In 1778, Tracy graduated from Yale University, his contemporaries including Noah Webster. He was admitted to the bar in 1781 and then practiced law in Litchfield for many years.
Political career
He served in the state legislature in 1788 to 1793 and in the US House of Representatives from April 8, 1793 to October 13, 1796 after he had been chosen as a Federalist.[2]
He resigned his seat when he was elected to the US Senate in place of Jonathan Trumbull Jr., who had resigned.[3] Tracy served until the time of his death in Washington, DC on July 19, 1807.
In 1803, he and several other New England politicians proposed secession of New England from the union because of the growing influence of
Jeffersonian Democrats that had been helped by the Louisiana Purchase, which they felt further diminished Northern influence.
Legacy
His portrait, painted by Ralph Earl, is in the collection of the Litchfield Historical Society in Litchfield, Connecticut.