John Cochrane (General)

John Cochrane ( born August 27, 1813 in Palatine, Montgomery County, New York, † February 7, 1898 in New York City ) was an American soldier and politician. Between 1857 and 1861 he represented the State of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives; then he held during the Civil War to the rank of brigadier general in the army of the Union.

Career

John Cochrane attended Union College in Schenectady and then until 1831, Hamilton College in Clinton. After a subsequent law degree in 1834 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he started in Palatine to work in this profession. Later, he also practiced in Oswego and Schenectady. In 1846 he moved to New York City. Politically, he joined the Democratic Party. In the presidential election of 1852 he was campaigning for the Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce. After his election victory and took office he appointed Cochrane overseer over New York Harbor. This office he held until 1857.

In the congressional elections of 1856 Cochrane was in the sixth electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of John Wheeler on March 4, 1857. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1861 two legislative sessions. These were shaped by the events in the immediate run-up to the Civil War. Between 1857 and 1859 led Cochrane to the Trade Committee. In 1860 he was not re-elected. In the same year he took a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in part two in Charleston and Baltimore.

Between June 11, 1861 and February 25, 1863 was John Cochrane officer in the army of the Union. He brought it up to brigadier general. After he resigned from the military service, officially for health reasons. Probably the real reason for his resignation were personal differences with other generals. Between 1864 and 1865 he held the office of Attorney General in New York State. In 1864, the Radical Republicans, the radical wing of the Republican Party nominated him as their vice presidential candidate. The presidential candidate John C. Frémont but withdrew his application before the election and Cochrane joined at this step. In May 1868, he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, was nominated on the Ulysses S. Grant as a presidential candidate. In the same year he worked for the financial authority in the sixth district of New York State. President Grant offered him the post of ambassador to Uruguay and Paraguay, but he refused. In 1872, Cochrane the short-lived Liberal Republican Party joined. He was a delegate to the national convention in Cincinnati. Later he returned to the Democrats. He was also active in Tammany Hall. In the years 1872 and 1883 he was a member of the City Council of New York. In 1889 he was for a short time police judge in New York. There he died on 7 February 1898.