Dudley Chase Haskell was an American politician. He was a member of the US House of Representatives, serving from 1877 until 1883.
Background
Dudley Haskell was born on March 23, 1842, in Springfield, Vermont, United States, the son of Franklin Haskell and Almira Chase, both of whom were of New England ancestry.
His father migrated from Massachusetts to Kansas Territory in 1854, reaching Lawrence with the second company of the Emigrant Aid Association. The following year he was joined by his wife and children. Poverty, the bloody turmoil of early days in Kansas, the lure of the Pike’s Peak country, the Civil War, a desire for learning, and possibly a restless vigor inherited from his father, all conspired to keep young Haskell on the move from 1855 to 1866.
Education
Dudley went from Lawrence to school in New England, back again to Lawrence, out into the Pike’s Peak region, back to Kansas, then into the Quartermaster’s Corps of the Union army for more than a year’s service, then into Yale College in 1864 for a course of special study, then to a business college in New Haven, and finally in December 1865 to Lawrence, Kansas.
Career
For ten years Dudley Haskell was a merchant in Lawrence but was only indifferently successful in business. In 1871 Haskell definitely entered politics with his election on the Republican ticket to the lower house of the Kansas state legislature. He was reelected in 1873 and 1875, and in 1876 was chosen speaker of the lower house. In 1874 he had been nominated for governor by the Temperance party of his state, but he declined the nomination. In 1876 he was nominated by the Republicans of the second congressional district of Kansas for the lower house of Congress. Elected by a safe margin, he was reelected in 1878, 1880, and 1882.
Haskell served on several important committees, notably on the committee of ways and means, and was one of the conferees on the Internal Revenue Bill of 1883, serving with Kelley and Randall of Pennsylvania, Carlisle of Kentucky, and William McKinley of Ohio. He died in Washington in 1883.
Achievements
Dudley Haskell is best remembered as an out-and-out protectionist, probably the most prominent of his day from the purely agricultural W. He bore a leading part in the enactment of tariff legislation in 1882.
Haskell was the uncompromising foe of Mormonism, or rather of polygamy as practised by the Mormons.
Politics
In most matters Haskell was a conservative Republican and a consistent party man. He sought to liberalize the public land policy of the United States in the interests of his section, the West. The Indian problem he thought should be solved through education and accordingly worked for the establishment of Indian schools. But his chief interest was the tariff.
Personality
Haskell always gained attention by his power in debate, his indefatigable energy, and the range of his information.
Connections
Haskell was married to Harriet M. Kelsey of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
