Jesse Bright of Indiana was a senior Democrat, and a slaveowner in Kentucky, who had earlier written a letter of introduction for an arms-dealer friend to Jefferson Davis in Richmond, addressing him as the Confederate president. A case for his expulsion was referred to the Judiciary Committee in December 1861. On January 13, 1862, by a vote of 5-2, the committee ruled that the case did not rise to the level required for expulsion. Despite this, the Senate expelled Bright on a vote of 32-14, the last expulsion ever by that body. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Robert C. Byrd, Mary S. Hall,The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988), 238.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
