Thomas Ewing

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Thomas Ewing

Thomas Ewing Sr. (born December 28, 1789 in Ohio County , Virginia , † October 26, 1871 in Lancaster , Ohio ) was an American politician, US Senator , Treasury Secretary and first Secretary of the United States .

Studies, career and family

Thomas Ewing, born in what is now West Virginia , studied law at Ohio University in Athens , where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in 1815 . After being admitted to the bar in 1816, he founded his own law firm in Lancaster.

Through his marriage to Maria Wills Boyle in 1829, he became the stepfather of General William T. Sherman , who then adopted the Christian name William in addition to the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and later married Ewing's daughter. The three biological sons Hugh (1826-1905), Thomas (1829-1896) and Charles (1835-1893) were generals during the Civil War .

Political career

United States Senator

Ewing began his political career relatively late with the election to the US Senator in 1830. There he represented the interests of Ohio as a member of the National Republican Party from 1831 to 1837; later he joined the Whigs . In 1836, however, his re-election failed.

He was named Senator on July 20, 1850 to complete the term of office of Thomas Corwin , who had been named Treasury Secretary by President Fillmore. However, he only exercised this office until the end of the electoral term on March 3, 1851, as he had previously failed with his candidacy in the elections for the first Senate seat in Ohio.

Treasury Secretary under Presidents Harrison and Tyler

Portrait of Thomas Ewing in the Treasury

On March 4, 1841, he was appointed Treasury Secretary to President William Henry Harrison's cabinet . When Harrison died in office a month later, he kept the office of Treasury Secretary under his successor, Vice President John Tyler .

After Congress repealed Treasury Secretary Levi Woodbury's law to create an independent financial system, Ewing was tasked with creating a new repository for government funds. He then made several proposals, including the establishment of a new national bank. However, none of these proposals were accepted and the incumbent President Tyler, who had come under the Whigs by chance when he was elected Vice President and saw himself more in the democratic tradition of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson , thwarted the plans to create a central bank instead of the independent one Financial system. In Tyler's view, the Constitution prevented the Treasury Department from setting up individual branches of a central bank in the states without their consent.

Due to the rejection of his plans, John Tyler was expelled from the Whigs' party, and Ewing (like all other ministers except Daniel Webster ) resigned as Treasury Secretary on September 11, 1841 at the request of Whig leader Henry Clay .

First Secretary of the Interior under President Taylor

On March 8, 1849, he was named the first Secretary of the Interior of the United States by President Zachary Taylor . He held this office for almost two weeks under his successor Millard Fillmore until July 22, 1850.

During the establishment phase of the ministry, he was assigned authorities from various other ministries, such as the property office from the Ministry of Finance and the Bureau for Indian Affairs from the Ministry of War . The founding phase was particularly disorganized because the ministry did not have its own buildings and Ewing first had to rent office space. It was only after leaving office in 1852 that the Ministry of the Interior was given its own office in the east wing of the patent office.

In 1868, President Andrew Johnson wanted to appoint him as Secretary of War to succeed Edwin M. Stanton . This appointment failed because of the veto of the Senate majority, which was still upset about the dismissal of Stantons, which was the main charge in the failed impeachment proceedings against Johnson.

literature

  • Miller, Paul: "Thomas Ewing, Last of the Whigs" , Dissertation ( Ph.D. ), Ohio State University, 1933
  • Zsoldos, Sylvia: "Thomas Ewing, Sr., A Political Biography" , Dissertation ( Ph.D. ), University of Delaware, 1933.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ewing, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ewing, Thomas senior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Politician, Senator, Secretary of the Interior, and Secretary of the Treasury
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Ohio County , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 1871
Place of death Lancaster , Ohio