Representative Phineas Lyman Tracy

Phineas Lyman Tracy (December 25, 1786 – December 22, 1876) was a United States Representative from New York and a prominent early nineteenth-century lawyer and jurist, and was the brother of fellow Congressman Albert Haller Tracy. He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, where he spent his early years before pursuing higher education. Demonstrating academic promise, he enrolled at Yale College and graduated in 1806, joining the ranks of New England–educated professionals who would go on to shape the political and legal life of the young republic.

Following his graduation from Yale, Tracy engaged in teaching for two years, a common path for educated young men of his era and one that provided both income and time to prepare for a professional career. During this period, he turned his attention to the study of law, undertaking the rigorous legal training then required for admission to the bar. By 1811 he had completed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar, commencing the practice of law in the village of Madison, New York. His move from Connecticut to New York reflected broader patterns of migration and opportunity as the state’s interior regions developed in the early nineteenth century.

Around 1815, Tracy relocated to Batavia in Genesee County, New York, which would remain his home for the rest of his life. In Batavia he continued the practice of law and established himself as a respected attorney in a growing frontier community. His legal work and standing in the local bar helped lay the foundation for his subsequent entry into public life. Over the next decade, he built a reputation that brought him to the attention of political leaders in western New York at a time when the region was gaining influence in state and national affairs.

Tracy’s congressional career began when he was elected to the Twentieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative David E. Evans. He took his seat on November 5, 1827, representing a district in western New York. As national politics realigned in the late 1820s, he affiliated with the Anti-Masonic Party, which had particular strength in upstate New York. He was reelected as an Anti-Masonic candidate to the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses and served continuously from November 5, 1827, to March 3, 1833. During this period he participated in the legislative debates of the Jacksonian era, when issues such as internal improvements, banking, and the role of secret societies in public life were vigorously contested.

After leaving Congress in 1833, Tracy returned to his legal practice in Batavia but remained engaged in public affairs. By 1840 he was aligned with the Whig Party, the principal opposition to the Democrats, and that year he served as a presidential elector on the Whig ticket. In the Electoral College he cast his votes for William Henry Harrison for president and John Tyler for vice president, supporting the Whig program of economic development and congressional primacy in national policymaking.

Tracy’s legal expertise and public reputation led to his appointment as presiding judge of the Genesee County Court in 1841. In this judicial capacity he oversaw local civil and criminal matters at a time when county courts were central to the administration of justice in New York State. He continued in that office until 1846, when he retired from public life. His withdrawal from official duties marked the close of a long career that had spanned law, legislation, and the judiciary in a formative period of New York and national history.

In his later years, Tracy remained in Batavia, where he was regarded as one of the community’s senior figures. He lived there until his death on December 22, 1876, just three days short of his ninetieth birthday. He was interred in Batavia Cemetery, in the town that had been the center of his professional, political, and judicial life for more than six decades.