Jesse D. Bright
Jesse David Bright (December 18, 1812 – May 20, 1875) was the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Indiana and U.S. Senator from Indiana who served as President pro tempore of the Senate on three occasions. He was the only senator from a Northern state to be expelled for being a Confederate sympathizer. As a leading Copperhead he opposed the Civil War. He was frequently in competition with Governor Joseph A. Wright, the leader of the state's Republican Party. Early life and career Bright was born into a German family in Norwich, New York, which moved to Madison, Indiana, in 1820. Bright attended public schools as a child. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1831, commencing practice in Madison. He was elected a judge of the probate court of Jefferson County, Indiana, in 1834, was a United States Marshal for the district of Indiana from 1840 to 1841 and served in the Indiana Senate from 1841 to 1843. In 1842, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Indiana and served as such from 1843 to 1845. U.S. Senate Bright was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1844, and was reelected in 1850 and 1856, serving