FRELINGHUYSEN, FREDERICK THEODORE (1817-1885), American lawyer and statesman, of Dutch descent, was born at Millstone, N. J., on Aug. 4, 1817. His grandfather, Frederick Frelinghuysen (1753-1804), was an eminent lawyer, a soldier in the American Revolution, and a member and 1782-83) of the continental congress, and in 1793-96 of the U.S. Senate; and his uncle, Theodore (1787-1862), was a U.S. senator from New Jersey in 1829-35, the Whig candidate for vice-president on the Clay ticket in 1844, chancellor of the Uni versity of New York in 1839-50 and president of Rutgers college in 1850-62. Frederick Theodore, left an orphan at the age of three, was adopted by his uncle, graduated at Rutgers in 1836 and studied law in Newark with his uncle, to whose practice he succeeded in 1839. He became attorney for the Central railroad of New Jersey, the Morris Canal and Banking company and other corporations, and from 1861 to 1867 was attorney-general of New Jersey. In 1861 he was a delegate to the peace congress at Washington, and in 1866 was appointed by the governor of New Jersey, as a republican, to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. In the winter of 1867 he was elected to fill the unexpired term, but a democratic majority in the legislature prevented his re-election in 1869. From 1871 to 1877 he was again a member of the U.S. Senate, in which he was prominent in debate and in committee work, and was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs during the Alabama claims negotiations. He was a strong opponent of the reconstruction measures of President Johnson, for whose conviction he voted in the impeachment trial. He was a member of the joint committee which drew up and reported (187 7) the Electoral Commission bill, and subsequently served as a member of the commission. In 1881 he was appointed secretary of State by President Arthur to succeed James G. Blaine, and served until the inauguration of President Cleveland in 1885. He died in Newark, May 20, 1885.
See John F. Hageman, "The Life, Character and Services of Frederick T. Frelinghuysen," New Jersey Hist. Proc., 2nd sec., vol. ix.,