Franklin Dexter

author

Franklin Dexter

1793–1857

A Boston lawyer and public speaker, he moved easily between politics, civic life, and print. He is especially remembered for forceful writing on public questions, including a published reply to Congressman Samuel A. Eliot over the Fugitive Slave Act.

1 Audiobook

A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Representative in Congress From the City of Boston, In Reply to His Apology For Voting For the Fugitive Slave Bill.

A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, Representative in Congress From the City of Boston, In Reply to His Apology For Voting For the Fugitive Slave Bill.

by Franklin Dexter

About the author

Born in 1793 and dead in 1857, Franklin Dexter was an American lawyer closely tied to Boston public life. Records from Dartmouth describe him as a representative in the Massachusetts House, a member of Boston's Common Council, a state senator, and later United States district attorney for Massachusetts.

He also left a paper trail as a writer and speaker. Among the works connected with him are an 1819 Independence Day oration in Boston and the 1851 pamphlet A Letter to the Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, a sharp response to Eliot's defense of his vote for the Fugitive Slave Bill.

That mix of law, politics, and public argument makes Dexter a revealing figure from nineteenth-century Massachusetts: not just a courtroom professional, but a man who used print to join the fiercest civic debates of his time.