John Silva Meehan

John Silva Meehan ( born February 6, 1790 in New York City; † April 24, 1863 in Washington, DC) was the fourth librarian at the Library of Congress of the United States. He held his office from 1829 to 1861 from.

Meehan was a printer and publisher, belonging to the Democratic Party, he was appointed librarian of Congress by President Andrew Jackson. He substituted in that post his predecessor George Watterston, belonging to the Whig Party, which Jackson opposed.

Meehan's execution of his office was a conservative and he and his supporters in Congress in favor of limiting the size of the library. Many of the tasks of a librarian was transferred to other government agencies. When a fire in the year 1851 35.000 volumes destroyed, including two-thirds of the stock, which was originally made ​​by President Thomas Jefferson available, Congress provided financial means ready for a recovery, although it was not only used for the replacement of lost volumes and not for the expansion of the library. Meehan itself presented a smaller collection of magazines available for reading by the Congress members from which to develop a separate department for magazines under later librarians.

Meehan served nine different presidents during the reign periods. Despite the objections of Congress, President Abraham Lincoln Meehan replaced by a supporter of the Republican Party, John Gould Stephenson.