Thomas Brackett Reed - Political Life

Political Life

Born in Portland, Maine, Reed attended public school, including Portland High School, before graduating from Bowdoin College in 1860. He studied law. After college, he went on to become acting assistant paymaster, United States Navy, from April 1864, to November 1865, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He practiced in Portland, and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives, in 1868 and 1869. He served in the Maine Senate in 1870 but left to serve as the state's Attorney General 1870–72. Reed became city solicitor of Portland 1874–1877, before being elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses, serving from 1877, to September 4, 1899, when he resigned.

Read more about this topic:  Thomas Brackett Reed

Famous quotes containing the words political and/or life:

    They had their fortunes to make, everything to gain and nothing to lose. They were schooled in and anxious for debates; forcible in argument; reckless and brilliant. For them it was but a short and natural step from swaying juries in courtroom battles over the ownership of land to swaying constituents in contests for office. For the lawyer, oratory was the escalator that could lift a political candidate to higher ground.
    —Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
    Bible: New Testament Jesus, in John, 15:13.

    In Ulysses, James Joyce wrote, “Greater love than this ... no man hath that a man lay down his wife for his friend.”