Thomas Jenckes

Thomas Allen Jenckes ( born November 2, 1818 in Cumberland, Rhode Iceland, † November 4, 1875 ) was an American politician. Between 1863 and 1871 he represented the first electoral district of the state of Rhode Iceland in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Thomas Jenckes attended the common schools and then studied until 1838 at Brown University in Providence. After a subsequent study of law and its made ​​in 1840 admitted to the bar he began to work there in his new profession. In 1842, he served as Secretary on the Board of a meeting to revise the constitution of Rhode Iceland. Between 1845 and 1855 he held the office of Attorney General of Rhode Iceland.

From 1854 to 1857 was deputy in the House of Representatives Jenckes of Rhode Iceland. In 1855 he was State commissioner to revise the laws of the state. Jenckes was a member of the Republican Party, founded in 1854 and 1862 as their candidate in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he replaced William Paine Sheffield on March 4, 1863. After three re- elections he could exercise his mandate until March 3, 1871. In this time, the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, the House of Representatives had a majority, but failed on a vote in the Senate fell. Throughout his time in Congress Jenckes was chairman of the Patent Committee. He helped in the preparation of some laws that simplified the patent law. Jenckes was also in the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. He brought in 1870 a draft law that led to the official establishment of the U.S. Department of Justice. Until then, although there was the United States Attorney General, who served as Minister of Justice; but a regular ministry did not exist.

After he was not re-elected in 1870, Jenckes worked until his death in 1876, again as a lawyer. In the years 1872 and 1873 he represented the federal government in a bribery process ( Crédit Mobilier of America scandal ). Thomas Jenckes died in 1875 and was buried in Providence.