The National cyclopædia of American biography : being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, edited by distinguished biographers, selected from each state, revised and approved by the most eminent historians, scholars, and statesmen of the day . ; charges of fraud were made, and upon in-v;estigation the office was awarded to Mr. Fleming,Mr. Goffs opponent. THOMPSON, Richard Wigginton, secretaryof the navy, was born in Culp
The National cyclopædia of American biography : being the history of the United States as illustrated in the lives of the founders, builders, and defenders of the republic, and of the men and women who are doing the work and moulding the thought of the present time, edited by distinguished biographers, selected from each state, revised and approved by the most eminent historians, scholars, and statesmen of the day . ; charges of fraud were made, and upon in-v;estigation the office was awarded to Mr. Fleming,Mr. Goffs opponent. THOMPSON, Richard Wigginton, secretaryof the navy, was born in Culpeper county,Va., June9, 1809. After receiving an excellent education hewent to Kentucky, when he was about twenty-threeyears of age, and in Louisville obtained a position asstorekeepers clerk. He remained there a shorttime, when he went to Lawrence county, Ind.,where he taught school. He, however, again wentinto business, devoting his leisure time to studyinglaw, and with such success that in 1834 he was ad-mitted to the bar. He now settled in Bedford, Ind.,where he began to practice his profession, and at thesame time, from 1834 to 1838, he served in bothhouses of the legislature, being also, for a shorttime, president pro tern, of the state senate, and actinglieutenant-governor. In 1840 Mr. Thompson was apresidential elector on the whig ticket, and support-ed Gen. Harrison by pen and voice with great He was elected to congress and served in 1841-43,and the following year was a candidate for electoron the Clay ticket, but was defeated. In 1847-49 hewas again in congress, but declined a Taylor offered him the Austrian mission,and Fillmore the recordership of the land office, buthe declined both, as he did also a seat on the benchof the court of claims, urged upon him by PresidentLincoln. In 1864 Mr. Thompson was presidentialelector on the republican ticket, and in 1868 and1876 he was a delegate to the republican nationalconventions. On the last oc
Size: 1137px × 2197px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauth, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcu31924020334755
