Lewis Davis Campbell | |
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| United States Minister to Mexico | |
| In office 1866–1867 | |
| President | Andrew Johnson |
| Preceded by | Robert W. Shufelt |
| Succeeded by | Marcus Otterbourg |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from Ohio | |
| In office March 4, 1849 – May 25, 1858 | |
| Preceded by | David Fisher |
| Succeeded by | Clement Vallandigham |
| Constituency | 2nd district (1849-1853) 3rd district (1853-1858) |
| In office March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1873 | |
| Preceded by | Robert C. Schenck |
| Succeeded by | John Quincy Smith |
| Constituency | 3rd district |
| Member of theOhio Senate | |
| In office 1869–1870 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1811-08-09)August 9, 1811 |
| Died | November 26, 1882(1882-11-26) (aged 71) |
| Resting place | Greenwood Cemetery |
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Lewis Davis Campbell (August 9, 1811 – November 26, 1882) was an American politician as aU.S. Representative forOhio. Over his political career he was elected as aWhig,Republican,Know Nothing, andDemocrat.
Campbell was born inFranklin, Ohio.[1] His education was in the local public schools. He was apprenticed to learn the art of printing from 1828 to 1831, and he was afterward assistant editor of theCincinnati Gazette. He published aHenry Clay Whig newspaper inHamilton, Ohio, from 1831 to 1835 (The Hamilton Intelligencer). Meanwhile, he read the law and was admitted to the bar in 1835. He practiced law in Hamilton until 1850, while he engaged in agricultural pursuits. He married Jane Reily on January 5, 1836, inButler County, Ohio.
He was a director and secretary of the Hamilton and Rossville Hydraulic Company, formed in 1841 for the purpose of building a canal through Hamilton to provide water power to local companies. He was an incorporator and president of theCincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company. The railroad was constructed between 1846 and 1852.
He ran unsuccessfully as a Whig candidate for election in 1840, 1842, and 1844 to the 27th, 28th, and 29th Congresses. He was elected as a Whig in 1848 fromOhio's 2nd District to the 31st Congress and was re-elected in 1850. Following redistricting after the1850 census, he found himself inOhio's 3rd District but was successful in being again elected as a Whig in 1852. With the collapse of the Whigs, he ran as anOpposition Party candidate in 1854 and was elected to the34th Congress. He became chairman of the powerfulHouse Committee on Ways and Means.
During the debates on theKansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Campbell, a free-soiler, conducted a filibuster, provoking the ire ofHenry A. Edmundson, a pro-slavery Virginia Democrat. On May 12, 1854, the tension boiled over. Historian Michael Morrison of Purdue University describes: "Afilibuster led by Lewis D. Campbell, an Ohio free-soiler, nearly provoked the House into a war of more than words. Campbell, joined by other antislavery northerners, exchanged insults and invectives with southerners, neither side giving quarter. Weapons were brandished on the floor of the House. Finally, bumptiousness gave way to violence. Henry A. Edmundson, a Virginia Democrat, well oiled and well armed, had to be restrained from making a violent attack on Campbell. Only after the sergeant at arms arrested him, debate was cut off, and the House adjourned did the melee subside."[2]
In 1856, he claimed re-election by a 19-vote margin and presented credentials as a Republican member-elect and served from March 4, 1857, to May 25, 1858, when, by a vote of 107–100, the Democrats controlled the House, which decided that Campbell was not entitled to his seat. His election had been successfully contested byClement L. Vallandigham, who took his seat on May 26, 1858. Campbell ran against Vallandigham in the election of 1858; Vallandigham won 50.5% of the votes, Campbell 49.5%.
Campbell served in theUnion Army as colonel of the69th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in 1861 and 1862, when he resigned for his failing health.
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PresidentAndrew Johnson appointed Campbell asEnvoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico on May 4, 1866. He was accompanied by GeneralWilliam Tecumseh Sherman. Campbell was instructed to tender to PresidentBenito Juárez the moral support of the United States and to offer the use of American military force to aid in the restoration of law. The occupying French forces ofMaximilian had Juarez's government on the run, and Campbell failed to reach them. Campbell served until June 16, 1867, when he resigned and returned to resume his elective political career.
Campbell was elected to theOhio Senate in 1869 and resigned in 1870 to take his seat in Congress, after being elected as a Democrat to the 42nd Congress. He declined to run for re-election in 1872. He was a delegate to the third Ohio State constitutional convention in 1873, and he resumed his agricultural pursuits.
Campbell died in Hamilton, Ohio, on November 26, 1882, at 71. He is interred inGreenwood Cemetery.
His nephew,James E. Campbell, later held the seat from the 3rd District for one term (1885-1887).
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