Samuel D. Ingham

Samuel Delucenna Ingham
9th United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office March 6, 1829 – June 20, 1831
President	Andrew Jackson
Preceded by	Richard Rush
Succeeded by	Louis McLane
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 8th district
In office March 4, 1823 – March 3, 1829
Preceded by	Seat added
Succeeded by	Peter Ihrie, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 6th district
In office March 4, 1813 – July 6, 1818
Preceded by	William Crawford
Succeeded by	Vacant
In office October 7, 1822 – March 3, 1823
Preceded by	Samuel Moore
Succeeded by	Robert Harris
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In office 1806-1808
Personal details
Born	September 16, 1779 New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	June 5, 1860 (aged 80) Trenton, New Jersey, USA
Political party	Democratic-Republican, Democrat
Spouse(s)	Rebecca Dodd Ingham Deborah Hall Ingham
Profession	Politician, lawyer

Samuel Delucenna Ingham (September 16, 1779 – June 5, 1860) was a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Andrew Jackson.

Early life and education

Ingham was born at Great Spring near New Hope, Pennsylvania. His parents were Dr. Jonathan Ingham, "a famous physician from Philadelphia",^[1] and his wife, the former Ann Welding. After a pursuit of classical studies, he was an apprentice to a paper maker along Pennypack Creek not far from Philadelphia.^[2]

Manufacturer

After completing his apprenticeship, Ingham became the manager of a paper mill at Bloomfield, New Jersey. It was while here he met Rebecca Dodd, whom he married in 1800. They would have five children.^[3]

Also in 1800 Ingham returned to Pennsylvania and established a paper mill on his mother's farm (his father having died in 1793) that would be his main source of employment in the coming years.

Political career

Bureau of Engraving and Printing portrait of Ingham as Secretary of the Treasury.

He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1806 to 1808. After his service in the legislature Ingham was appointed Justice of the Peace by the Governor of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1813 until July 6, 1818. He easily trounced his Federalist opponents in the first two elections and had no opposition at all in 1816. He resigned from Congress in 1818 due to his wife's ill health. He was appointed the Prothonotary (Chief Clerk, Notary and Registrar of the Court) of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania after leaving Congress.^[4] In 1819 Rebecca Dodd Ingham died.

Ingham served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1819 to 1820

In 1822 Ingham married Deborah Hall of Salem, New Jersey. They would become the parents of three children.^[5]

Also in 1822 Ingham was elected to Congress where he would serve until 1829.

During the 13th Congress he was chair of the United States House Committee on Pensions and Revolutionary War Claims. During the 14th, 15th, 19th and 20th Congresses, he was chair of the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, and was also chair of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department during the 15th Congress.

Ingham served as the ninth Secretary of the U.S. Treasury from March 6, 1829, to June 21, 1831.

Societies

During the 1820s, Ingham was a member of the prestigious Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, which counted among its members two eventual presidents, Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and many other prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical, and other professions.^[6]

Controversies while Secretary of the Treasury

The Second Bank of the United States, viewed by Jackson and much of the nation as an unconstitutional and dangerous monopoly, was Ingham's primary concern as Secretary of the Treasury—Jackson not only mistrusted the Second Bank of the United States, but all banks.

Jackson thought that there should be no paper currency in circulation, but only coins; and that the U.S. Constitution was designed to expel paper currency as part of the monetary system. Ingham believed in the Second Bank, and labored to resolve conflicts between Jackson, who wanted it destroyed, and the Bank's president, Nicholas Biddle.

Ingham was unable to reach any resolution between Jackson and Biddle, but he left office over an incident unrelated to the Bank, stemming from his involvement in the social ostracism of Peggy Eaton, the wife of Secretary of War John H. Eaton by a group of Cabinet members and their wives led by Floride Calhoun, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, in what became known as the Petticoat affair

Later life

After resigning as Secretary of the Treasury, Ingham resumed the manufacture of paper, and also engaged in the development of anthracite coal fields. He was involved with the organization of the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company, of which he was president. He was also connected with the organization of the Hazleton Coal Company. He also worked to promote canals such at the Lehigh Navigation Canal and the Delaware Division Canal. He moved to Trenton, New Jersey, in 1849, where he worked with that city's Mechanics Bank.^[7]

Ingham died in Trenton, New Jersey, and is interred in the Solebury Presbyterian Churchyard, Solebury, Pennsylvania. Ingham County, Michigan, one of several Cabinet counties named for members of Jackson's administration, is named in Ingham's honor.

References

1. "Indian Place Names in Bucks County" (PDF). Lenape Nation - A Tribal Community. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
2. Ford Stevens Ceasar, The Bicentennial History of Ingham County, Michigan (Ann Arbor: Shaw-Barton, 1976), p. 1
3. Ceasar, History of Ingham County, p. 1
4. Ceasar, History of Ingham County, p. 2
5. Caesar, History of Ingham County, p. 3
6. Rathbun, Richard. The Columbian institute for the promotion of arts and sciences: A Washington Society of 1816-1838. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, October 18, 1917. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
7. Ceasar, History of Ingham County, p. 4

External links

• Finding aid to the Samuel D. Ingham correspondence at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Bibliography

• Samuel D. Ingham at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress