Henry Moore Teller

Teller, Henry Moore, 1830-1914, American statesman, b. Allegany co., N.Y. A lawyer, he practiced in Colorado after 1861. He commanded a militia district in the Civil War period. When Colorado became (1876) a state, Teller was elected U.S. Senator as a Republican. He resigned in 1882 to become Secretary of the Interior under President Arthur. Teller returned (1885) to the Senate and was reelected in 1891. As the leader of a group of silver Republicans, Teller supported William J. Bryan, Democratic and Populist candidate for President in 1896, and was returned to the Senate as an independent silver Republican. In 1902, he was elected on the Democratic ticket. In 1898, he secured the adoption of the Teller Resolution to the declaration of war against Spain, which pledged the United States to an independent Cuba.

Bibliography

See biography by E. Ellis (1941).