American lawyer and statesman, born near the present West Liberty, WV, on the 28th of December 1789. His father, George Ewing, settled at Lancaster, Fairfield county, OH, in 1792. Thomas graduated at Ohio University, Athens, OH, in 1815, and in August 1816 was admitted to the bar at Lancaster, where he won high rank as an advocate. He was a Whig member of the United States senate in 18311837, and as such took a prominent part in the legislative struggle over the United States Bank, whose rechartering he favoured and which he resolutely defended against President Jacksons attack, opposing in able speeches the withdrawal of deposits and Secretary Woodburys Specie Circular of 1836. In March 1841 he became secretary of the treasury in President W. H. Harrisons cabinet. When, however, after President Tylers accession, the relations between the President and the Whig Party became strained, he retired (Sept. 1841) and was succeeded by Walter Forward (17861852). Subsequently from March 1849 to July 1850 he was a member of President Taylors cabinet as the first secretary of the newly established department of the interior. He thoroughly organized the department, and in his able annual report advocated the construction by government aid of a railroad to the Pacific Coast. In 18501851 he filled the unexpired term of Thomas Corwin in the U.S. Senate, strenuously opposing Clays compromise measures and advocating the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. He was subsequently a delegate to the Peace Congress in 1861, and was a loyal supporter of President Lincolns war policy. He died at Lancaster, OH, on the 26th of October 1871.
His daughter was the wife of General William T. Sherman. His son, Hugh Boyle Ewing (18261905), served throughout the Civil War in the Federal armies, rising from the rank of colonel (1861) to that of brigadier-general (1862) and brevet major-general (1865), and commanding brigades at Antietam and Vicksburg and a division at Chickamauga; and was minister of the United States to the Netherlands in 18661870. Another son, Thomas Ewing (18291896), studied at Brown University in 18521854 (in 1894, by a special vote, he was placed on the list of graduates in the class of 1856); he was a lawyer and a free-state politician in Kansas in 18571861, and was the first chief-justice of the Kansas supreme court (18611862). In the Civil War he attained the rank of brigadier-general (March 1863) and received the brevet of major-general (1865). He was subsequently a representative in Congress from Ohio in 18771881; and from 1882 to 1896 practised law in New York City, where he was long one of the recognized leaders of the bar.