David M. Key

David M. Key

David McKendree Key (born January 27, 1824 in Greeneville , Tennessee , †  February 3, 1900 in Chattanooga , Tennessee) was an American politician who belonged to the cabinet of the Republican US President Rutherford B. Hayes as Minister of Post .

David Key, born to a minister in Greene County , was a young child when his family moved to Monroe County , where he grew up. He attended Hiwassee College in Madisonville , where he graduated in 1850. That same year he was admitted to the bar. He then worked as a lawyer in Madisonville and Kingston before settling in Chattanooga in 1853. In 1857 he married Elizabeth Lenoir, with whom he had nine children.

When the Civil War broke out , Key joined the Confederate Army and served in the 43rd  Tennessee Infantry Regiment . After the war he left the army as Lieutenant Colonel and worked as a lawyer again until 1868.

In 1870 Key was a member of the 1870 state constitutional convention that created the Tennessee Constitution, which is still in force today. That same year, he was elected a judge on the Chattanooga District Court of Chancery . He also retained this office when he tried unsuccessfully to gain a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1872 . It was not until 1875 that he gave preference to politics and resigned as a judge after Governor James Porter had appointed him to succeed the late former US President Andrew Johnson in the US Senate . In the next election by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1877, he had to resign the Senate seat.

However, he was still politically active in Washington . Also in 1877 President Hayes appointed him Postmaster General in his cabinet , where he remained until August 25, 1880. His nomination was a consequence of the compromise of 1877 , according to which the influence of the Democratic Party should also be preserved in the republican-dominated cabinets. He later accepted an appeal to be a judge on the Federal District Court for East and Central Tennessee.

Web links

• David M. Key in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• David M. Key in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)