John Milton Niles

John Milton Niles ( born August 20, 1787 Windsor, Connecticut, † May 30 1856 in Hartford, Connecticut) was an American politician who was also active as an author of historical works.

Life

After attending school and a law degree Niles was admitted to the Bar Association in 1817; He then began to practice in Hartford. There he called a newspaper to life, the Hartford Weekly Times, for which he worked as an editor and writer in the next 30 years.

Policy

Politically active John Niles was first in the Democratic-Republican Party, which later became the Democratic Party was formed. His first public office he took over in 1821 as a judge at the Court of Hartford County. He gave up this post, as he was in 1826 elected to the House of Representatives from Connecticut. When he was denied re-election, he first turned to the legal work. In 1829 he was appointed postmaster of Hartford, where he stayed until 1836.

After the death of the Whig senator Nathan Smith on December 6, 1835 Niles took over his seat in Congress. He served on the Senate until 1839 and was at that time Chairman of the Senate Committee on Manufactures. For re-election, he was not considered. 1839 and 1840 Niles stood as a candidate for the post of governor of Connecticut, but was defeated both times the national Republican incumbent William W. Ellsworth. U.S. President Martin Van Buren then appointed him in 1840 as Postmaster General in his cabinet, which he remained of his term of office from 1841 to the end.

Niles returned to Washington, D.C., 1844 back: He was re-elected in 1842 for the Connecticut U.S. Senator, was able to take only a year late because of a serious illness that office. After the end of his term in 1849 he renounced a bid again. He had joined the meantime, as his friend Martin Van Buren Free Soil Party and the supported his presidential candidacy for the newly founded party. Niles himself joined in 1849 again as gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut for Freesoilers, but was unsuccessful. After the Free Soil Party was in turn absorbed into the Republican Party, Niles was appointed delegates of Connecticut for the Republican National Convention in 1856, but before the party meeting he died.

Away from politics

Even before the start of his political activity John Milton Niles had written some historical- political works, beginning with a book about the life of Oliver Hazard Perry (1820 ). Other books followed, most recently (1838 ) a two-volume examination of the history of South America and Mexico.

After the end of his political career in 1851 and 1852 Niles spent a lot of time in Europe. Later he devoted himself to horticulture. He bequeathed his library of the Connecticut Historical Society and donated to the city of Hartford a welfare fund in the amount of U.S. $ 70,000, contributions should be paid to the needy each year in the.