John Covode was born on March 18, 1808 in Fairfield Township, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Jacob Covode and Updegraff and the grandson of Garrett Covode, who was kidnapped on the streets of Amsterdam by a sea-captain and brought as a child to Philadelphia where he was sold as an indentured servant.
John Covode received a scanty education in the public schools of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
Covode worked for several years on his father’s farm and served an apprenticeship to a blacksmith. Later he found employment in a wooden-mill at Lockport. Of this mill he became owner in his early manhood and continued in the business of manufacturing for the remainder of his life, although from time to time he was interested in other business enterprises, such as the Pennsylvania Canal, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Westmoreland Coal Company. At his death he had a considerable fortune.
Through his conduct in his first public office, that of justice of the peace, Covode gained for himself the sobriquet, “Honest John, ” which clung to him all his life. He served two terms as a Whig in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was twice a Whig candidate for the state Senate, being defeated both times. He was elected to the national House of Representatives as an anti-Masonic Whig in 1854 and reelected as a Republican in 1856. In this position he served continuously until 1863 when he declined the nomination. He reentered the House in 1867 and remained a member until his death.
In Congress he first became prominent in the spring of 1860 by reason of his chairmanship of the Covode Investigation Committee, appointed by the House on the adoption of Covode’s resolution of March, 1860, to inquire into the alleged use of improper influence by President Buchanan in attempting to secure the passage of the Lecompton Bill. In moving this investigation Covode was probably retaliating for a charge made by the President that bribery had been used in the Congressional elections in Pennsylvania in 1858; his pretext was the charge by two members of the House that the President had attempted to bribe and coerce them in the Lecompton affair. Buchanan sent to the House a protest against this investigation so far as it related to himself, but the House disregarded the protest and the investigation proceeded. It resulted in a majority and a minority report, but the House took no action on either. In all probability the investigation was meant to produce nothing more serious than ammunition to be used by the Republicans in the presidential campaign of 1860; Covode was a member of the Republican Executive Congressional Committee for this campaign.
During the war Covode was a strong supporter of Lincoln. In December 1861 he was appointed a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War and took an active part in its work until his retirement in 1863. In the summer of 1865 he was sent by the War Department into the South, “to look into matters connected with the interests of the government in the Mississippi valley. ” Upon his return President Johnson declined to accept his report, in which he urged the removal of Governor Wells of Louisiana and opposed the policy of withdrawing the troops from the South. The President suggested that he file it with the War Department under whose authority he had been acting. From this time on Covode was an opponent of the President and upon his return to Congress steadily supported the congressional policy of reconstruction. He introduced into the House the resolution calling for the impeachment of Johnson. The results of Covode’s mission to the South do not appear to have been of any special importance nor does he appear to have exerted any considerable influence in Congress at any time during the Reconstruction period.
At the start of his political career, Covode was a member of the Whig Party. In 1856 he joined the Republican Party.
