Lorenzo De Medici Sweat

Lorenzo De Medici Sweat (May 26, 1818 – July 26, 1898), also written L.D.M. Sweat, was a U.S. Representative from Maine.

Early life and education

He was born in the town of Parsonsfield in the Massachusetts District of Maine, where he attended Parsonsfield Seminary, a Free Will Baptist school. Sweat attended Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1837, and studied law with Rufus McIntire. He attended Harvard Law School, and after graduating in 1840 he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in New Orleans.<ref name = "Congress">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Marriage and family

Sweat returned to Maine and settled in Portland, where he continued to practice law.<ref name="Congress" /> In 1849, he married novelist Margaret Jane Mussey and purchased a home adjoining author and critic, John Neal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The couple did not have children.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Political career

Sweat held various local offices including Portland City Solicitor from 1856 to 1860. He served as a member of the Maine State Senate from 1861 to 1862.<ref name="Congress" />

He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1865.<ref name="Congress" /> Being the only Democrat in Maine's congressional delegation, he was the only one to oppose the Thirteenth Amendment.<ref name="Miller">Template:Cite news</ref> He was defeated for reelection in 1864, and was an unsuccessful candidate for election to Congress in 1866.<ref name="Congress" />

He later was a delegate to the Union National Convention held in Philadelphia in 1868, and to the 1872 Democratic National Convention. In 1872 he was selected as a member of the Democratic National Committee. He served until 1876.<ref name="Congress" />

He was an honorary commissioner to the World's Exposition in Paris in 1867 and that in Vienna in 1873.<ref name="Congress" />

His house in Portland, the McLellan-Sweat Mansion, was later adapted for use as the Portland Museum of Art, following a bequest by his wife in 1908. The same bequest also included funding for what became the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries as an addition to the rear.<ref name="Miller" /> The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.<ref name=nhl>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He is interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.<ref name="Congress" />

External links

• Template:Find a Grave