Later Years and Public Service
Sidney left the assembly in 1852, returning to private law practice, while also serving as a director of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company. His name was offered as a nomination for Governor of Illinois at numerous conventions, while talk continued of his possible candidacy for the U.S. Presidency, including in 1868, when some thought he could have won for the Democrats.
He rejected a nomination to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1853, and many speculated Breese had ambition to return to the U.S. Senate. However, he was literally forced back into the judiciary of Illinois against his will, accepting an appointment as a Judge on the Circuit Court in 1855, before being elected to the Illinois Supreme Court as a Justice in 1857. He would serve the rest of years on the bench of that court, including stints as the Chief Justice during multiple terms.
Read more about this topic: Sidney Breese
Famous quotes containing the words years, public and/or service:
“Lonesome? God, no! From the day the kids are born, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. After all those years of being responsible for them, you finally get to the point where you want to scream: “Fall out of the nest already, you guys, will you? It’s time.””
—Anonymous Mother of Four. As quoted in Women of a Certain Age, by Lillian B. Rubin, ch. 2 (1979)
“A man does not automatically become a public figure because he happens to build an empire out of chicken fat.”
—J.P. (James Pinckney)
“The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self- service populace, and all our specious comforts—the automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteria—are depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)