sentences:  Rathbun was elected to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847.During his first term, he was Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions, and in his second he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.On April 23, 1844, Rathbun was involved in a physical confrontation on the House floor with former Speaker John White.