U: Upham - Upson

See below for annotated biographies of anti-slavery Whigs. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

UPHAM, William, 1792-1853, Leicester, Massachusetts, lawyer, member of Vermont House of Representatives, Whig U.S. Senator, 1843-1853. Opposed slavery. He stated, “Slavery is a crime against humanity and a sore evil in the body politic.”

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 213)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume VI, p. 213:

UPHAM, William, senator, born in Leicester, Massachusetts, in August, 1792; died in Washington, D. C., 14 January, 1853. He moved with his father to Vermont in 1802, was educated at the State university, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and began practice in Montpelier. In 1827-'8 he served in the legislature, was state's attorney for Washington County in 1829, and served again in the legislature in 1830. Elected a U. S. Senator as a Whig, he served from 4 December, 1843, until his sudden death by small-pox. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 213.



UPSON, Charles, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1862 he was elected a Representative from Michigan to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

CHARLES UPSON is a native of Connecticut, and was born in Hartford County of that State, March 19, 1821. He was reared as a farmer boy, received a common-school education, subsequently, however, enjoying the advantages of a neighboring academy, during several terms. At sixteen he commenced teaching school; thus employing himself for seven successive winters, and devoting the intervening summers, for the most part, to labor upon the farm of his father. When twenty-three years old he entered the law school of Yale College, pursuing there, during one year, the study of law. At the end of this time, in the fall of 1845, he went to Michigan, St. Joseph County, where he continued his law studies, accompanied with one or two terms of teaching school. Two years after his removal, he was appointed deputy-clerk of the county, serving two years in this capacity. In the meantime, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the State, and in the following year was elected, as the Whig candidate, clerk of the county of St. Joseph. Two years afterwards he was elected prosecuting attorney for the same county, holding this office during two years.

Mr. Upson was in 1854, as the Republican candidate, elected State Senator; and at the close of his Senatorial term, he removed to Coldwater, Michigan, his present residence. In I860 he received the election of attorney-general of the State of Michigan, and held the office two years. In 1862 he was elected a Representative from Michigan to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses. He served on the Committee on Elections, and was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Navy Department.

The Fortieth Congress of the United States: historical and biographical. By William H. Barnes, Volume 2, 1869.

(Congressional Globe; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928)

Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.