Born: 26-Aug-1820
Birthplace: Clark County, IL
Died: 5-Oct-1899
Location of death: Mount Pleasant, IA
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Forest Home Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, IA

Gender: Male
Religion: Methodist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Politician
Party Affiliation: Republican [1]

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: US Senator from Iowa, 1855-73

American politician, born in Clark county, Illinois, on the 26th of August 1820. He graduated from Indiana Asbury (now De Pauw) University in 1845, was president (1846-47) of the newly founded and short-lived Iowa City College, studied law, was first superintendent of public instruction in Iowa in 1847-48, and was president of Iowa Wesleyan University in 1853-55. He took a prominent part in organizing the Republican party in Iowa, and was a member of the United States Senate from 1855 to 1865, when he became Secretary of the Interior. He had been a delegate to the peace convention in 1861, and from 1861 to 1865 was chairman of the Senate committee on public lands. He disapproved of President Andrew Johnson's conservative reconstruction policy, retired from the cabinet in August 1866, and from 1867 to 1873 was again a member of the United States Senate. In 1866 he was a delegate to the loyalists' convention at Philadelphia. One of his principal speeches in the Senate was that which he made in March 1871 in reply to Sumner's and Schurz's attack on President Ulysses S. Grant's Santo Domingan policy. He was presiding judge of the court of commissioners of Alabama claims (1882-85). He died in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, on the 5th of October 1899.

Wife: Ann Eliza Peck (m. 1845)
Daughter: Mary Eunice Harlan (b. 1846, m. Robert Todd Lincoln)

    University: DePauw University, Greencastle, IN (1845)
    Administrator: President, Iowa City College (1846-47)
    Administrator: President, Iowa Wesleyan College (1853-55)

    US Senator, Iowa 4-Mar-1867 to 3-Mar-1873
    US Secretary of the Interior 15-May-1865 to 27-Jul-1866 (resigned), under Andrew Johnson
    US Senator, Iowa 29-Jan-1857 (reelected) to 15-May-1865 (resigned)
    US Senator, Iowa 31-Dec-1855 to Jan-1857 (seat declared vacant)
    Funeral: Abraham Lincoln (1865)
    Crédit Mobilier Scandal
    National Statuary Hall (1910)

New! NNDB MAPPER

Create a map starting with

James Harlan

Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile

Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications