American statesman, born near Harrisburg, PA, on the 8th of September 1815. He graduated at Lafayette College, and early entered politics, being a clerk in the registrar’s office in 1828. In 1840 he was secretary of the electoral college of Pennsylvania, and in 1841 clerk of the state house of representatives. In 1842 he was elected to Congress, serving four years. He was chairman of the Whig State Central Committee, and was the first territorial governor of Minnesota. He was mayor of the city of St. Paul in 1855, and governor of the state of Minnesota in 1860–63, being, in the latter year, sent to the United States Senate from that state, and holding his seat twelve years. In 1879 he succeeded G. W. McCrary as Secretary of War, and held the office till the close of Hayes’s administration. In 1882 he was a member of the Utah commission, after which he acted as commissioner, in several instances, for the government.
