Michael Hahn (politician)

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Michael Hahn

George Michael Hahn (born November 24, 1830 in Klingenmünster , Rhine District , Kingdom of Bavaria , †  March 15, 1886 in Washington, DC ) was a German-American politician and from 1864 to 1865 19th Governor of Louisiana . He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1862 and 1863 and from 1885 to 1886 .

Early years and political advancement

Michael Hahn was born into a Jewish family in Klingenmünster, which was then part of the Bavarian Rhine Province. In 1839 his widowed mother emigrated to America with five children. The family finally came to New Orleans , Louisiana via New York and Texas in 1840 . Michael Hahn attended high school there. After an apprenticeship with the lawyer Christian Roselius, he took a few law lectures at the University of Louisiana and was admitted to the bar in July 1851. He then began to work in this profession in New Orleans. In 1852 he was elected to the city's school council and was soon to become its chairman. In the same year he became a member of the Democratic Party .

In the presidential election of 1856 , he stood for Stephen A. Douglas as the party candidate, which put him in the minority. The nomination went to the later President James Buchanan . Even then, Hahn was a staunch opponent of slavery and the secession movement. In 1860 he gave a fiery speech in Lafayette for the preservation of the Union. He has not taken an oath on the Confederate States . In 1862 he was elected as a Unionist in the middle of the Civil War to represent Union-occupied Louisiana in the US House of Representatives in Washington. There he met President Abraham Lincoln , with whom he became friends. Hahn was of the opinion that Louisiana should not be represented in the US Congress again until the war was over and the state was reformed. Therefore, at the end of the legislative period on March 3, 1863, he resigned from the committee. Back in Louisiana Hahn joined the Republican Party , to whose moderate wing he confessed. He bought the New Orleans True Delta newspaper , which until then had supported slavery, and made it the mouthpiece of his political views. After almost all of Louisiana was under Union control in 1864, the first gubernatorial elections were held in the state, which Hahn won as his party's candidate.

Louisiana Governor

Hahn took up his new office in March 1864. He campaigned for blacks to vote. However, this could not be achieved at first. After all, the 13th amendment to the constitution was ratified, which abolished slavery. During his tenure, the foundation was laid for a school system that also included the black population, even if the schools were separated according to race. Then Hahn fell out on the question of the new state constitution with the new military commander, General Stephen A. Hurlbut , who rejected the draft constitution and did not want to recognize the civilian government. Hahn therefore applied for a seat in the US Senate and resigned on March 3, 1865. Lieutenant Governor James Madison Wells succeeded him.

Another résumé

Although Hahn had been elected to the Senate in Washington, he was not allowed to take up this mandate. Congress had passed a resolution stipulating that South American MPs and senators who joined the Confederation during the Civil War would not be admitted to Congress until reconstruction in those states was completed. Hahn returned to New Orleans and allied with the radical Republicans. The aim of this alliance was a new constitution that would give the black population the right to vote. As a result, there was a police riot in New Orleans against this project, in which Hahn was almost killed.

Between 1867 and 1871 he published the New Orleans Daily Republican newspaper. From 1872 to 1876 he was a member of the House of Representatives of Louisiana and from 1875 as speaker its president. He was then from 1878 to 1879 head of the United States Mint in New Orleans. Between 1879 and 1885 he was a district judge. In the end he was elected to the US House of Representatives again. He exercised this mandate from March 4, 1885 until his death on March 15, 1886. At the time of his death, he was financially ruined. Michael Hahn was unmarried.

literature

  • Henry Marx: Michael Hahn , in: Manfred Treml , Wolf Weigand (Hrsg.): History and culture of the Jews in Bavaria. Resumes . Munich: Saur, 1988, pp. 153–156

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