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Senate Years of Service: 1808-1810 Party: Democratic Republican
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MEIGS, Return Jonathan, Jr., a Senator from Ohio; born in Middletown, Conn., November 17, 1764; graduated
from Yale College in 1785; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Marietta,
Washington County, Ohio (then known as the Northwest Territory), in 1788; participated in the
Indian fighting of that period; appointed territorial judge 1798; member, territorial legislature 1799;
chief justice of the Ohio supreme court 1803-1804; brevetted colonel in the United States Army and
commanded in the St. Charles district in Louisiana 1804-1806; judge of the supreme court of
Louisiana 1805-1806; judge of the United States District Court for the Territory of Michigan
1807-1808; returned to Ohio and was elected Governor in 1808 but declared ineligible because of his
prolonged absence from the State; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to
fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Smith; reelected in 1809 and served from
December 12, 1808, until he resigned, having been elected Governor, on or before December 8,
1810; Governor of Ohio 1810-1814; Postmaster General in the administrations of Presidents James
Madison and James Monroe 1814-1823; died in Marietta, Ohio, March 29, 1825; interment in
Mound Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography.
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