Robert G. Cousins

Robert Gordon Cousins (January 31, 1859 – June 20, 1933) was an eight-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 5th congressional district. He represented the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, area for the last eight years of the 19th century and the first eight years of the 20th century.

Born on a farm, "Indian Lodge," near Tipton, Iowa, in Cedar County, Iowa, Cousins attended the common schools, and was graduated from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1881. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar in 1882, and engaged in practice in Tipton.

In 1886, Cousins was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives. He was chosen by the House as one of the managers to conduct the impeachment proceedings of John L. Brown before the Iowa Senate in 1886. He served as prosecuting attorney for Cedar County from 1888 to 1890.

In 1892, Cousins ran as a Republican against Democratic Congressman John Taylor Hamilton, who had won election to the U.S. House seat for Iowa's 5th congressional district two years earlier. Cousins defeated Hamilton in the general election and thereby became a member of the Fifty-third Congress. He was then re-elected to the seven succeeding Congresses. He served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury from the Fifty-fifth through Fifty-ninth Congresses, and chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Sixtieth Congress.

In 1908, Cousins declined to be a candidate for renomination. In all, he served in Congress from March 4, 1893 to March 3, 1909.

After leaving Congress, Cousins resumed the practice of law in Tipton, and also engaged as a writer and as a Chautauqua lecturer.

He died on June 20, 1933, in Iowa City, Iowa. He was interred in Red Oak Cemetery, five miles northwest of Tipton.

References

• United States Congress. "Robert G. Cousins (id: C000811)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

Chairmen of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Russell Forsyth Everett Archer Wayne Mason Howard Pickens Cushing Adams Ingersoll Smith McClernand Bayly Pennington Clingman Hopkins Corwin Crittenden Davis Banks Orth Swann Cox Williams Curtin Belmont McCreary Hitt Blount McCreary Hitt Cousins Perkins Foster Sulzer Flood Porter Temple Linthicum McReynolds Bloom Eaton Bloom Kee Richards Chiperfield Richards Gordon Morgan Zablocki Fascell Hamilton Gilman Hyde Lantos Berman Ros-Lehtinen Royce

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa
1st	W. Thompson Miller Henn A. Hall S. Curtis J. F. Wilson McCrary Stone McCoid B. Hall Gear Seerley Gear S. Clark Hedge Kennedy Kopp Eicher Martin Schwengel Schmidhauser Schwengel Mezvinsky Leach Nussle Braley Blum
2nd	Leffler L. Clark J. P. Cook Thorington Davis Vandever Price Smyth W. Wolf Cotton Tufts Price Farwell Murphy Hayes G. Curtis Lane Rumple Wade Dawson Pepper Vollmer Hull Letts B. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen Talle L. Wolf Bromwell Culver Blouin Tauke Nussle Leach Loebsack
3rd	Allison Donnan Ainsworth Burdick Updegraff Henderson Birdsall Pickett Connolly Sweet Robinson Willford Gwynne Gross Grassley Evans Nagle Lightfoot Boswell Latham Young
4th	Grinnell Loughridge Walden Pratt Deering Weller Fuller Sweney Butler Updegraff Haugen Biermann Talle Le Compte Carter Kyl Bandstra Kyl N. Smith Ganske Latham King
5th	Kasson G. Dodge Palmer J. Wilson R. Clark W. G. Thompson J. Wilson Frederick Kerr J. Hamilton Cousins Good Cole Thurston Le Compte Cunningham N. Smith Scherle Harkin Lightfoot Grandy Latham King
6th	A. Hubbard Pomeroy Orr Loughridge Sampson Weaver Cutts J. C. Cook Cutts J. C. Cook Weaver Lacey White Lacey D. Hamilton Kendall Kirkpatrick Ramseyer Dowell Utterback Dowell Goodwin Cunningham Gilchrist J. I. Dolliver Coad Hoeven Greigg Mayne Bedell Grandy
7th	Kasson Cummings E. Gillette Kasson H. Smith Conger Hays Hull Prouty Dowell Wearin Jensen Hansen Scherle
8th	McDill Sapp Hepburn Anderson Flick Hepburn Jamieson Towner Evans Thurston Gilchrist Hoeven
9th	Orr Oliver Carpenter Pusey Lyman Reed Bowman Hager McPherson W. Smith Green Vincent Swanson G. Gillette Harrington Narey
10th	Holmes J. P. Dolliver Conner Woods Dickinson Gilchrist
11th	Struble Perkins Thomas E. Hubbard Scott Steele Scott Boies Campbell
AL	Hastings and Leffler
Terr	Chapman A. Dodge

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.