Michael C. Kerr
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2007) |
| Michael Crawford Kerr | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|
| In office December 6, 1875 – August 19, 1876 |
|
| President | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Preceded by | James G. Blaine |
| Succeeded by | Samuel J. Randall |
|
|
|
| In office March 4, 1865 – March 3, 1873 (2nd) March 4, 1875 – August 19, 1876 (3rd) |
|
| Preceded by | James A. Cravens William S. Holman |
| Succeeded by | Simeon K. Wolfe Nathan T. Carr |
|
|
|
| Born | March 15, 1827 Titusville, Pennsylvania |
| Died | August 16, 1876 (aged 49) Rockbridge County, Virginia |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | University of Louisville |
| Profession | Law |
Michael Crawford Kerr (March 15, 1827 –August 19, 1876) was an American legislator.
He was born at Titusville, Pennsylvania and educated at the Erie Academy. He graduated from Louisville University's Law School in 1851. He moved to New Albany, Indiana in 1852 and was a member of the State Legislature in 1856 to 1857.
He was elected to Congress in 1864 as a "war" Democrat, having vigorously opposed the "Copperhead" element in his district. He served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Indiana from 1865 to 1873. In Congress he was looked upon as one of the leaders of the Democratic party. He strongly opposed the Republican policy of reconstruction in the Southern States. He was not re-elected in 1872.
His views on financial questions did not meet with favor in his constituency, where he openly antagonized the inflationists and the "greenback" element and favored the resumption of specie payments. In 1874, however, after a sharp contest he won the seat back, and on his re-entry into Congress was elected to the speakership. He presided as Speaker at only the first session of the Forty-fourth Congress and died of consumption shortly after its adjournment.
In 1866, when running for office against [1] General Walter Q. Gresham, Kerr made the statement that he was not involved with the southern sympathizers, whose treason trial had been held in Indianapolis.
Upon hearing that Kerr claimed to have had no part in the conspiracy, General Henry L. Burnett went to the public square in New Albany and gave a speech to a large crowd, the speech being afterwards printed as a newspaper broadsheet.
- In intent, in spirit, in purpose, he [Kerr] was a traitor. I say this, fellow citizens, dispassionately, and am responsible for what I say here or elsewhere. I KNOW MICHAEL C. KERR WAS A MEMBER OF THE ORDER, FOR HE CONFESSED IT TO ME HIMSELF TIME AND AGAIN when I had him in Indianapolis, trembling for his miserable life. I wish he were here now, that I might tell him to his teeth that he admitted to me—and never thought of denying it—making it the basis of all our conversation, that he was a Son of Liberty.
Although exposed as a member of the conspiracy by Burnett, Kerr was nonetheless elected to Congress. General Burnett would be one of the Special Judge Advocates at the trial of the assassins of President Abraham Lincoln.
[edit] Links
| Preceded by James G. Blaine |
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives December 6, 1875 – August 19, 1876 |
Succeeded by Samuel J. Randall |
|
|||||||
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
