John McAuley Palmer was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician.
Background
John McAuley Palmer was born on September 13, 1817 in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. He was the son of Louis D. and Ann Hansford (Tutt) Palmer, and the great-grandson of Thomas Palmer who emigrated to Virginia from England early in the eighteenth century. His father was a farmer and a Jacksonian Democrat with decided anti-slavery tendencies that led him to leave Kentucky for Illinois in 1831. He settled near Alton.
Education
In 1834 John McAuley Palmer entered Shurtleff College at Upper Alton, Illinois, where he stayed for two years, financing himself by doing odd jobs around the college and town. Then he peddled clocks and taught in a country school before moving to Carlinville in 1839, where he began reading law in the office of John S. Greathouse. In December 1839 he was admitted to the bar.
Career
Palmer's political career started in 1840, when he gave ardent support to Van Buren. In 1847 he was elected as a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention and was later elected county judge under the new constitution. He was elected to the state Senate in 1851 and in 1854 opposed Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Bill. When a resolution was offered to indorse the bill, he offered a substitute resolution condemning the bill and favoring the Missouri Compromise and the compromise measures of 1850. Although his resolution was rejected, he ran for state senator as an independent Democrat on a platform of opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and was elected.
He served as president of the Bloomington convention in May 1856 and as delegate to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia in June. In 1859 he was defeated as a Republican candidate for representative to Congress. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention that nominated Lincoln. In 1861 he was a delegate to the peace convention at Washington.
He began his military career on May 1861 as colonel of the 14th Illinois Infantry. He served in Missouri and at the engagements of New Madrid, Point Pleasant, and Island No. 10, and he received the rank of brigadier-general in December 1861. In 1862 he was made commander of the 1st Division in the Army of the Mississippi, fought gallantly at Stone River and Chickamauga, and was rewarded by the rank of major-general. In August 1864 he asked to be relieved of his command, owing to an altercation with General Sherman concerning his refusal to take orders from General Schofield, who, he claimed, was his junior in rank. The request was granted. Later he was given command of the Department of Kentucky but was relieved by request in 1866. The summer of 1867 found him in Springfield practising law with Milton Hay.
He reentered public life, however, in 1868, when he was elected governor of Illinois on the Republican ticket. In his inaugural address he alienated many Republicans and pleased most Democrats by taking a definite stand for state rights, deprecating the extension of power by the federal government. His administration was a difficult one. Monopolists, lobbyists, and various "rings" all sought special legislation. He did all he could to check hasty and unscrupulous legislation by the use of his veto power, but his efforts were largely unavailing. In all, some 1700 bills were passed. When the people of Chicago were left destitute by the disastrous fire of 1871, he quickly sent money and supplies. However, when Mayor Mason asked for federal troops to maintain order in the city, and Grant provided them, Palmer displayed his state-rights position by protesting that state troops could handle the situation and that the use of federal troops was unconstitutional. He was later sustained by the legislature.
In 1872, disgusted with the corruption of the Grant régime, he joined the Liberal Republicans in support of Greeley and soon thereafter rejoined the Democratic party. In 1884 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention that nominated Cleveland for president, and in 1888 he was defeated as Democratic candidate for governor.
Three years later he entered the United States Senate as a Democrat. As senator he served on the committees of military affairs, pensions, and railroads. He advocated a constitutional amendment to provide for the popular election of senators and urged the repeal of the Sherman Act of 1890. In 1896 he was the presidential candidate of the National or Gold Democrats on a platform denouncing protection and the free coinage of silver. He polled only 130, 000 votes. He returned to his profession in 1897 but spent most of his time in editing The Bench and Bar of Illinois (2 vols. , 1899) and in writing his memoirs, Personal Recollections of John M. Palmer: The Story of an Earnest Life (1901). He died in Springfield, Illinois on September 25, 1900.
Achievements
Politics
John Mcauley Palmer changed political parties throughout his life. He started his career as Democrat, but later became a Republican. Thereafter, he became a member of a Liberal Republican party, but returned to being a Democrat.
Views
Quotations:
"I had my own views. I was not a slave of any party. I thought for myself and [have] spoken my own words on all occasions. "
Personality
Physically, John Mcauley Palmer was above the medium height, of robust frame, ruddy complexion and sanguine-nervous temperament. He was a logical and cogent reasoner and an interesting, forcible and convincing speaker, though not fluent or ornate.
Connections
On December 20, 1842, John McAuley Palmer was married to Malinda Ann, the daughter of James Neely of Carlinville, who died in 1885. They had ten children. On April 4, 1888 he was married to Hannah (Lamb) Kimball, the daughter of James Lamb and the widow of L. R. Kimball.