he replaced Isaac Wilbour of the Democratic Republicans on March 4, 1809. After two re- election he was able to exercise this mandate until March 3, 1815. In this time the British -American War fell from 1812.
After the end of his time in Congress Elisha Potter was again a deputy in the State House of Representatives. He had 1816-1835, except in 1818, held this mandate. This year, 1818, he ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Nehemiah R. Knight for the post of Governor of Rhode Iceland. Elisha Potter died in 1835 and was buried on the family property in Washington County. His son of the same Elisha (1811-1882) was also a prominent politician in Rhode Iceland, who was both a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate of Rhode Iceland. Between 1843 and 1845 he was also a congressman in the federal capital, Washington.