Richard W. Thompson

Richard Wigginton Thompson ( born June 8, 1809 Culpeper County, Virginia; † February 9, 1900 in Terre Haute, Indiana ) was an American politician, who served as Secretary of the Navy to the cabinet of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Born in Virginia Thompson left his home in 1831 and lived in the sequence for a short time in Louisville (Kentucky), before he settled in Lawrence County, Indiana. There he worked as a teacher at a school and as a shopkeeper; in the evenings, he completed a law degree. After recording to the bar in 1834, he practiced as a lawyer in Bedford.

Politically, he was active in 1834, when he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly, where he remained until 1838. During this time he also completed a brief period as president pro tempore of the State Senate as well as acting vice governor. In advance of the presidential election in 1840, he supported the later victorious Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. That same year, Thompson was chosen for the Whigs into the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as a representative of the second electoral district of Indiana from 1841 to 1843; 1847-1849 he spent a further term of office.

Prior to the presidential election in 1860, the Whigs had virtually dissolved; Richard Thompson was one of that wing of the party, the newly organized in the Constitutional Union Party. In their nominating convention in May 1860, he supported as a representative of Indiana's candidacy of John McLean, however ultimately defeated John Bell. Thompson was admitted to the National Executive of the party, but said goodbye in August of the same year by the idea of being able to be successful as a third party, and supported the Republican Abraham Lincoln in order to prevent the success of the Democrats in Indiana.

After the end of the Civil War Thompson in 1867 appointed a judge of the Circuit Court of the 18th circuit court of Indiana; In 1869 he resigned from this office. After he had moved in the meantime to the Republican Party, he was involved very much there and was instrumental in establishing the political line of the party in the conventions in 1868, 1872 and 1876. Finally he took the end of his political career even once a post when he was appointed the newly elected U.S. President Hayes in March 1877 Secretary of the Navy in his cabinet. On 20 December 1880, just before the end of Hayes ' term of office, he resigned this post.

In memory of their former minister, who died in his home in Terre Haute in February 1900, the U.S. Navy named the destroyer USS Thompson ( DD -305 ) after him.