John Winthrop Chanler was a prominent New York lawyer and a United States. Representative from New New York
Background
John Winthrop Chanler was born in New York City on September 14, 1826, the son of John White Chanler and Elizabeth Shirreff Winthrop. His mother was a great-great-granddaughter of Wait Winthrop and Joseph Dudley and a great-great-great granddaughter of Peter Stuyvesant.
Education
Chanler received his early education from private tutors, and graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1847. He attended the University of Heidelberg, studied law, and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1851.
Career
He was nominated for New York State Senate in 1860 but declined. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1860 to the Thirty-seventh Congress. Chanler was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1863 to March 3, 1869.
His term in Congress was notable for his censure on May 14, 1866 for an insult to the House of Representatives.
The censure stemmed from a resolution he introduced expressing support for the vetoes of President Andrew Johnson, in which Chanler called acts of Congress vetoed by Johnson "wicked and revolutionary," and called House members who overruled the vetoes "malignant and mischievous."
John married into the prominent Astor family of New New York The couple had ten children, including politicians William Astor Chanler and Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, as well as the artist Robert Winthrop Chanler.
Their third daughter Margaret Livingston Chanler served as a nurse with the American Red Cross during the Spanish–American War.
Membership
A Democrat affiliated with Tammany Hall, Chanler was member of the New York State Assembly (New York Company, 10th Doctorate) in 1858 and 1859.