Thomas Corwin | |
|---|---|
 Corwin, 1844–1860 | |
| 20thUnited States Secretary of the Treasury | |
| In office July 23, 1850 – March 6, 1853 | |
| President | Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce |
| Preceded by | William M. Meredith |
| Succeeded by | James Guthrie |
| United States Minister to Mexico | |
| In office May 21, 1861 – April 27, 1864 | |
| President | Abraham Lincoln |
| Preceded by | John B. Weller |
| Succeeded by | Robert Shufelt |
| United States Senator fromOhio | |
| In office March 4, 1845 – July 20, 1850 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Tappan |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Ewing |
| 15thGovernor of Ohio | |
| In office December 16, 1840 – December 14, 1842 | |
| Preceded by | Wilson Shannon |
| Succeeded by | Wilson Shannon |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromOhio | |
| In office March 4, 1831 – May 30, 1840 | |
| Preceded by | James Shields |
| Succeeded by | Jeremiah Morrow |
| Constituency | 2nd district (1831–1833) 4th district (1833–1840) |
| In office March 4, 1859 – March 12, 1861 | |
| Preceded by | Aaron Harlan |
| Succeeded by | Richard A. Harrison |
| Constituency | 7th district |
| Member of theOhio House of Representatives from theWarren County district | |
| In office 1829–1830 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Baldwin James McEwen |
| Succeeded by | Jacoby Halleck Joseph Whitehill |
| In office 1821–1823 | |
| Preceded by | John Bigger William Schenck |
| Succeeded by | John Houston David Sutton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1794-07-29)July 29, 1794 Bourbon County, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | December 18, 1865(1865-12-18) (aged 71) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Political party | Whig(Before 1858) Republican(1858–1865) |
| Spouse | Sarah Ross |
| Signature |  |
Thomas Corwin (July 29, 1794 – December 18, 1865), also known asTom Corwin,The Wagon Boy, andBlack Tom was a politician from the state ofOhio. He represented Ohio in both houses ofCongress and served as the 15thgovernor of Ohio and the 20thSecretary of the Treasury. After affiliating with theWhig Party, he joined theRepublican Party in the 1850s. Corwin is best known for his sponsorship of the proposedCorwin Amendment, which was presented in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid the oncomingAmerican Civil War.
Corwin was born inBourbon County, Kentucky, but he grew up inLebanon, Ohio. After serving as a wagon boy in theWar of 1812, he established a legal practice in Lebanon. He became aprosecuting attorney and won election to theOhio House of Representatives. He served in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1830 to 1840, resigning from Congress to take office as Ohio's governor. He was defeated for re-election in 1842 but was elected by the state legislature to theUnited States Senate in 1844. As a Senator, he became a prominent opponent of theMexican–American War. He resigned from the Senate to become Secretary of the Treasury under PresidentMillard Fillmore.
Corwin returned to the United States House of Representatives in 1859. He led the House of Representatives' effort to end the secessionist crisis that arose following the1860 elections. Corwin sponsored a constitutional amendment that would have forbidden the federal government from outlawingslavery, even through further constitutional amendments. Though several states ratified the amendment, it did not prevent the outbreak of the civil war. Corwin resigned from Congress in March 1861 to become theUnited States Ambassador to Mexico. He held that position until 1864 and died the following year.
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Corwin, son ofMatthias Corwin (1761–1829) and Patience Halleck, was born inBourbon County, Kentucky on July 29, 1794.[1] Corwin's father served eleven times in the Ohio Legislature. Corwin's cousinMoses Bledso Corwin was a United States Congressman from Ohio, and his nephewFranklin Corwin was a United States Congressman from Illinois.
Corwin moved with his parents toLebanon, Ohio in 1798.[2] During theWar of 1812, he served as a wagon boy in GeneralWilliam Henry Harrison's Army. In 1815, he began study of law in the offices ofJoshua Collett,[3] He was admitted to thebar in 1817, commencing practice in Lebanon; he was prosecuting attorney ofWarren County from 1818 to 1828.[4] On November 13, 1822, he married Sarah Ross, sister ofThomas R. Ross, then a member of Congress, at Lebanon.[5] As aFreemason, he served theGrand Lodge of Ohio as Grand Orator in 1821 and 1826, Deputy Grand Master in 1823 and 1827 andGrand Master in 1828.[6]
From 1822 to 1823, and in 1829, Corwin was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, where he made a spirited speech against the introduction of the whipping post into Ohio.[7] In 1830 he was elected as aWhig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served from March 4, 1831, until his resignation, effective May 30, 1840, having become a candidate for the office ofGovernor of Ohio. Known for his sharp wit, debating skills, and endless campaigning, he was elected Governor in 1840, defeating incumbentWilson Shannon. Shannon defeated Corwin in a rematch two years later.
