Thomas Corwin (29 July 1794-18 December 1865) was a member of the US House of Representatives (W-OH 2) from 4 March 1831 to 3 March 1833 (succeeding James Shields and preceding Taylor Webster), from OH 4 from 4 March 1833 to 30 May 1840 (succeeding Joseph Vance and preceding Jeremiah Morrow), and from OH 7 from 4 March 1859 to 12 March 1861 (succeeding Aaron Harlan and preceding Richard A. Harrison). He then served as Governor from 16 December 1840 to 12 December 1842 (interrupting Wilson Shannon's terms), as a US Senator from 4 March 1845 to 20 July 1850 (succeeding Benjamin Tappan and preceding Thomas Ewing), and as Secretary of the Treasury from 23 July 1850 to 6 March 1853 (succeeding William M. Meredith and preceding James Guthrie).
Biography[]
Thomas Corwin was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky on 29 July 1794, the cousin of Moses Bledso Corwin and the uncle of Franklin Corwin. In 1798, he moved with his parents to Lebanon, Ohio, and he served as a wagon boy in William Henry Harrison's army during the War of 1812. He became a lawyer in 1817, and he served as prosecuting attorney of Warren County from 1818 to 1828. He served in the state legislature during the 1820s and then in the US House of Representatives from 1831 to 1840, as Governor from 1840 to 1842, in the US Senate from 1845 to 1850, as Secretary of the Treasury from 1850 to 1853, and in the House from 1859 to 1861. As Secretary of the Treasury, he was unable to pass any tariff legislation in a US Congress controlled by Democrats. In 1858, he joined the Republican Party, but he took part in failed attempts to reconcile the North and South as the American Civil War neared, sponsoring the Corwin Amendment, which would prevent the US government from outlawing slavery. Only five states ratified it, and war began anyway. From 1861 to 1864, he served as ambassador to Mexico, and he died in 1865.