Background
He was born in Parsonsfield, Maine, where he attended Parsonsfield Seminary, a Free Will Baptist school.
United States representative politician
He was born in Parsonsfield, Maine, where he attended Parsonsfield Seminary, a Free Will Baptist school.
Sweat attended Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1837, and studied law with Rufus McIntire. He attended Harvard Law School, and after graduating in 1840 he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in New Orleans.
Sweat held various local offices including Portland City Solicitor from 1856 to 1860. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1863 to March 3, 1865. He was defeated for reelection in 1864, and was an unsuccessful candidate for election to Congress in 1866.
He later was a delegate to the Union National Convention held in Philadelphia in 1868, and to the 1872 Democratic National Convention.
He served until 1876 and received cr for helping Samuel J. Tilden receive that year"s Democratic nomination for President. He was an honorary commissioner to the World"s Exposition in Paris in 1867 and that in Vienna in 1873.
Today it is a National Historic Landmark. His body is interred in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.
He served as a member of the Maine State Senate from 1861 to 1862. In 1872 he was selected as a member of the Democratic National Committee.
