Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Platt, Orville Hitchcock

PLATT, Orville Hitchcock, senator, b. in Washington, Conn., 19 July, 1827. He was educated in the public schools, was admitted to the bar in 1849, and began practice in Meriden, Conn. He was clerk of the state senate in 1855-'6. secretary of state in 1857, state senator in 1861-'2, and a member of the legislature in 1864-'9, serving as speaker in the latter year. He was elected to the U.S. senate as a Republican in 1878, and has since been re-elected. His present term expires in March, 1903. Mr. Platt has been an earnest advocate of the abolition of secret executive sessions of the senate. Yale gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1887.