During his time in the Senate, Sprague became a prominent campaigner against President Andrew Jackson's controversial policy of Indian removal, whereby Indians in the Southern states were to be forcibly relocated to West of the Mississippi River. Sprague argued that the policy was corrupt as it largely relied on bribes for support, and he also attacked the plan for its immorality and lack of humanity, claiming that the Indians would receive no assistance in starting new lives in an alien environment.[3]
Following his resignation from the federal bench, Sprague resumed private practice in Boston from 1865 to 1880.[1] He died on October 13, 1880, in Boston.[1] He was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2]
Family
Sprague was the grandfather of Charles F. Sprague, a United States Representative from Massachusetts.[2]
Peleg Sprague. 1815–35 Chapter in: William Willis, A history of the law, the courts, and the lawyers of Maine, from its first colonization to the early part of the present century (1863)
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