The Honorable Timothy O. Howe
30th United States Postmaster General
In office December 20, 1881 – March 25, 1883
President	Chester A. Arthur
Preceded by	Thomas Lemuel James
Succeeded by	Walter Q. Gresham
United States Senator fromWisconsin
In office March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1879
Preceded by	Charles Durkee
Succeeded by	Matthew H. Carpenter
Justice of theWisconsin Supreme Court
ex officio
In office January 1, 1851 – June 1, 1853
Wisconsin Circuit Court Judgefor the 4th Circuit
In office January 1, 1851 – 1855
Preceded by	Alexander W. Stow
Succeeded by	William R. Gorsline
Personal details
Born	Timothy Otis Howe (1816-02-24)February 24, 1816 Livermore,District of Maine,Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	March 25, 1883(1883-03-25) (aged 67) Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery Green Bay, Wisconsin
Party	Republican Whig (before 1854)
Spouses	Linda Ann Haines (died 1881)
Children	Mary (Totten) (b. 1844; died 1913) Frank Howard Howe (b. 1850; died 1897)
Relatives	James Henry Howe (nephew)
Education	Maine Wesleyan Seminary

Timothy Otis Howe (February 24, 1816 – March 25, 1883) was an American lawyer, jurist,Republican politician, andWisconsin pioneer. He was aUnited States senator for three terms, representing the state of Wisconsin from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1879. He later served as the 30thU.S. Postmaster General under PresidentChester A. Arthur, from 1881 until his death in 1883. While he was serving as U.S. senator, PresidentUlysses S. Grant offered to appoint Howe asChief Justice of the United States, following the death ofSalmon P. Chase, but Howe declined because he believed that it would result in his U.S. Senate seat being claimed by a Democrat.

Earlier in his career, he was a justice of theWisconsin Supreme Court, at the time that the Wisconsin Supreme Court was simply a panel of the state's circuit court judges.^[1]

His nephew,James Henry Howe, became a United States district judge in Wisconsin.

Howe was born inLivermore, Maine (then, part of the commonwealth ofMassachusetts), to Timothy Howe and Betsey Howard, attended Readfield Seminary nowKents Hill School, inReadfield, Maine, and studied law with local judges.^[2] In 1839, Howe was admitted to the Maine Bar and began practicing law in Readfield. In 1845, he was elected to theMaine House of Representatives.^[3] Shortly thereafter, Howe moved toGreen Bay, Wisconsin, and opened a law office. He was an ardentWhig and ran an unsuccessful campaign forU.S. Congress in 1848.

Howe married Linda Ann Haines and together the couple had 2 children, Mary E. Howe and Frank K. Howe.

Howe was elected circuit judge in Wisconsin and served in that position from 1851 to 1855. As a circuit judge, he also served as a justice of theWisconsin Supreme Court until a separate Supreme Court was organized in 1853.

In 1857, Howe ran unsuccessfully for theU.S. Senate.^[4] In 1861, Howe ran again and won election to the Senate,^[4] serving during theAmerican Civil War andReconstruction. During his time in the Senate, he was an abolitionist and supporter of theFifteenth Amendment. Howe argued against the claims of contemporary Democrats that blacks were inherently racially inferior, and remarked that their claim that abolition would cause a war of racial extermination was "a libel upon humanity, black or white."^[5] During this time he was considered one of the "Radical Republicans" due to his support for racial equality and his opposition to discrimination.^[6]

1865 Congressional Hearings chaired by Senator Doolittle looked into Sioux Complaints from the Yankton and Dakota tribes.^[7] The Senator found: "Many agents, teachers, and employees of the government, are inefficient, faithless, and even guilty of peculations are fraudulent practices upon the government and upon the Indians." Yankton Chief Medicine Cow testified that Government Agents were the cause of the Minnesota problems. What those agents did in Minnesota was a harbinger of the history coming for the other tribes of the plains.

While in the Senate, PresidentUlysses S. Grant offered Howe the position ofChief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Howe declined the offer because he feared his successor to the Senate would be aDemocrat. Howe lost his senate seat in 1879 to fellow RepublicanMatthew H. Carpenter. In 1881, he was appointedUnited States Postmaster General by PresidentChester A. Arthur, a position he held until his death inKenosha, Wisconsin, on March 25, 1883.^[4]

• Wisconsin Supreme Court biographical sketch

• United States Congress."Timothy O. Howe (id: H000856)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTimothy O. Howe.

• William H. Russell, "Timothy O. Howe, Stalwart Republican,"Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 35, no. 2 (Winter 1951), pp. 90–99.In JSTOR

• 1816 births
• 1883 deaths
• Politicians from Green Bay, Wisconsin
• People from Livermore, Maine
• United States postmasters general
• Members of the Maine House of Representatives
• Wisconsin circuit court judges
• People of Wisconsin in the American Civil War
• People of the Six Years' War
• Justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Wisconsin Republicans
• Wisconsin Whigs
• Maine Whigs
• Republican Party United States senators from Wisconsin
• Arthur administration cabinet members
• People from Readfield, Maine
• Kents Hill School alumni
• Wisconsin pioneers
• 19th-century Wisconsin state court judges
• Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Green Bay, Wisconsin)
• 19th-century United States senators
• 19th-century members of the Maine Legislature

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