John Palmer Usher

John Palmer Usher ( born January 16, 1816 in Brookfield, Madison County, New York, † April 13, 1889 in Philadelphia ) was an American politician, who was the Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln as Minister of the Interior.

Life

Born in upstate New York Usher went in 1839 as a young man on his way to the West. He settled in Terre Haute in western Indiana, where he with a business partner opened the law firm of Griswold & Usher together. As an outstanding trial lawyer, he was soon active in numerous courts in Indiana and Illinois, where he joined the acquaintance of the Springfield working as a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. Usher was also a mentor of Joseph Gurney Cannon, who served later as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Policy

Politically, Usher operated for the first time in 1850, when he was elected for the Whigs in the state Legislature of Indiana, where he remained until 1851. He left the disintegrating Whig party and joined the Republicans to, for he competed unsuccessfully in the 1856 election to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1861 he was elected Attorney General of Indiana, but came back already after a few months to take over the post of deputy interior minister in the government of Lincoln.

The then Minister Caleb Blood Smith showed little interest in his office and had also to contend with health problems, which is why he relinquished most of his duties to his deputy. After Smith had resigned in December, 1862, Usher took over January 1, 1863 officially the leadership of the Ministry.

After the murder of Abraham Lincoln Usher remained under his successor, Andrew Johnson, only for a month in office; he had been on March 9, 1865 announced his retirement, which then became effective on May 15. His power base in his home state suffered as Lincoln had brought to the beginning of his second term with Hugh McCulloch another politician from Indiana as finance minister in his cabinet. In addition, public pressure grew on the President to occupy a ministerial position with a Methodist; Usher had applied the members of this denomination by political decisions against him. Was yet on the day of his resignation with James Harlan, a Methodist named as successor, but then took office only under Andrew Johnson.

Further CV

John Palmer Usher worked after the end of his political career as an attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad, whose interests he had also previously represented as a Cabinet member. He died aged 73 from cancer.