James Rood Doolittle James Rood Doolittle ( January 3 , 1815July 23 , 1897 ) was an American politician who served as a senator from the state of Wisconsin from March 4 , 1857 , to March 4 , 1869 . He was a strong supporter of President Abraham Lincoln ' s administration during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Born in Hampton , New York , Doolittle attended the Middlebury Academy in Middlebury , Vermont . He graduated from Hobart College in Geneva , New York , in 1834 . he studied law and was admitted to New York bar association in 1837 . He then established a law practice in Rochester . Doolittle moved to Warsaw , New York , in 1841 . From 1847 - 50 , he was the district attorney for Wyoming County . He also served for a time as a colonel in the New York state militia . In 1851 , Doolittle moved to Racine , Wisconsin , where he served as a judge from 1853 to 1856 . U . S . Senator . Until the Missouri Compromise was repeal ed , Doolittle was a Democrat . He was elected and then re - elected to the U . S . Senate as a Republican in 1857 and 1863 , respectively . He was a delegate to the Peace conference of 1861 in Washington , D . C . During his time as a senator , Doolittle was the Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs . Along with his colleague , Jacob Collamer of Vermont , Doolittle represented the minority view for the so - called " Mason Report " ( June 1860 ) , prepared by the Senate committee which investigated the John Brown raid on Harper ' s Ferry of October 1859 . During the Civil War , Doolittle supported many of President Lincoln ' s policies , and was active in representing Wisconsin ' s interests on Capitol Hill . During the summer recess of 1865 , he visited the Indians west of the Mississippi River as chairman of a joint special committee which was charged with an inquiry into the condition of the Indian tribes and their treatment by the civil and military authorities of the United States . In the West the committee split into subcommittees which considered different regions with Doolittle participating in the inquiry into Indian affairs in the State of Kansas , the Indian Territory , and Colorado . The report of the committee , The Doolittle Survey of 1865 , titled " The Condition of the Tribes " was issued January 26 , 1867 . The Senator was accused by the " New York Times " in 1872 — when he was under consideration for appointment as Secretary of the Interior in a projected " reform cabinet " to be formed by Democratic presidential candidate Horace Greeley — of suppressing the report , as it contained information exposing the Indian ring , fraudulent suppliers of goods to the Indian tribes under treaty obligations . The Times alleged that the report was printed only after the " Cincinnati Gazette " obtained a copy of it . Doolittle took a prominent part in the debate on the various war and reconstruction measures , upholding the national government , but always insisting that the seceding states had never ceased to be a part of the Union . He strongly opposed the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on the ground that each state should determine questions of suffrage for itself . Later life . After he left Congress , he ran for Governor of Wisconsin in 1871 as a Democrat , but lost the election and subsequently retired from politics . Doolittle returned to the Midwest and became a lawyer in Chicago , Illinois , while maintaining his residence in Racine . He served for a year as President of the University of Chicago , and spent many years on its staff as a professor in the law school , as well as serving on the Board of Trustees . He was president of the National Union Convention of 1866 in Philadelphia , and also of the 1872 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore , which adopted the nomination of Horace Greeley for the Presidency . He died in Providence , Rhode Island , and was interred in Mound Cemetery in Racine , Wisconsin .