Representative Charles Blakeslee Law

Charles Blakeslee Law (February 5, 1872 – September 15, 1929) was a U.S. Representative from New York who served three consecutive terms in the United States Congress from 1905 to 1911. A member of the Republican Party, he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents in the House of Representatives.

Born on February 5, 1872, Law came of age in the post–Civil War era, a time of rapid industrialization and political realignment in the United States. Details of his early family life and upbringing are not extensively documented in the public record, but his subsequent professional path reflects the trajectory of a classically trained lawyer entering public service at the turn of the twentieth century. His formative years coincided with the expansion of federal authority and the emergence of new economic and social issues that would later shape his work in Congress.

Law pursued a legal education, preparing for admission to the bar and a career in the practice of law. Like many of his contemporaries who entered national politics, he built his professional foundation in the legal field, gaining experience that would inform his later legislative work. His legal training and practice provided him with familiarity in statutory interpretation, civil procedure, and the institutional workings of government, skills that were particularly valuable in the increasingly complex legislative environment of the early 1900s.

By the first years of the twentieth century, Law had established himself sufficiently in public and professional life to seek national office. Running as a Republican, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from New York and took his seat in the Fifty-ninth Congress, which convened on March 4, 1905. He was subsequently reelected to the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, serving continuously until March 3, 1911. During these three terms, he represented his New York district at a time when Congress was addressing issues such as regulation of interstate commerce, labor conditions, and the evolving role of the federal government in economic affairs.

In Congress, Charles Blakeslee Law participated fully in the legislative process, contributing to debates and votes on measures that reflected both national priorities and the specific concerns of his New York constituents. His service coincided with the broader Progressive Era, when questions of corporate regulation, political reform, and social policy were at the forefront of national discussion. As a Republican representative, he aligned with a party that was then grappling with internal divisions between more conservative and more progressive elements, and his work formed part of the legislative record of that transformative period.

After leaving Congress in 1911, Law returned to private life and to the legal and civic pursuits that had underpinned his political career. Although the detailed record of his later professional activities is limited, his post-congressional years unfolded against the backdrop of major national developments, including World War I and the social and economic changes of the 1920s. He remained part of the generation of former lawmakers whose experience in the early twentieth-century Congress helped shape the institutional memory of American governance.

Charles Blakeslee Law died on September 15, 1929. His life and career spanned a period of profound change in the United States, from the late Reconstruction era through the Progressive Era and into the eve of the Great Depression. As a three-term Republican representative from New York, he left a record of service in the House of Representatives during a critical phase in the evolution of federal legislative power and the modern American state.