Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/27

 JOHN WILLIAM GRIGGS

, of Paterson, N. J., Attorney-General, was born at Newton, N. J., July 10, 1849; was prepared for college in his native town and was graduated from Lafayette College in 1868; was admitted to the bar in 1871, and began the practice of the law at Paterson in that year; was member of the general assembly of the State of New Jersey in 1876 and 1877; was elected State senator for Passaic in 1882 for a term of three years, and was reëlected in 1885 for a second term; was president of the senate of New Jersey in 1886; was elected governor of New Jersey on the Republican ticket November, 1895, and inaugurated as governor January, 1896; was appointed Attorney-General by President McKinley to succeed Hon. Joseph McKenna. who resigned to accept a seat on the Bench of the United States Supreme Court; was confirmed by the Senate January 25, 1898; resigned the office of governor January 31, and took his oath of office as Attorney-General on that day.