1845-51 & 1855-61 David Levy Yulee - First Jewish American U.S. Senator

1845-51 & 1855-61 David Levy Yulee - First Jewish American U.S. Senator

David Levy Yulee was a Delegate and a Senator from Florida; born David Levy in St. Thomas, West Indies, June 12, 1810. At the age of nine was sent to the United States to Norfolk, Virginia to attend a private school. He studied law in St. Augustine, Florida, was admitted to the bar in 1836 and practiced in St. Augustine. Levy was delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1838; clerk to the Territorial legislature in 1841; elected as a Whig-Democrat, and a Territorial delegate to the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1845). He did not seek renomination, having become a candidate for the Senate.

When Florida was admitted as a State into the Union. Levy was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from July 1, 1845, to March 3, 1851. He served as chairman of: the Committee on Private Land Claims (Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses); and Committee on Naval Affairs (Thirty-first Congress). By an act of the Florida Legislature and at his request his name was changed to David Levy Yulee in 1846.

Levy was again elected to the United States Senate in January 1855 and served from March 4, 1855, until his withdrawal January 21, 1861. He served as chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses),

Due to his support of the Confederacy, Levy
was a prisoner at Fort Pulaski in 1865.

He was also the president of the Florida Railroad Company 1853-1866; president of Peninsular Railroad Company, Tropical Florida Railway Company, and Fernandina and Jacksonville Railroad Company; and was known as the “Father of Florida’s railroads”.

Levy moved to Washington, D.C., in 1880 and died in New York City, October 10, 1886. He is intered in Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Mathew Brady

1855-1865

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Related Bibliography - American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Hühner, Leon.

“David L. Yulee, Florida’s First Senator.” In Jews in the South, edited by Leonard Dinnerstein and Mary Dale Palsson, pp. 52-74. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973

Whitfield, James B. “Some Legal Phases of the Senatorial Contest Between David L. Yulee and Stephen R. Mallory, Sr., in 1851." Florida Law Journal 19 (October 1945): 251-55.

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Mathew Brady

Photograph

English

Figures

Elected

Historic