Background
Howard was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, in 1805. He was the son of Otis and Polly (Millington) Howard.
(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. J. M. Howard: In the Senate o...)
Excerpt from Speech of Hon. J. M. Howard: In the Senate of the United States, January, 1864 Verily, the people North and the people South ought to revolt against the war leaders, and take this great matter into their own hands.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Howard was born in Shaftsbury, Vermont, in 1805. He was the son of Otis and Polly (Millington) Howard.
His education was obtained in the district school at Shaftsbury, the academies in Bennington and Brattleboro, and Williams College, from which he graduated in 1830. He began the study of law in Ware, Massachussets.
He was admitted to the bar in 1833 in Detroit, Mich. , to which place he had moved in the preceding year. Although he soon became one of the leaders of the bar of Michigan, his chief interest lay in politics. From 1838 to 1871 he held public office almost continuously while his party was in power. In 1838 he was elected to the state legislature as a representative from Wayne County and was active in the enactment of the Revised Laws of that year, in railroad legislation, and in the legislative examination of the state's wildcat banks. He served as a member of Congress from 1841 to 1843. In 1854 he was one of the leaders of the movement that led to the organization of the Republican party at Jackson on July 6, and was the author of the resolutions that were adopted at that time. In the same year the party nominated and elected him attorney general of Michigan, a position which he held until 1861.
From 1862 to 1871 he was a member of the United States Senate. Here he distinguished himself as a radical and outspoken leader. During his first term, he held influential positions on the important committees on the judiciary and on military affairs; as a member of the former committee he drafted the first clause of the Thirteenth Amendment. During the stormy period following the Civil War, he was an outspoken opponent of executive reconstruction and favored extreme punishment for the South. He served during the session of 1865-66 on the joint committee on reconstruction and was assigned to investigate conditions in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. He drew up the report of the committee on military affairs on the removal of Stanton. He also served as chairman of the committee on the Pacific Railroad from the creation of the committee, January 6, 1864, until the end of his term. President Grant offered him the presidency of the Southern claims commission, but this he refused. He died in Detroit as a result of an apoplectic stroke within a month after the expiration of his last term as senator.
(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. J. M. Howard: In the Senate o...)
He supported the Whig party until 1854, when he became a Republican.
Howard was an eloquent speaker, although his style was somewhat ponderous. He appealed to reason rather than to the emotions. He had a wide reading knowledge not only of law and history, but also of literature.
He was married, October 8, 1835, to Catharine A. Shaw, whom he had met in Ware, Massachussets. She died in 1866. He was survived by two daughters and three sons.