Henry Smith Lane

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Henry Smith Lane

Henry Smith Lane (born February 24, 1811 in Sharpsburg , Bath County , Kentucky , †  June 18, 1881 in Crawfordsville , Indiana ) was an American politician . He represented the state of Indiana in both chambers of Congress and was its 13th governor in 1861 .

Early years

Henry Lane enjoyed a private education and then studied law. After successfully passing his exams and admission to the bar in 1832, he began practicing in Crawfordsville in 1834. Lane was initially a member of the Whigs and later switched to the Republican Party, founded in 1854 . In 1836 he served in the Indiana Senate . Between 1837 and 1838 he was a member of the House of Representatives of that state. He was then from August 3, 1840 to March 3, 1843 a member of the House of Representatives in Washington . The Mexican-American War temporarily interrupted his political career. During this war, he commanded a volunteer unit from Indiana, first as a major and then as a lieutenant colonel. In the 1850s he helped found the Republican Party in Indiana. Around the same time he got into banking.

Indiana Governor and US Senator

In 1860 he was elected as a Republican candidate for the new governor of Indiana. But previously he had with the candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor , Oliver Morton concluded a trade. Before the election, both men had applied for nomination. The compromise now looked like that in the event of a Republican majority in the state parliament with a simultaneous election victory, Lanes and Mortons (as lieutenant governor) Lane should immediately be elected by parliament to the US Senate and Morton should be promoted to governor. What happened: after exactly two days in office, the newly elected Senator Lane resigned as governor on January 16, 1861. Between March 4, 1861 and March 3, 1867, he represented his state in Congress. So he experienced the entire American Civil War from Washington. There he was represented in several committees. During the war he supported President Abraham Lincoln's policies .

Another résumé

After leaving the Senate, he was special commissioner of the federal government for Indian issues from 1869 to 1871. In 1872 he was a member of a committee to improve navigation on the Mississippi . Henry Lane died and was buried in his hometown of Crawfordsville in 1881.

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personal data
SURNAME Lane, Henry Smith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Sharpsburg , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1881
Place of death Crawfordsville , Indiana