Samuel D. Ingham

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Portrait of Samuel D. Ingham in the Treasury

Samuel Delucenna Ingham (born June 16, 1779 in New Hope , Bucks County , Pennsylvania , †  June 5, 1860 in Trenton , New Jersey ) was an American politician who belonged to the cabinet of US President Andrew Jackson as Treasury Secretary .

Family and career

Ingham came from a farming family and only enjoyed a short schooling. In his youth he worked in a paper mill. After the death of his father, he first helped on his parents' farm before going to New Jersey in 1798 to work in a paper mill . Upon his return, he set up his own paper mill in his hometown.

After resigning as Minister of Finance, from 1831 he returned to various business activities as a paper manufacturer and as a shareholder in anthracite mines .

Political career

Pennsylvania MP and Congressman

He began his political career in 1806 with the election to the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania , of which he was a member until 1808. In 1813 he was elected for the first time as a member of the US House of Representatives . There he first represented the sixth congressional electoral district of his home state until 1818 . He then worked for a year at the Bucks County District Court. Between October 1819 and December 1820 he was Secretary of the Commonwealth of the State Government of Pennsylvania.

In 1822 Ingham was re-elected to the House of Representatives as a representative of the sixth electoral district and then from 1823 as a member of the eighth district, to which he then belonged until 1829. At first he belonged to the Democratic Republican Party ; after its dissolution he became a member of the Democrats .

During his time as a member of parliament, he was chairman of parliamentary committees on several occasions. From 1813 to 1815 he was first chairman of the committee for pensions and claims for damages and then from 1815 to 1818 and from 1825 to 1829 chairman of the postal committee. From 1817 to 1818 he was also chairman of the committee for postal expenses.

Treasury Secretary under President Jackson

On March 6, 1829, US President Andrew Jackson appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in his cabinet . During Jackson's tenure, there was an industrial expansion in the United States that became a symbol of a new government for the common citizen. Right at the beginning of his work as minister he was entrusted by Jackson with the dissolution of the Second Bank of the United States , as the president, but also many other politicians, viewed it as unconstitutional and a dangerous monopoly . Jackson was also an opponent of paper money and an advocate of coin money in the money cycle and was of the opinion that the constitution excluded the issue of paper money in the monetary system .

Ingham, on the other hand, was a Second Bank advocate and tried unsuccessfully to mediate between Jackson and the bank's president, Nicholas Biddle .

On June 20, 1831, he and other ministers resigned due to the so-called " petticoat affair " involving the wife of the then Secretary of War, John Henry Eaton . He was succeeded as Treasury Secretary by Louis McLane . In 1840 he became a member of the American Philosophical Society .

Web links

Commons : Samuel D. Ingham  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: Samuel D. Ingham. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 9, 2018 .
predecessor Office successor
William Crawford United States House Representative for Pennsylvania (6th constituency)
with Robert Brown
March 4, 1813 - July 6, 1818 		Samuel Moore
Samuel Moore United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania (6th constituency)
with Thomas Jones Rogers
October 8, 1822 - March 3, 1823 		Robert Harris
John's death United States House of Representatives for Pennsylvania (8th constituency)
with Thomas Jones Rogers
March 4, 1823 - 1829 		Samuel A. Smith
personal data
SURNAME Ingham, Samuel D.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ingham, Samuel Delucenna (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1779
PLACE OF BIRTH New Hope , Bucks County, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1860
Place of death Trenton , New Jersey