Henry L. Dawes
Henry Laurens Dawes ( born October 30, 1816 in Cummington, Massachusetts, † February 5, 1903 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts ) was an American politician and U.S. senator who was known by the Dawes Act.
Life
After graduating from Yale University in 1839, he taught for some time in Greenfield and wrote for the " Greenfield Gazette". In 1842 he was admitted to the bar and began to practice law in North Adams, where he led the "The Transcript " for some time. He was a 1848/49 and 1852 at the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Senate in 1850 and 1853 the Constitutional Convention of his State. From 1853 to 1857 he was United States Attorney for the Western District of Massachusetts.
March 4, 1857 to March 3, 1875, he was Republican congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives for changing electoral districts of Massachusetts. In 1875, he was followed by Charles Sumner as a U.S. Senator, a position he held until 1893.
During this long activity in the legislature, he worked in the House of Representatives Committee on Elections, Alternative Search and repossession and played a significant role in the anti-slavery and recovery actions during and after the Civil War, in the customs legislation and the establishment of a Fish Commission and the introduction of a daily weather forecast. In the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Indian affairs and was very involved for the enactment of laws for the benefit of the Indians.
After 1893 left the Senate, he was chairman of the Commission of the Five Civilized Tribes (sometimes also called the Dawes Commission) and worked here for ten years, where he for the tribes a deletion of the public claims to their land and the dissolution of the tribal governments negotiated with the aim to make the tribes to a part of the United States.
Henry Laurens Dawes died on February 5, 1903 in Pittsfield, where he was also buried.
Source
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911er edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.