Benjamin H. Brewster
Benjamin Harris Brewster ( born October 13, 1816 Salem County, New Jersey, † April 4, 1888 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American lawyer and politician ( Republican) of the cabinet of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur belonged as Minister of Justice.
Study and career
Brewster first completed a general education studies at Princeton College, which he finished in 1834 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1838.
Brewster was the son of Robert J. Walker, who was U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James K. Polk.
Political career
Sonderkommissionär and Attorney General of Pennsylvania
1846 President Polk appointed him to desire his father Robert Walker for the commission to decide the compensation claims of the Cherokee against the United States. It was about compensation claims of the Indians due to the 1838 and 1839 carried out forced resettlement on the basis of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, in which thousands of Indians in the so-called Trail of Tears were killed.
1867 appointed him the governor of Pennsylvania, John W. Geary, the Attorney General of the State. In this office he remained until 1869.
Minister of Justice under President Arthur
After the assassination of U.S. President James A. Garfield 's successor Chester A. Arthur appointed him on 16 December 1881 as Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ) in his cabinet after Wayne MacVeagh had resigned immediately after the death of the President on September 19, 1881. The Office of the Minister of Justice he held until the end of Arthur's term of office on March 4, 1885.
As such, the President appointed him to the chief prosecutor in the so-called Star Route- bribery scandal in which employees of the United States Postal Service acceptance of a bribe against the granting of licenses post has been accused in the west and south of the United States. It was also during his term of office on 16 January 1883 after U.S. Senator George H. Pendleton named Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act passed, which abolished the end of the previous system ( Spoils system) the post assignment after election victories to political friends.