Background

Thompson was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1809. He was the son of William Mills Thompson, a merchant and lawyer, and Catherine Wigginton (Broadus) Thompson. His great-grandfather, the Rev. John Thompson, born near Belfast, Ireland, emigrated to Virginia in 1739. His mother was the daughter of Maj. William Broadus, an officer of the Revolution.

Education

Thompson received a "good English and classical education. "

Career

When twenty-two years old he left Virginia and after a short residence in Louisville, Ky. , settled in Lawrence County, Ind. , where he taught school, worked in a store, and studied law at night. Coincident with his migration he sloughed off most of the political and cultural viewpoints that had been the heritage of his Virginia birth and took on those predominant in his adopted community.

In 1834 he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at Bedford. For four terms, 1834 to 1838, he was a member of the Indiana legislature; and in 1840 and again in 1846 he was elected to the Senate. In 1843 he moved to Terre Haute.

On several occasions Thompson was a presidential elector, first on the Whig and later on the Republican ticket. Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, and Lincoln made him proffers of offices, but he declined. He was active in the secession controversies and during the Civil War served as provost marshal for the Terre Haute district. He was a delegate to Republican National Conventions in 1868, 1876, and 1892, and in the last named nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presidency.

In 1877 he was appointed secretary of the navy in the Hayes administration (appointment confirmed, March 10, 1877). It has been affirmed that this was the only major appointment made by Hayes that was "dictated entirely by political considerations and it was the only bad one". While holding this post he took the chairmanship of the American Committee of the Panama Canal Company at a salary of $25, 000 yearly, thinking this no bar to his retaining his post in the cabinet, whereupon Hayes notified him "that his resignation (unoffered) had been accepted".

Apart from politics and law the major interests of Thompson's life were speech-making and writing, and to these he devoted himself tirelessly whenever opportunity offered. His published writings include two volumes of historical essays, Recollections of Sixteen Presidents (1894), of considerable literary and historical merit; The History of Protective Tariff Laws (1888), a work of special pleading; and two volumes of polemics against the Catholic Church, The Papacy and the Civil Power (1876) and The Footprints of the Jesuits (1894), written, it has been said, while Thompson was "manifestly inspired by an undue fear of the Pope's protruding his official sway into American political life".

He died in Terre Haute, Ind.

Achievements

• He was the first to send American warships to Korea to open trade with that country. Thompson also opened Naval recruiting offices throughout the country. The United States Navy destroyer USS Thompson (DD-305) was named in his honor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Footprints of the Jesuits (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Footprints of the Jesuits The civil ins...)

  • Recollections of Sixteen Presidents from Washington to Lincoln Volume 2

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • The History of Protective Tariff Laws

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • The Papacy and the Civil Power

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Recollections of Sixteen Presidents from Washington to Lincoln Volume 1

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Richard W. Thompson: Memorial (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Richard W. Thompson: Memorial Richard Wiggi...)

Politics

Extremely partisan in politics, intolerant in religion, a lobbyist for railroads, Thompson was throughout his active life a figure about whom angry controversy swirled. Few of his contemporaries among public men were so frequently attacked on ethical grounds.

Membership

He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Alabama (Psi chapter), and an active Freemason and member of Terre Haute Lodge No. 19, F&AM, serving as the Master of Terre Haute Lodge No. 19 in 1859 & 1860.

Personality

In his personal relations Thompson was "a man of benevolence and unassuming manners, " and throughout his life had hosts of friends, among them many who were at times his out-spoken critics. In his old age the people of his state applied to him the affectionate designation of "the Grand Old Man. " He loved children and never let pass an opportunity to be in their company. In his habits he was temperate, except in respect to smoking; for fifty years prior to his death he smoked an average of twenty cigars a day.

Connections

On May 5, 1836, he married Harriet Eliza Gardiner (d. Mar. 25, 1888), who bore him eight children.

Father:

William Mills Thompson

1775–1837

Mother:

Catherine Wigginton (Broadus) Thompson

Spouse:

Harriet Eliza Gardiner Thompson

1811–1888