Background
Spooner, John Coit was born on January 6, 1843 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, United States. Son of Judge Philip L. and Lydia (Coit) Spooner.
Spooner, John Coit was born on January 6, 1843 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, United States. Son of Judge Philip L. and Lydia (Coit) Spooner.
He attended the common schools and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1864. He served as private and military secretary to the Governor of Wisconsin, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867, then serving as assistant attorney general of Wisconsin until 1870.
He served in the United States Senate from 1885 to 1891 and from 1897 to 1907. A Republican, by the 1890s he was one of the "Big Four" key Republicans who largely controlled the major decisions of the Senate, along with William B. Allison of Iowa, Nelson West. Aldrich of Rhode Island, and Thomas C. Platt of New New York He chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee.
During the Civil War, he enlisted as a private in the Union Army and at the close of the war was brevetted major.
Spooner moved to Hudson, Wisconsin and practiced law there from 1870 to 1884. He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1884 and served from 1885 to 1891, being defeated for reelection by William F. Vilas.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Claims from 1886 to 1891. Afterwards, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in 1892 and moved back to Madison in 1893.
He was elected to the United States. Senate again in 1897, was reelected in 1903, and served from 1897 until his resignation in 1907.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Canadian Relations from 1897 to 1899 and of the Committee on Rules from 1899 to 1907. As a Senator, he sponsored the Spooner Acting, which directed President Theodore Roosevelt to purchase the Panama Canal Zone. Spooner disagreed with Louisiana Follette"s progressive policies, which were opposed to his own conservative policies.
Spooner was also one of the early opponents of direct primary elections. and would build up a lot of personal machines, and would make every man a self-seeker, and would degrade politics by turning candidacies into bitter personal wrangles."
After his retirement from the Senate, he practiced law in New York City at the firm of Spooner & Cotton until his death.
He died on June 11, 1919 in Manhattan, New York City. He was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin.
John Coit Spooner has been listed as a noteworthy senator by Marquis Who's Who.
A popular figure in Republican politics, he turned down three cabinet posts during his political career: Secretary of the Interior in President William McKinley"s administration in 1898, Attorney General under President McKinley in 1901, and Secretary of State in President William Howard Taft"s administration in 1909. At the time, party nominees were selected by the party officials, sometimes by party bosses. Although the system left much to be desired, Spooner had this to say in description of political campaigns after the reform of direct primary elections:
"Direct primaries would destroy the party machinery.
He was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1872 and was a member of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.
Married Annie East. Main, September 10, 1868.
