Isaac Wayne MacVeagh

Background

Isaac Wayne MacVeagh was born on April 19, 1833. near Phoenixville, Chester County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Maj. John and Margaret (Lincoln) MacVeagh.

Education

MacVeagh attended school at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and graduated at Yale, ranking tenth in the class of 1853.

Career

Distinction in debate marked him for the law and politics, and MacVeagh entered the office of J. J. Lewis, prominent lawyer of West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the bar in 1856. He was district attorney for Chester County, 1859-64, adding to his legal duties service during the Civil War in the militia, in which he attained the ranks of captain of emergency infantry (1862) and major of cavalry (1863), attached to the staff of General Couch in reorganizing the local forces. He also became chairman of the Republican State Committee in 1863 and accompanied Lincoln to Gettysburg on the occasion of his address.

After the war, he transferred his practice to Harrisburg. He was appointed minister resident in Turkey, June 4, 1870, reaching his post late in the year. In connection with the Black Sea problem then under discussion among the European powers, he upheld Turkey's right of closure of the Straits against Secretary Fish's disposition to claim freedom of passage for American warships, and warned the Secretary strongly against entangling the United States government in the ulterior designs of other governments in the question.

Coming home on leave in June 1871, he found political conditions under the Grant administration so distressing that he resigned his post to begin a lifelong career of "insurgency" by joining the opposition to the Cameron machine in Pennsylvania. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, 1872-73. In 1876, he moved to Philadelphia. His opposition to the Grant forces in the Republican National Convention of 1876 marked him for a part in the liquidation of Reconstruction undertaken by President Hayes.

He was sent, in 1877, to Louisiana as head of a commission under whose auspices the local Democratic claimants to office were able to make a settlement with their Republican rivals which broke a dangerous deadlock and permitted the withdrawal of Federal troops from New Orleans. The aftermath of this accomplishment was a classic controversy with Benjamin F. Butler. MacVeagh's independent position in politics, coupled with his recognized legal ability, won him the post of attorney-general in Garfield's cabinet, in which he was commissioned March 5, 1881.

He resigned on the President's death but held office until November, securing the indictment of the assassin, Guiteau, but escaping involvement in the scandalous trial. He then returned to the practice of law in Philadelphia and to his struggle with the powers of darkness in politics. He was especially active in the Civil Service Reform Association, of which he served as state chairman, as well as of the Indian Rights Association.

The issues of civil-service reform and tariff reduction finally impelled him to desert the party of his formal allegiance and to support Cleveland's second election to the presidency. On December 20, 1893, he was appointed ambassador to Italy, which post he held for about two years. It imposed upon him the delicate task of helping to preserve good relations in the excitement attending the outrages upon Italians in the United States at the time, although the actual negotiations arising out of these disturbances were conducted at Washington.

In 1897, MacVeagh entered the Washington law firm of McKenney & Flannery, counsel for the District of Columbia and the Pennsylvania Railroad, but he maintained his residence in Pennsylvania and took an active interest in the reform movement which swept the state after the turn of the century. Roosevelt appointed him chief counsel for the United States in the Venezuela arbitration of 1903.

Achievements

• MacVeagh served as the 36th Attorney General of the United States under the administrations of Presidents James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. He was also a contributor, chiefly to the North American Review, of articles on political reform and international peace. His last literary effort was a plea for the entrance of the United States into the World War.

Politics

As persistent a non-conformist in his new party as in the old, MacVeagh opposed the control and policies of Bryan and was on the friendliest terms with Republican presidents and cabinet officers.

Personality

MacVeagh was intimate with John Hay and Elihu Root and as a conversational foil was found worthy of the steel of Mark Twain. "Rapier-like" he was well called for the spareness of his frame and the penetrating keenness of his wit.

By George Harvey, whom he supported against Woodrow Wilson after Harvey's break with Wilson, he was dubbed a "passionate patriot" and compared with Voltaire because of his ardent and tireless warfare against injustice.

Connections

In 1856, Wayne married Letty Miner Lewis. She had died in 1862 and in 1866 Isaac Wayne was married to Virginia Rolette Cameron, daughter of the formidable political boss, Simon Cameron, in alliance with whom he became a figure in the Republican party.

Father:

Major John MacVeagh

23 July 1786 - 26 November 1856

Mother:

Margaret Lincoln MacVeagh

1792 - 25 February 1884

Brother:

Franklin MacVeagh

November 22, 1837 – July 6, 1934 Was an American politician, lawyer, grocer and banker. He served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury under President William Howard Taft.

Wife:

Letitia Miner “Letty” Lewis MacVeagh

1 October 1831 - 21 June 1861

Wife:

Virginia Cameron MacVeagh

Son:

Charles MacVeagh

June 6, 1860 – December 4, 1931 Was an American lawyer and diplomat. He served as United States Ambassador to Japan from 1925 to 1928.

References

• Wayne Macveagh: Proceedings of a Meeting of the Philadelphia Bar (Classic Reprint)