Charles E. Littlefield

Charles Edgar Littlefield (June 21, 1851 – May 2, 1915) was an American lawyer and politician. A Republican, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Maine. He also served as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and Maine Attorney General.

Early life Littlefield was born on June 21, 1851, in Lebanon, Maine, to carpenter and Free Will Baptist minister William Hobbs Littlefield and Mary (née Stevens) Littlefield. He was third cousin twice removed to politician Nathaniel Littlefield. Educated at common schools, he attended Foxcroft Academy. He was admitted to the Maine State Bar Association in March 1876 at age 25, after which he practiced in Rockland. From 1889 to until his death, he was a fellow of Bates College.

Career Littlefield was a member of the Republican Party. He was a member of the Rockland Common Council, chairman of the Knox County Republican Party Committee, and a member of the Maine Republican Committee. From 1889 to 1892, he served as Maine Attorney General, as which he brough upon the Supreme Court case State of Maine v. Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada (1891). During his tenure, he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture, He was non-interventionalist, opposed to the 1903 Cuban–American Treaty of Relations and the Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act. He was uncompromising in his beliefs, with newspaperman Amos J. Cummings calling him "the best orator in Congress". He practiced alongside his son, Charles W. Littlefield.