Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen


Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen was an American lawyer and politician from New Jersey who served as a U.S. Senator and later as United States Secretary of State under President Chester A. Arthur.

Early life and education

Frelinghuysen was born in Millstone, New Jersey, to Frederick Frelinghuysen and Mary Dumont. His father died when he was just three years old, and he was adopted by his uncle, Theodore Frelinghuysen.
His grandfather, Frederick Frelinghuysen, was an eminent lawyer, one of the framers of the first New Jersey Constitution, a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, a member of the Continental Congress from New Jersey, and from 1793 to 1796 a member of the United States Senate.
His uncle, Theodore Frelinghuysen, was Attorney General of New Jersey from 1817 to 1829, was a U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1829 to 1835, was the Whig candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Henry Clay ticket in the 1844 Presidential election, and was Chancellor of New York University from 1839 until 1850 and president of Rutgers College from 1850 to 1862.
Frelinghuysen graduated from Rutgers College in 1836, and studied law in Newark with his uncle, to whose practice he succeeded in 1839, after he was admitted to the bar.

Career

Following his admission to the bar, he became attorney for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Morris Canal and Banking Company and other corporations.

Political career

Frelinghuysen was a delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention from New Jersey and from 1861 to 1867 was Attorney General of New Jersey. He was a delegate to the Peace conference of 1861 in Washington, and in 1866 was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey, as a Republican, to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. In the winter of 1867, he was elected to fill the unexpired term, but a Democratic majority in the New Jersey Legislature prevented his re-election in 1869.
In 1870, he was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant, and confirmed by the Senate, as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom to succeed John Lothrop Motley, but declined the mission. From 1871 to 1877 he was again a member of the United States Senate, in which he was prominent in debate and in committee work, and was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs during the Alabama Claims negotiations.
He was a strong opponent of the Reconstruction measures of President Andrew Johnson, for whose conviction he voted in the impeachment trial. He was a member of the joint committee which drew up and reported the Electoral Commission Bill, and subsequently served as a member of the Electoral Commission that decided the 1876 Presidential election. As a Republican, he voted with the eight-member majority on all counts.

U.S. Secretary of State

On December 12, 1881, he was appointed United States Secretary of State by President Chester A. Arthur to succeed James G. Blaine, and served until the inauguration of President Grover Cleveland in 1885.
After his term as Secretary of State Frelinghuysen returned to his home in Newark where he died less than three months after retiring.

Marriage and children

On January 25, 1842, Frelinghuysen married Matilda Elizabeth Griswold. She was the daughter of George Griswold, a merchant in New York City who "made an immense fortune in the time of the clipper trade with China." Together, they were the parents of three daughters and three sons, including:
Frelinghuysen died at Newark on May 20, 1885, aged 67. He was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Newark. His widow died a few years later in February 1889.

Descendants

Through his eldest son Frederick, he was the grandfather of George Griswold Frelinghuysen II, who married Anne de Smolianinof; Estelle C. "Suzy" Frelinghuysen, who married fellow painter George Lovett Kingsland Morris; Frederick Frelinghuysen; Thomas Frelinghuysen; and Theodore Frelinghuysen.
Through his daughter Sarah and granddaughter Mathilda Elizabeth Frelinghuysen Lodge, who married George Cabot Lodge, he was the great-grandfather of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the diplomat and United States Senator from Massachusetts, and John Davis Lodge, also a diplomat, U.S. Representative, and Governor of Connecticut.