US Congressman. He was born in Morristown, New Jersey, to Stephen Vail, a founding partner of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and creator of the Speedwell Iron Works Factory in Morristown, New Jersey. He completed preparatory studies, and eventually attended the Morris Academy in Morristown, New Jersey. After his schooling, he engaged in the manufacturing business of telegraph instruments with his father, Stephen Vail and brother Alfred Vail (he later partnered with Samuel Morse to invent the telegraph and the Morse Code) at the Speedwell Iron Works Factory. He then decided to run for a public office and was elected as a Member of the New Jersey State House of General Assembly from Morris County, New Jersey, serving in that position from 1843 to 1844. In 1850, he ran as an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Thirty-Second Congress. He was then appointed by the Governor of New Jersey George Franklin Fort to serve as a representative of the State of New Jersey at the World's Fair in London, England, in 1851. A Democrat, he then served New Jersey's 4th District (Thirty-Third and Thirty-Fourth Congresses) in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857. He was then personally chosen by United States President James Buchanan to serve as the United States Consul in Glasgow, Scotland. He served in that position from February 3, 1858, to August 10, 1861. He also served as a Member of the Court of Pardons and as a Judge on the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals from 1865 to 1871, which was the highest Court of Law in the state of New Jersey at that time. After retiring from public service he returned to the United States and settled in Morristown, New Jersey, where he engaged in literary pursuits until his death. He passed away in his birthplace of Morristown, New Jersey, from the effects of Brights Disease of the kidneys at the age of 65. He was a first cousin of the railroad magnate and politician Theodore Newton Vail, who became the first President of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.