Donald M. Dickinson
Donald McDonald Dickinson ( born January 17, 1846 Oswego County, New York, † October 15, 1917 ) was an American politician (Democratic Party), who served under President Grover Cleveland as U.S. Postmaster General.
When Dickinson was two years old, his family moved from the state of New York to Michigan. He completed his law studies at the Law School of the University of Michigan in 1867 and thereafter operating a successful law firm in Detroit. He negotiated numerous cases before the Supreme Court.
About 1872 around Michigan was dominated by the Republican Party State. During this time, Dickinson engaged in rebuilding the very Democrats in Michigan. From 1880 to 1885 he was a member of the Democratic National Committee; while he scored early on to the supporters of a presidential candidacy of Grover Cleveland.
After Cleveland had then decided the election of 1884 for himself, he offered Donald Dickinson a post in the newly created Commission for the public service to, but he refused. It was not until 1887, he accepted the appointment to the office of the Postmaster General, which he took on January 6, 1888. A little later Dickinson was first called as a railroad strike threatened to impede the delivery of mail. He refused to use federal troops to end the strike by force; Instead, he changed the delivery ways, so that the post office on time arrived at the receiver.
After Cleveland's defeat in the presidential election in 1888 Dickinson left office and again worked as a lawyer in Detroit. In 1892 he led the delegation from Michigan at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which nominated Grover Cleveland again as candidates. Four years later he left the party in the dispute, however, after the nomination of William Jennings Bryan as their presidential candidate. In the presidential elections in 1900, he supported the Republican candidate William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. He was also in 1912 Roosevelt's side when he took up for the Progressive Party.
Donald Dickinson died in 1917 and was buried in Detroit. The Dickinson County, Michigan was named after him.