Representative A. Lawrence Foster

Abel Lawrence Foster (September 17, 1802 – May 21, 1877) was a 19th-century American lawyer and politician who served one term as a United States Representative from New York from 1841 to 1843. He was born on September 17, 1802, in Littleton, Massachusetts. Little is recorded about his early childhood, but he came of age in New England before relocating to New York, where he prepared for a legal career.

Foster studied law in Vernon, New York, and, after completing his legal training, was admitted to the bar. In 1827 he commenced the practice of law in Morrisville, New York. Establishing himself as an attorney in central New York, he became active in local affairs and aligned with the Whig Party as it emerged in opposition to Jacksonian Democrats. His professional standing and political involvement led him to seek higher office.

In 1838 Foster ran unsuccessfully for election to the United States House of Representatives. Undeterred, he stood again two years later and, in 1840, was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-seventh Congress, serving from March 4, 1841, to March 3, 1843, as a representative from New York. During his single term in Congress, A. Lawrence Foster contributed to the legislative process at a time of significant national debate over economic policy and federal expenditures. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury, giving him a direct role in overseeing and scrutinizing federal financial administration. Foster did not run for reelection in 1842, concluding his congressional service after one term but having participated actively in the democratic process and the representation of his constituents’ interests.

In 1844, following his departure from Congress, Foster moved from New York to Virginia and settled on a farm in Fairfax County. The property he acquired included land that would later become Tysons Corner, a major commercial and transportation hub in northern Virginia. In his new community he continued in public service; during the 1850s he served as a Fairfax County commissioner, participating in local governance and administration in the years leading up to the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Foster, though a resident of Virginia, supported the Union. Because of the conflict and the dangers associated with his Unionist stance in a seceded state, he temporarily relocated to Washington, D.C. In 1862 he was appointed United States Indian Agent for the Chippewa of the Mississippi in Minnesota, extending his public service into federal Indian affairs during a period of intense pressure and upheaval for Native communities. After the war, Foster returned to Fairfax County. Following Virginia’s readmission to representation in the Union, he was appointed one of three United States tax commissioners for the northern part of the state. In this capacity he played a significant role in the disposition of confiscated and tax-delinquent properties, and he was responsible for arranging the sale to the federal government of the former estate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which subsequently became Arlington National Cemetery.

Foster’s health began to decline in the 1870s, and he took up residence in Washington, D.C., where he lived during his final years. He died there on May 21, 1877, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Washington. His later legacy included protracted efforts by his family to obtain compensation for wartime losses. In the 1890s, his heirs petitioned Congress for nearly $29,000—an amount estimated at over $712,000 in 2009 dollars—for property and supplies belonging to Foster that had been used by the Union Army or destroyed by Confederate forces during the Civil War. In the early 1900s, the United States Court of Claims authorized partial payment to resolve the case, closing a long-running chapter connected to Foster’s life, property, and Union loyalty during the nation’s most divisive conflict.