William Czar Bradley

William Czar Bradley (March 23, 1782 – March 3, 1867) was an American lawyer and politician. He served three terms as U.S. Representative from Vermont from 1813 to 1815, then again from 1823 to 1827.

Biography Born in Westminster in the Vermont Republic, Bradley was the son of United States Senator Stephen Row Bradley. Bradley received his early education in the schools of Cheshire, Connecticut, and Charlestown, New Hampshire. As a child prodigy, he entered Yale College for a short time at the age of thirteen, but was expelled for pranks.

Family Also in 1802 Bradley married Sarah Richards, the daughter of Mark Richards, who served in Congress and as lieutenant governor.

Legal career He studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Westminster in 1802. He served as prosecuting attorney for Windham County, as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives.

Political career He was member of the Governor's council.

Bradley was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Thirteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1813, to March 3, 1815. Bradley was an agent of the United States under the Treaty of Ghent to fix the boundary line between Maine and Canada from 1815 to 1820. He served again in the United States Congress when was elected as an Adams-Clay Democratic-Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and as an Adams to the Nineteenth Congress, serving from March 4, 1823, to March 3, 1827. Bradley then ran as an unsuccessful Free Soil Party candidate in 1848, and an unsuccessful candidate on the Fremont ticket in 1856.

He served as presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1856, and cast his vote for John C. Fremont, the first presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Bradley served as member of the State constitutional convention in 1857. He retired from the practice of law in 1858.

Death and legacy Bradley died in Westminster on March 3, 1867, and is interred in the Old Westminster Cemetery in Westminster.

A bust of Bradley was sculpted around 1860 by sculptor Larkin Goldsmith Mead, and is on display in the Vermont Historical Society museum.

"Verses in a Watch," in John Walter Coates & Frederick Tucker (eds.), Vermont Verse: An Anthology 32 (Brattleboro, Vermont: Stephen Daye Press, 1932) "A Ballad of Judgment and Mercy," in A.J. Sanborn (ed.), Green Mountain Poets 158-160 (Claremont, New Hampshire: Claremont Manufacturing Co., 1872)