Effingham Lawrence

{{Short description|American politician (1820–1878)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Effingham Lawrence | image = Effingham Lawrence (Louisiana Congressman).jpg | caption = From Volume II of 1875's "The American Government" | office1 = Member of the <br>[[U.S. House of Representatives]]<br>from [[Louisiana]]'s [[Louisiana's 1st congressional district|1st]] district | term_start1 = March 3, 1875 | term_end1 = March 4, 1875 | predecessor1 = [[J. Hale Sypher]] | successor1 = [[Randall L. Gibson]] | office2 = Member of the <br>[[Louisiana House of Representatives]]<br>from the 1st district | term_start2 = 1871 | term_end2 = 1875 | party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1820|3|02}} | birth_place = [[Bayside, Queens]], New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1878|12|09|1820|3|2}} | death_place = [[Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana]], U.S. | spouse = Mary Ann George | children = 10 | profession = Sugar planter }}

'''Effingham Lawrence''' (March 2, 1820 – December 9, 1878) was an American politician known for serving for the shortest term in congressional history, serving—along with [[George A. Sheridan]]—for just one day in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Two House Members Served for Only One Day |url=https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/hh_1875_03_03_served_congress_one_day/ |access-date=4 January 2023}}</ref>

== Biography == Lawrence was born in Bayside, [[Queens, New York]], in 1820. He was a descendant of [[John Lawrence (New York politician)|John Lawrence]] and [[John Bowne]], both [[Quakers]] and pioneer English settlers of Queens, NY.

Lawrence moved to Louisiana in 1843 and engaged in the planting and refining of sugar. He served in the [[Louisiana House of Representatives|Louisiana State House of Representatives]] for some time and then successfully contested the re-election of [[Jacob Hale Sypher]]. Lawrence then served for one day in Congress but was not reelected. He died at Magnolia Plantation, [[Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana]] in 1878.

== Contested election == The voting in the 1872 election was characterized by a number of irregularities, with Sypher initially being declared the winner and returned to Congress while Lawrence appealed the election results. Lawrence's belated replacement of Sypher, after courts intervened to nullify the original results and instead deliver the seat to Lawrence, marked the first time since the Civil War that a Democrat had defeated a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] for a seat in Congress from Louisiana.

The 1874 voting in which Lawrence failed "re-election" to the seat had already been held before he was seated for the term to which he had, by the later court order, been elected in 1872. Thus, under the congressional calendar in effect at the time, Lawrence was able to serve for one day of the 1873–1875 term to which he had, in the end, been elected. On the following day—March 4, 1875—he was succeeded by [[Randall Lee Gibson]], a Democrat who had defeated him during the preceding autumn.

==See also== *[[Cornelius Lawrence]], his cousin *[[Thomas Johnson (jurist)|Thomas Johnson]], shortest-serving [[U.S. Supreme Court]] justice *[[William Henry Harrison]], shortest-serving [[president of the United States]].

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == *[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000132 Congressional Biography] *[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/lawrence.html Political Graveyard]

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{succession box | before=[[Jacob Hale Sypher]] | title=[[Louisiana's 1st congressional district|United States Representative for the 1st Congressional District of Louisiana]] | years=1875 | after=[[Randall Lee Gibson]]}} {{s-end}} {{LARepresentatives}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Effingham}} [[Category:1820 births]] [[Category:1878 deaths]] [[Category:Businesspeople from New Orleans]] [[Category:Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives]] [[Category:Politicians from New Orleans]] [[Category:Politicians from Queens, New York]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Louisiana]] [[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:19th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature]]