Essay On Frederick Theodore Felinghuysen

Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, the Secretary of State serving under President Chester A. Arthur, and one of New Jersey’s most successful politicians of the Nineteenth Century, was born in Millstone, New Jersey on August 4th in 1817. His father was Frederick Frelinghuysen and his mother was Mary Dumont. His family was already wealthy and had a history of being successful at law and public service in politics. Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen was the uncle of United States Senator Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, and cousin many times removed to United States Representatives Peter Hood Ballentine Frelinghuysen and Rodney P. Frelinghuysen. Frederick Theodore’s grandfather was also named Frederick Frelinghuysen, and had been a representative

at the Second Continental Congress, representing New Jersey. Frederick Theodore’s grandfather had also fought at the Battle of Princeton, and had gone on to become a United States Senator, and the second mayor of Newark.
Frederick Theodore’s father, who was also a lawyer, died when he was three years old.

Frederick went to go live with his uncle Theodore Frelinghuysen in Newark, who was, once again, as is with the Frelinghuysen family, a lawyer. Theodore Frelinghuysen was Attorney General of New Jersey when young Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen came to live with him. And from 1829 to 1835, Theodore was a United States Senator and was the Vice Presidential candidate for the Whigs in 1844.
Young Frederick Theodore attended Rutgers College and graduated in 1836 at the age of nineteen. Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen apprenticed under his uncle, and thus became a lawyer and inherited his uncle’s and mentor’s practice in 1839 when he was twenty two years old. Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen went on to be a successful attorney representing big business of the time, and after representing such businesses such as Jersey Central Railroad and the Morris Canal & Banking Company, Frelinghuysen went into politics. He started by becoming a state prosecutor and having a position in the Newark Common

Council.
He married his wife, Matilda Elizabeth Grizwold, and had six children, three sons: Frederick Frelinghuysen, George Grizwold Frelinghuysen, and Theodore Frelinghuysen, carrying on the Frelinghuysen tradition of reusing the same names over and over again, and three daughters named Matilda Griswold Frelinghuysen, Sarah Frelinghuysen, and Lucy Frelinghuysen.
In 1861 Frederick Theodore was the New Jersey delegate in the Washington Peace Conference. In spite of the fact that said conference was a failure, Frelinghuysen continued his political climb. Frederick Theodore climbed his way up the political ladder and even took over his uncle’s former post of Attorney General of New Jersey from the year 1861 till the year 1866. In 1866, Marcus Ward, the Governor of New Jersey, appointed Frelinghuysen to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate as a Senator from 1866 to 1869. Frederick Theodore, once in the Senate, joined the Radical Republicans, vying for black rights and voting for the impeachment and removal of President Andrew Johnson. He failed to acquire the votes needed to be re-elected in 1869 mainly due to Democratic majority in the New Jersey Legislature at the time, but ran a successful campaign in 1870, and served again on the United States Senate from 1871 to the year 1877.
In 1870, Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant and was confirmed by the Senate to become the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom to succeed John Lanthrop Motley, but Frelinghuysen declined for reasons unknown. He stayed and served on the United States Senate to which he was prominent in debating and committee work.
Frelinghuysen was Chairman of the United States Committee on Foreign Affairs during the Alabama Claims Negotiations. The Alabama Claims Negotiations were over the eleven Confederate ships that had been built in Great Britain before their government intervened due to the fact that doing such a thing violated the neutral status of Great Britain, and the destruction of shipping from the ships, to which the United States wanted compensation. In 1872, Britain had finally relented and paid the money requested after many long disputes and discussions.
Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen served on the joint committee which drew up and reported the Electoral Commission Bill and served as a member on the Electoral Commission that made the decisions of the outcome of the 1876 Presidential Election. The Electoral Commission was created to settle the dispute over the 1876 Presidential Election between the Democrat Samuel J Tilden and the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. It was the first time since the Civil War had ravaged the country and its politics that the Democrats managed to earn the popular vote. Tilden had 184 of the 185 electoral votes needed to win in the Preliminary, whilst Rutherford had 165 electoral votes. There were nineteen electoral votes still undecided between three states. It was observed by William E. Chandler, one of New Hampshire’s Republican leaders, that if all the votes were given to Hayes, he would win over Tilden 185 to 184 votes.
On December 12th, 1881, Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen was appointed by United States President Chester A. Arthur as Secretary of State on the occasion of his predecessor, James G. Blaine, leaving office, and began his position as Secretary of State on the 19th of December, when James G. Blaine resigned due to political differences between President Chester A. Arthur and himself.
In the office of Secretary of State, Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen had many responsibilities.

Created by Congress in 1789 to be the successor of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the senior executive Department of the United States Government is the Department of State. Through the Department of State and the Foreign Service of the United States, the Secretary of State carries out the President’s foreign policies.
Over the course of time, the Secretary of State’s duties have not changed to any significant difference from what they were in 1789. The Secretary of State serves as the President’s Chief Advisor on United States Foreign Policy. To which the Secretary of State, also advises the President on the appointing of United States Ambassadors, Ministers, Consuls, and other diplomatic representatives. They also advise the President with reference to the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of foreign governmental representatives.
The Secretary of State conducts negotiations pertaining to United States foreign affairs, and personally participates or directs the United States representatives to international conferences, organizations and agencies. Promoting economic trading that is beneficial to the United States and other foreign countries is an important role of the Secretary of State, as well as negotiating, interpreting, and terminating treaties and agreements between

nations.
In the responsibilities of Secretary of State, multiple duties pertain to the citizens of the United States on foreign soil. They grant and issue passports to United States citizens and exequaturs to consuls of foreign nations in the United States. The Secretary of State ensures the safety, property, and interests of American citizens are under the protection of the United States Government in foreign countries. They provide information regarding the political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian conditions in other countries to American citizens, as well as supervising the administration of United States Immigration laws abroad.