Horace Maynard

Horace Maynard

Maynard's grave in Knoxville

Horace Maynard (born August 30, 1814 in Westborough , Worcester County , Massachusetts , †  May 3, 1882 in Knoxville , Tennessee ) was an American politician who was a post office minister in the cabinet of US President Rutherford B. Hayes .

Life

After finishing school Maynard graduated from Amherst College in 1838 . From 1839 to 1844 he worked as a lecturer at East Tennessee University, now the University of Tennessee . He successfully studied law , was inducted into the bar, and began practicing in Tennessee. Maynard began his political career with the Whigs , for which he was a member of the Electoral College in 1852 . The Winfield Scott supported by him had no chance against the Democrat Franklin Pierce . The following year Maynard ran for the US House of Representatives , but failed.

In 1857, however, he succeeded in moving into the House of Representatives; this time he was nominated by the American Party . Also in the two following session periods he was a member of Congress , where he was in 1859 a candidate for the opposition party split off from the Whigs ; two years later he started as a unionist . The secession of Tennessee he did not wear with.

Maynard resigned from Congress in 1863 to become Attorney General of Tennessee. In 1866 he returned to Washington after his home state was reintegrated into the Union ; this time he represented the National Union Party in the House of Representatives , an association of those Democrats who advocated the Civil War and the Republicans . He was later elected three times as a Republican; During the 43rd session of Congress, he was Chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency . In 1864 he belonged for the second time to the Electoral College, which Abraham Lincoln confirmed as president. In 1868 he was also a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court for a short time ; however, his right to hold the post while serving as Congressman was successfully challenged in another state court, and he was forced to resign.

In 1874 Maynard did not run again, but ran for governor of Tennessee. However, he was defeated by the Democrat James D. Porter . From 1875 to 1880 he succeeded George Henry Boker as US ambassador to the Ottoman Empire before President Hayes appointed him to his cabinet as Postmaster General . Maynard took this post on June 2, 1880 and left after the end of Hayes' term on March 5, 1881 together with this from the government. After returning to Tennessee, Horace Maynard died the following year.

Web links

Commons : Horace Maynard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Horace Maynard in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Biography in the Tennessee Encyclopedia
• Horace Maynard in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)