A Vermonter in the international spotlight surprises everyone...
except Vermonters.

On March 23, 1885, Edward John Phelps was appointed U.S. Minister to Great Britain by President Cleveland. The rest of the country was a little surprised, but Vermonters weren't shocked at all.

They knew Phelps, a Middlebury native, as a top-notch lawyer who had (can you imagine?) run for governor as a Democrat! Vermont was staunchly Republican, making Phelps small margin of defeat most remarkable.

Phelps helped found the American Bar Association and was a Kent Professor of Law at Yale. In 1893, Phelps also served as senior council for the U.S. in an international fishing boundary dispute.

Image courtesy the Vermont Historical Society.

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