Orsamus Benajah Matteson

Orsamus Benajah Matteson (August 28, 1805 – December 22, 1889) was a U.S. Representative from New York whose four terms in Congress spanned a turbulent era in American political and sectional history. Born on August 28, 1805, in a log cabin in Verona, Oneida County, New York, he was one of eleven children. He attended the common schools of the area and, demonstrating early ambition and aptitude, moved to Utica, New York, to study law. In Utica he read law alongside future New York governor Horatio Seymour, and he was admitted to the bar in 1830, the same year he married Mary Hurlburt of Utica. The couple had two children, a son, Henry Clay, and a daughter who later married Colonel George Pomeroy of Utica.

Following his admission to the bar, Matteson commenced the practice of law in Utica. Over the course of his legal career he entered into partnerships with several prominent attorneys, including William J. Bacon, P. Sheldon Root, and Charles A. Doolittle. His abilities as a lawyer and advocate led to his appointment as the first city attorney of Utica, a position he held in 1834 and again in 1836. In addition to his municipal responsibilities, he served as a state supreme court commissioner, reflecting his growing stature within the legal community of central New York. These early legal and public roles laid the foundation for his later entry into national politics.

Matteson first sought federal office in 1846, when he ran unsuccessfully for election to the Thirtieth Congress. Persisting in his political ambitions, he was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first Congress, serving from March 4, 1849, to March 3, 1851, as a representative from New York. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1850 to the Thirty-second Congress, but he remained active in public affairs during the shifting party alignments of the early 1850s. He returned to Congress when he was elected to the Thirty-third Congress and then reelected as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress, beginning this new period of service on March 4, 1853. During this tenure he served as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, participating in the legislative process at a time of mounting national tensions over slavery, territorial expansion, and economic development.

Matteson’s congressional career was marked by both influence and controversy. As a member of the Republican Party representing New York in his later service, he contributed to the legislative process during four terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in a period of rapid political realignment. However, his service was interrupted when, on February 27, 1857, he resigned from the House of Representatives just before a recommendation of censure could be passed against him. The pending censure arose from allegations of bribery and corruption in connection with a Minnesota land bill. He was also accused of publicly asserting that a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives was purchasable, a statement that further inflamed opinion against him and influenced his decision to resign. Despite this setback, Matteson returned to national office shortly thereafter.

In the wake of his resignation, Matteson aligned himself with the emerging Republican Party. He was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth Congress and served from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1859. His final term in Congress coincided with the deepening sectional crisis that preceded the Civil War. During this period in Washington, he was among the members of Congress who fell ill in 1857 during the episode known as the National Hotel disease, an outbreak of severe gastrointestinal illness that afflicted many guests at the National Hotel in the capital and gave rise to widespread public concern and speculation.

Outside his legal and legislative work, Matteson was heavily involved in business and development enterprises. He became interested in a scheme for the construction of the St. Mary’s Ship Canal, a project intended to improve navigation and commerce in the Great Lakes region. He engaged in lumbering and iron manufacturing and devoted considerable resources to the acquisition of large tracts of land. These ventures reflected the broader mid-nineteenth-century push for internal improvements and industrial expansion, but they did not ultimately yield lasting financial security. In his later years he continued to pursue various business enterprises, yet he would die comparatively poor despite the scale of his earlier investments.

Matteson spent his final years in Utica, where he had first established himself as a lawyer and public figure. He died in Utica, New York, on December 22, 1889. He was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery in Utica, closing the life of a lawyer, entrepreneur, and four-term congressman whose career traced the evolution of American politics from the Whig era through the rise of the Republican Party and the sectional conflicts of the 1850s.