Samuel Wheeler Moulton (20 January 1821-3 June 1905) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-IL) from 4 March 1865 to 3 March 1867 (succeeding James C. Allen and preceding John A. Logan), from IL-15 from 4 March 1881 to 3 March 1883 (succeeding Albert P. Forsythe and preceding Joseph Gurney Cannon), and from IL-17 from 4 March 1883 to 3 March 1885 (succeeding William Ralls Morrison and preceding John R. Eden).
Biography[]
Samuel Wheeler Moulton was born in Wenham, Massachusetts in 1821, and he moved to Oakland, Illinois following his marriage in 1845. He became a lawyer in Sullivan in 1847, and he later moved to Shelbyville and befriended Abraham Lincoln, serving as his co-counsel in 1852. He went on to serve in the State House from 1852 to 1869, spearheading free education for all Illinois residents; he served as a Democratic presidential elector in 1856 and as President of the Illinois Board of Education from 1859 to 1876. Moulton served as a Union Army provost marshal during the American Civil War, but he resigned in 1863 after Lincoln kindly informed him that his superiors had accused him of neglecting his duty. He went on to serve in the US House of Representatives from 1865 to 1867 as a Republican and from 1881 to 1885 as a Democrat, ardently advocating for white supremacism and arguing that no part of the country should be "controlled by the negro race." He rejoined the GOP after 1896, and he died in 1905.