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Senate Years of Service: 1861-1867 Party: Republican
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LANE, Henry Smith, a Representative and a Senator from Indiana; born near Sharpsburg, Bath County,
Ky., February 24, 1811; received a classical education from private tutors; studied law; admitted to
the bar in Mount Sterling, Ky., in 1832 and commenced practice at Crawfordsville, Ind., in 1834;
member, State senate 1837; member, State house of representatives 1838-1839; elected as a Whig
to the Twenty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Tilghman A. Howard;
reelected to the Twenty-seventh Congress and served from August 3, 1840, to March 3, 1843;
served in the Mexican War at the head of a company he had raised; rose to lieutenant colonel of the
First Indiana Regiment; abandoned the profession of law and engaged in the banking business at
Crawfordsville, Ind., in 1854; elected Governor of Indiana in 1860; was inaugurated January 14,
1861, and served just two days, when, by previous arrangement, he was elected to the Senate;
elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1861, to March 3,
1867; chairman, Committee on Engrossed Bills (Thirty-seventh through Thirty-ninth Congresses),
Committee on Pensions (Thirty-ninth Congress); served as special Indian commissioner 1869-1871;
commissioner for improvement of the Mississippi River in 1872; died in Crawfordsville, Ind., June 18,
1881; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Barringer, Graham. The Life and Letters of Henry S.
Lane. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Indiana, 1927; Sharp, Walter. Henry S. Lane and the
Formation of the Republican Party in Indiana. Mississippi Valley Historical Review
7 (September 1920): 93-112.
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