Corwin was aPresidential elector in 1844 for theWhig Party ticket ofHenry Clay andTheodore Frelinghuysen.[8]
Corwin was also a member of the United States Senate, having been elected by theOhio General Assembly as aWhig and served from March 4, 1845, to July 20, 1850. As a legislator he spoke seldom, but always with great ability, his most famous speech being one given on February 11, 1847, opposing theMexican–American War.[9]
Thomas Corwin, as quoted by Canadian humoristStephen Leacock:
The world has contempt for the man who amuses it. You must be solemn, solemn as an ass. All the great monuments on earth have been erected over the graves of solemn asses.
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He resigned from the Senate to become PresidentMillard Fillmore's Secretary of the Treasury shortly after the death of PresidentZachary Taylor. Like his immediate predecessor,William M. Meredith, Corwin believed in a protective tariff. Still, he did not want to make sudden or drastic changes in the free-trade tariff law of 1846. He objected to that law's provisions, which taxed some imported raw materials at a higher rate than the imported manufactured goods made from those materials, stating in a report to Congress that "such provisions certainly take from the manufacturer and artisan that encouragement which the present law was intended to afford." As a longtime Whig, however, Corwin was unsuccessful in passing any tariff legislation in a Congress controlled byDemocrats. He retired as Secretary shortly after the end of Fillmore's administration.
In 1857, former Ohio GovernorWilliam Bebb shot a man and was tried in 1858 for manslaughter inWinnebago County, Illinois, where he lived. Corwin and co-counselJudge William Johnston obtained an acquittal with an argument of self-defense.[10]
He was again elected to the House of Representatives in 1858, this time as aRepublican and a member of the 36th Congress. In 1860, he was chairman of the House "Committee of Thirty-three", consisting of one member from each state, and appointed to consider the condition of the nation and, if possible, to devise some scheme for reconciling the North and the South in the secessionist crisis following theelection ofAbraham Lincoln to the presidency.[9] To that end, he sponsored a proposed Constitutional Amendment, which later became known as theCorwin Amendment, which forbade the Federal Government from outlawing slavery. It read:
No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.[11]
Corwin's amendment restated what most Americans already believed, that under the Constitution the Congress had no power to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed.
This doctrine is known as the Federal Consensus, and it was subscribed to by everyone from proslavery radicals like John C. Calhoun and abolitionist radicals like William Lloyd Garrison. Abraham Lincoln, like most Republicans, agreed that in peacetime the federal government could not abolish slavery in a state. The 1860 Republican Party platform restated the familiar doctrine. Prohibited by the Constitution from abolishing slavery in the southern states, antislavery politicians instead aimed at weakening slavery by other means—banning slavery in the territories, denying admission to new slave states, inhibiting the rendition of fugitive slaves in the North, suppressing slavery on the high seas, and abolishing slavery in Washington, D.C. For this reason, southerners had long discounted repeated northern promises not to abolish slavery in a state, and they were unimpressed when Corwin introduced his proposed amendment.
The Corwin amendment passed the Senate on March 2. However, only five states ratified it,[12] and war began anyway. Thus, the initiative failed in its goal of preventing the outbreak of theAmerican Civil War.
Corwin was reelected to the House of Representatives in 1860 but resigned on March 12, 1861, after being appointed by the newly inaugurated President Lincoln to becomeMinister to Mexico, where he served until 1864. Corwin, well regarded among the Mexican public for his opposition to the Mexican–American War while in the Senate, helped keep relations with the Mexicans friendly throughout the course of the Civil War, despite Confederate efforts to sway their allegiances.[13]
After resigning from his post as Minister, Corwin settled inWashington, D.C. in 1864, and practiced law until his death on December 18, 1865, at age 71. He is interred in Lebanon Cemetery,Lebanon, Ohio.[14]
Corwin is remembered chiefly as an orator.[9] His speeches bothon the stump and in debate were examples of remarkable eloquence.[15]
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He acquired the nickname Black Tom not because he wasAfrican American in ancestry, but because of his dark, swarthy complexion. He did, however, sometimes portray himself, for comedic effect, as havingAfrican ancestry. According toBenjamin Perley Poore, Corwin was "a born humorist":
He [Corwin] was a middle-sized, somewhat stout man, with pleasing manners, a fine head, sparkling hazel eyes, and a complexion so dark that on several occasions – as he used to narrate with great glee – he was supposed to be of African descent. "There is no need of my working," said he, "for whenever I cannot support myself in Ohio, all I should have to do would be to cross the river, give myself up to a Kentucky negro-trader, be taken South, and sold for a field hand."[16]
In 1876 theUnited States Revenue Cutter Service commissioned a cutter namedUSRCThomas Corwin. In 1898, thevillage of Corwin, Ohio was named after him, which is located in Wayne Township, Warren County, Ohio. Corwin was the namesake of the Tom Corwin Coal Company. The associated company townTom Corwin is an unincorporated community in Jackson County, Ohio.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Corwin, Thomas".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 211.
