Politics / Law
Jacob M. Howard
1805–1871 · lawyer, U.S. senator
Detroit lawyer and Republican Party co-founder who as U.S. senator helped shape the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, including the citizenship clause.
- Born
Shaftsbury, Vermont- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 65- Birth name
- Jacob Merritt Howard
- Also known as
- Jacob Merritt Howard
- Detroit years
- 1832–1871
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Jacob M. Howard, a Vermonter and Williams College graduate, moved to Detroit in 1832, was admitted to the bar in 1833 and built a law practice in the growing city. He served as city attorney in 1834, as a Whig state representative for Wayne County in 1838 and as a one-term congressman from 1841 to 1843, aligning with the party's antislavery wing. In 1854 he was among the founders of the Republican Party, which organized under the oaks at Jackson, Michigan, and he is credited with drafting much of its first platform. He was Michigan attorney general from 1855 to 1861 and then, from 1862 to 1871, a U.S. senator. In the Senate he opposed President Andrew Johnson's lenient Reconstruction, worked on the final wording of the Thirteenth Amendment and, as floor manager of the Fourteenth, proposed the phrase making all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction citizens. He died in Detroit in 1871 and is buried at Elmwood.
Highlights
- U.S. senator from Michigan, 1862–1871
- Introduced the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Senate (1866)
- A founder of the Republican Party (1854)
- Michigan attorney general, 1855–1861
- U.S. representative from Michigan, 1841–1843
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1871
Elmwood Cemetery
He is buried at Elmwood Cemetery.