[William Lewis]. American statesman, born at Baskingridge, NJ, on the 17th of February 1807. He graduated from Princeton College in 1825, and having studied law in Litchfield, CT, was admitted to the bar in Trenton, NJ, in 1830; he was elected to the state senate in 1837, and in 1838 was made a justice of the state supreme court. He served in the United States Senate from 1842 to 1851, and as attorney-general of New Jersey from 1857 to 1861. The newly formed Republican party nominated him in 1856 for Vice-President of the United States, and was defeated on that ticket headed by John C. Frémont. President Lincoln appointed him minister to France in 1861, and he continued in this position until his death, which occurred in Paris on the 1st of December 1864.
