Walter Q. Gresham

On September 1, 1869, after declining appointments rom President Ulysses S. Grant as collector of the Port of New Orleans and United States Attorney for the District of Indiana,[10] Gresham received a recess appointment without consent to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Indiana vacated by Judge David McDonald; he accepted .[11] He was nominated by President Grant on December 6, 1869, confirmed by the United States Senate on December 21, 1869, and received his commission on December 21, 1869.[4]

Gresham's career as a district judge was marked by the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, during which he organized volunteer companies to preserve order and protect property.[11][10] He repeatedly declined to run for public office, including Governor of Indiana and United States Senate.[11]

On April 9, 1883, Gresham resigned from the bench to accept an appointment as Postmaster General of the United States in the cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur.[4] He supervised the reduction of the postal rate from three cents to two, the increase in the weight allowance from half an ounce to a full ounce, and the reduction in the cost of postage of mail to Canada. He also participated in the suppression of the Louisiana lottery by banning it from federal mails.[10] He also oversaw reforms designed to improve the foreign postal service and restore faster mail delivery.[10]

In September 1884, Arthur appointed Gresham to succeed Charles J. Folger, who died in office, as United States Secretary of the Treasury. After one month in office, he resigned to accept a recess appointment from President Arthur to a seat on the United States Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit vacated by Judge Thomas Drummond. He was nominated to the same position by President Arthur on December 3, 1884, was confirmed on December 9, and received his commission the same day. Gresham was assigned by operation of law to additional and concurrent service on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on June 16, 1891, to a new seat authorized by the Evarts Act. His service terminated on March 3, 1893, due to his resignation.[4]

Gresham was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1884 and 1888.[6] His 1888 candidacy was supported by several notable agrarian unions, including the Agricultural Wheel, The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry and the Farmer's Alliance.[12] On the first ballot, Gresham finished second behind John Sherman and carried the states of Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, and Missouri. He did not, however, carry Indiana, which backed his rival Benjamin Harrison. On the eighth ballot, Harrison secured the nomination; he went on to defeat incumbent Grover Cleveland in the general election.

Once in office, Harrison signed the McKinley Tariff. As a leading critic of protective tariffs and personal rival to Harrison, Gresham grew increasingly estranged from the Republican Party.

In 1892, he was offered the presidential nomination of the Populist Party but declined and supported Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland; privately, he emphasized that his support was due to Cleveland's position on the tariff and not his personal rivalry with Harrison.[13]

On January 25, 1893, Cleveland offered Gresham the position of Secretary of State. On the advice of his family, who suggested joining Cleveland's administration would appear to be a quid pro quo and risk his personal popularity, Gresham first declined the offer on February 3.[14] On the advice of friends, especially Henry Watterson, and an urgent telegram from Cleveland to accept the offer, he reversed his position days later. Despite some opposition from Democratic Party regulars, the appointment was generally received with approval.[14]

Gresham was United States Secretary of State in President Grover Cleveland's cabinet from 1893 to 1895.[6] As Secretary of State, Gresham led a moderate diplomatic application of the Monroe Doctrine in Central America and served as an international arbitrator between imperial powers in Central America and Asia. He negotiated the withdrawal of British troops during the Nicaragua Crisis of 1894-1895 and helped settle the Venezuelan crisis of 1895. He also served as an arbitrator in the First Sino-Japanese War and participated in the Bering Sea Arbitration.[15]

He died on May 28, 1895, in Washington, D.C.[4] He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

• Ford, Henry Jones (1921). The Cleveland Era: A Chronicle of the New Order in Politics. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
• Furer, Howard B., ed. (1970). James A. Garfield, 1831–1881. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications.
• Furer, Howard B., ed. (1970). Chester A. Arthur, 1830–1880. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications.
• Gresham, Matilda (1919). The Life of Walter Quintin Gresham. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.
• Schuyler, Montgomery (1928). "Walter Quintin Gresham". In Bemis, Samuel Flagg (ed.). The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy. Vol. VII. New York: A. A. Knopf.
• Howe, George F. (1957). Chester A. Arthur: A Quarter Century of Machine Politics. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Company.
• Vexler, Robert (1975). The Vice-Presidents and cabinet members : biographies arranged chronologically by administration. p. 331.
• Vexler, Robert I., ed. (1968). Grover Cleveland, 1837–1908. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications.