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Courtesy U.S. Senate Historical Office
VOORHEES, Daniel Wolsey (1827-1897)
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Senate Years of Service: 1877-1897

VOORHEES, DANIEL WOLSEY, (father of Charles Stewart Voorhees), a Representative and a Senator from Indiana; born in Liberty Township, Butler County, Ohio, September 26, 1827; moved with his parents to Indiana in early childhood; attended the common schools of Veedersburg, Ind.; graduated from Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University at Greencastle in 1849; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1851 and commenced practice in Covington, Ind.; moved to Terre Haute and continued the practice of law; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1856 to the Thirty-fifth Congress; United States district attorney for Indiana 1858-1861; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1865); presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Thirty-ninth Congress and served from March 4, 1865, to February 23, 1866, when he was succeeded by Henry D. Washburn, who contested the election; elected to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses (March 4, 1869-March 3, 1873); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1872 to the Forty-third Congress; appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Oliver H.P.T. Morton; reelected in 1885 and again in 1891, and served from November 6, 1877, to March 3, 1897; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on the Library (Forty-sixth Congress), Committee on Finance (Fifty-third Congress); died in Washington, D.C., April 10, 1897; interment in Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, Ind.

Franklin College Library
Special Collections
Franklin, IN
Papers: 3 letters (September 22, 1862; November 18, 1884; 188?), 1 document, and 6 volumes. Published volumes are speeches, lectures, and addresses and include introductory biographical sketches, address delivered in the U.S. Senate in memory of Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks, and speech given in U.S. Senate on repeal of Resumption Act. Finding aid.
Indiana Historical Society
Indianapolis, IN
Papers: 20 letters in various collections including Cauthorn-Stout family papers, 1780-1908; Charles Lanman collection, 1828-1869; Phineas M. Kent papers, 1833-1888; and William D.H. Hunter papers, 1880-1885.
Indiana State Library
Indianapolis, IN
Papers: 1860-1873. 3 letters. Additional items and photographs in various collections including John B. Stoll papers, 1854-1926; Anna W. Wright collection, 1855-1911; Jesse Kilgour Dubois papers, 1833-1920; and Thomas Dowling papers, 1850-1874.
Indiana University
Lilly Library
Bloomington, IN
Papers: 8 letters (1862-1893) in various collections. Finding aid.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Papers: 1897. 1 scrapbook. Also letters concerning Voorhees in the papers of George F. Holmes, George H. McClennand, James Garfield, and Grover Cleveland.
Stanford University Libraries
Special Collections
Stanford, CA
Papers: In David Starr Jordan papers, 1861-1964.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division
Madison, WI
Papers: In John Givan Davis papers, 1800-1889.
Vigo County Public Library
Terre Haute, IN
Papers: Newspaper clippings, photographs, and notice from Masons about his funeral.
Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives
New Haven, CT
Papers: Correspondence in Evarts family papers, 1753-1960; and Carrington family papers, 1749-1929.

  • Jordan, Henry D. "Daniel Wolsey Voorhees.'' Mississippi Valley Historical Review 6 (March 1920): 532-55.
  • Kenworthy, Leonard S. The Tall Sycamore of the Wabash: Daniel Wolsey Voorhees. Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1936.
  • Sandefur, Ray H. "The Ingalls-Voorhees Debate of 1888.'' Kansas Historical Quarterly 17 (August 1949): 243-53.
  • Thornton, W.W. "Daniel W. Voorhees as Lawyer and Orator.'' Green Bag 14 (August 1902): 355-64.
  • Voorhees, Charles Stewart, ed. Speeches of Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana, Embracing His Most Prominent Forensic, Political, Occasional and Literary Addresses. Cincinnati: R. Clarke & Co., 1875.
  • Voorhees, Charles Stewart et al., eds. Forty Years of Oratory: Daniel Wolsey Voorhees Lectures, Addresses and Speeches. 2 vols. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill Co., 1898.