Richard W. Thompson

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Richard W. Thompson

Richard Wigginton Thompson (born June 8, 1809 in Culpeper County , Virginia , †  February 9, 1900 in Terre Haute , Indiana ) was an American politician who served as Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of US 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 in Lawrence County settled in Indiana. There he worked as a teacher at a school and as a shopkeeper; in the evenings he completed a law degree. After joining the Bar in 1834, he practiced as a lawyer in Bedford .

He became politically 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 phase as President pro tempore of the State Senate and as acting Vice Governor . In the run-up to the presidential election in 1840 , he supported the later also victorious Whig candidate William Henry Harrison . In the same year Thompson was elected for the Whigs in the US House of Representatives, to which he belonged from 1841 to 1843 as a representative of the second constituency of Indiana; between 1847 and 1849 he spent another legislative period there.

Before the presidential election in 1860 , the Whigs had practically disbanded; Richard Thompson was one of the wing of the party that reorganized itself in the Constitutional Union Party . At their nomination convention in May 1860, as a representative of Indiana, he supported the candidacy of John McLean, who ultimately succumbed to John Bell . Thompson was inducted into the party's federal executive committee, but in August of that year he said goodbye to the idea of ​​being a successful third party and supported Republican Abraham Lincoln to prevent the Democrats from succeeding in Indiana.

After the Civil War Thompson in 1867 to judge the Circuit Court appointed the 18th court district of Indiana; In 1869 he resigned from this office. After switching to the Republican Party in the meantime, he became very involved there and was instrumental in determining the political line of the party at the conventions of 1868, 1872 and 1876. Finally, at the end of his political career, he took over an office again when the newly elected US President Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Navy in his cabinet in March 1877 . On December 20, 1880, shortly before the end of Hayes' tenure, he resigned from this post.

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

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personal data
SURNAME Thompson, Richard W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thompson, Richard Wigginton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Culpeper County , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1900
Place of death Terre Haute , Indiana