Elizur Goodrich

Elizur Goodrich (March 24, 1761 – November 1, 1849) was an eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American lawyer, legislator, and public official from Connecticut. A prominent member of the Federalist Party, he served as a United States Representative from Connecticut and as collector of customs at the Port of New Haven. He was the brother of United States Senator Chauncey Goodrich and the son-in-law of Founding Father Oliver Wolcott, thereby linking him to some of the most influential political families of the early republic.

Goodrich was born on March 24, 1761, in Durham in the Connecticut Colony, the son of Elizur Goodrich. Raised in a New England milieu that valued education and public service, he entered Yale College and graduated in 1779, during the closing years of the American Revolutionary War. Shortly after graduation he remained at Yale as a tutor from 1781 to 1783, an early indication of the close relationship he would maintain with the institution throughout his life. During this period he also pursued legal studies in preparation for a professional career in the law.

After being admitted to the bar in 1783, Goodrich commenced the practice of law in New Haven, Connecticut. His legal career quickly brought him into public life. He was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives, where he served from 1795 to 1802. In that body he held important leadership roles, serving as Clerk for six sessions and as Speaker for two sessions, positions that reflected both his legal expertise and his standing within the Federalist Party. In the 1796 United States presidential election he further demonstrated his Federalist allegiance by serving as a presidential elector, casting his vote for John Adams against the Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson.

As a member of the Federalist Party representing Connecticut, Goodrich contributed to the legislative process during one term in the United States Congress. He was elected at large from Connecticut to the Sixth and Seventh Congresses, but ultimately served only in the Sixth Congress, from March 4, 1799, to March 3, 1801. His tenure in the House of Representatives occurred during a formative period in American national politics, as the young republic grappled with issues of foreign policy, party conflict, and the scope of federal authority. During this significant period in American history, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Connecticut constituents at the federal level.

Goodrich’s congressional service was cut short when President John Adams appointed him collector of customs for the Port of New Haven. Accepting this executive appointment, he left Congress and assumed the customs post, a position of considerable local and federal importance in an era when customs duties were a principal source of national revenue. His tenure as collector was brief, however. After the election of 1800 and the accession of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency, Goodrich was removed from the office of collector. Public discussion of this removal prompted Jefferson to write a notable letter in which he explicitly defended the practice of removing officeholders for their political opinions, an episode that highlighted the increasingly partisan character of federal appointments in the early republic.

Following his departure from federal office, Goodrich remained a central figure in Connecticut’s civic and political life. He was elected to the Governor’s Council of Connecticut in 1803 and served there until 1818, participating in the upper tier of state governance during a period that included the adoption of a new state constitution. Concurrently, he held several judicial and municipal posts. He served as a probate judge from 1802 to 1818, and from 1803 to 1807 he was a judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, then the state’s highest court. From 1803 to 1822 he was Mayor of New Haven, overseeing the city’s administration for nearly two decades and playing a major role in its civic development.

Goodrich also maintained a long and influential association with Yale. From 1801 to 1810 he taught law at Yale, contributing to the training of a rising generation of lawyers and public officials. He became a member of the Yale Corporation, the university’s governing body, serving from 1809 to 1818, and then continued his service as Secretary of the Corporation from 1818 to 1846. In recognition of his contributions to the legal profession and to the institution, Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) in 1830. His public and private life reflected the social and economic structures of his time, and he has been listed among the approximately 1,700 members of the United States Congress who owned slaves at some point in American history.

Elizur Goodrich died in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 1, 1849. He was interred in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, a resting place for many of the city’s and Yale’s leading figures. His long career in law, state and local government, federal service, and higher education positioned him as a significant figure in Connecticut’s political and institutional history in the early United States.