The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Riddle, Albert Gallatin

RIDDLE, Albert Gallatin, American lawyer and author: b. Monson, Mass., 18 May 1816; d. Washington, D. C., 15 May 1902. He removed with his father, to Geauga County, Iowa, in 1817, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He was elected to the legislature in 1848 and in that year called the first Free-Soil Convention in Ohio. He removed to Cleveland in 1850, was elected prosecuting attorney in 1856 and in 1859 he defended the Oberlin slave rescuers. He served in Congress in 1861-63 and was then appointed United States consul at Matanzas. From 1864 he was engaged in law practice at Washington, D. C. He was one of the lawyers retained by the government for the prosecution of John H. Surratt for the murder of President Lincoln. He served as law-officer of the District of Columbia from 1877; and for several years after its establishment he was in charge of the law department at Howard University. Author of ‘Students and Lawyers’ (1873); ‘Alice Brand: A Tale of the Capital’ (1875); ‘Life of James A. Garfield’ (1880); ‘The Sugar Maple of the West Woods’ (1885); ‘Life of Benjamin Wade’ (1886); ‘Recollections of War Times, 1860-65.’