Timothy O. Howe

The Honorable
Timothy O. Howe
The Honorable Timothy O. Howe
30th United States Postmaster General
	In office; December 20, 1881 – March 25, 1883
President	Chester A. Arthur
Preceded by	Thomas Lemuel James
Succeeded by	Walter Q. Gresham
United States Senator; from Wisconsin
	In office; March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1879
Preceded by	Charles Durkee
Succeeded by	Matthew H. Carpenter
Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
	ex officio
	In office; January 1, 1851 – June 1, 1853
Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge for the 4th Circuit
	In office; January 1, 1851 – 1855
Preceded by	Alexander W. Stow
Succeeded by	William R. Gorsline
Personal details
Born	Timothy Otis Howe; February 24, 1816; Livermore, Maine, U.S.
Died	March 25, 1883 (aged 67); Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery ; Green Bay, Wisconsin
Political party	Republican; Whig (before 1854);
Spouses	Linda Ann Haines; (died 1881);
Children	Mary (Totten); (b. 1844; died 1913); Frank Howard Howe; (b. 1850; died 1897);
Education	Maine Wesleyan Seminary

Timothy Otis Howe (February 24, 1816 – March 25, 1883) was a member of the United States Senate for three terms, representing the state of Wisconsin from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1879. He also served as U.S. Postmaster General under President Chester A. Arthur from 1881 until his death in 1883. Earlier in his career, he was a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.^[1]

Biography

Howe was born in Livermore, Maine (then, part of the commonwealth of Massachusetts), to Timothy Howe and Betsey Howard, attended Readfield Seminary now Kents Hill School, in Readfield, Maine, and studied law with local judges.^[2] In 1839, Howe was admitted to the Maine Bar and began practicing law in Readfield. In 1845, he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives.^[3] Shortly thereafter, Howe moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and opened a law office. He was an ardent Whig and ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Congress in 1848.

Howe married Linda Ann Haines and together the couple had 2 children, Mary E. Howe and Frank K. Howe.

Howe was elected circuit judge in Wisconsin and served in that position from 1851 to 1855. As a circuit judge, he also served as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court until a separate Supreme Court was organized in 1853.

In 1857, Howe ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.^[4] In 1861, Howe ran again and won election to the Senate,^[4] serving during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. During his time in the Senate, he was an abolitionist and supporter of the Fifteenth Amendment. Howe argued against the claims of contemporary Democrats that blacks were inherently racially inferior, and remarked that their claim that abolition would cause a war of racial extermination was "a libel upon humanity, black or white."^[5] During this time he was considered one of the "Radical Republicans" due to his support for racial equality and his opposition to discrimination.^[6]

1865 Congressional Hearings chaired by Senator Doolittle looked into Sioux Complaints from the Yankton and Dakota tribes.^[7] The Senator found: "Many agents, teachers, and employees of the government, are inefficient, faithless, and even guilty of peculations are fraudulent practices upon the government and upon the Indians." Yankton Chief Medicine Cow testified that Government Agents were the cause of the Minnesota problems. What those agents did in Minnesota was a harbinger of the history coming for the other tribes of the plains.

While in the Senate, President Ulysses S. Grant offered Howe the position of Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Howe declined the offer because he feared his successor to the Senate would be a Democrat. Howe lost his senate seat in 1879 to fellow Republican Matthew H. Carpenter. In 1881, he was appointed United States Postmaster General by President Chester A. Arthur, a position he held until his death in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on March 25, 1883.^[4]

Electoral history

U.S. House of Representatives (1848)

Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District Election, 1848^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
General Election, November 7, 1848
	Democratic	James Duane Doty	5,746	50.34%
	Whig	Timothy O. Howe	3,338	29.24%
	Free Soil	Stoddard Judd	2,330	20.41%
Plurality			2,408	21.10%
Total votes			11,414	100.0%
	Democratic win (new seat)

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor (1849)

Wisconsin Lieutenant Gubernatorial Election, 1849^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 6, 1849
	Democratic	Samuel Beall	16,355	52.59%	−5.11%
	Whig	Timothy O. Howe	10,757	34.59%	−7.71%
	Free Soil	John Bannister	3,985	12.81%
Plurality			5,598	18.00%	+2.60%
Total votes			31,097	100.0%	-8.37%
	Democratic hold

Sources consulted

Wisconsin Supreme Court biographical sketch

United States Congress. "Timothy O. Howe (id: H000856)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Footnotes

^ www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2270&search_term=howe
^ "Kents Hill School Notables".
^ politicalgraveyard.com/bio/howarth-howe.html
^ ^a ^b ^c "Post Master General Howe Dead". Greensboro North State. March 29, 1883. p. 2. Retrieved March 29, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Oakes, James (2013). Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865. W.W. Norton. p. 451.
^ War and Taxes By Steven A. Bank, Kirk J. Stark, Joseph J. Thorndike pg. 39
^ Speeches to the Special Joint Committee on the Condition Of the Indian Tribes, 1865, Senator James R. Doolittle of Wisconsin sub-committee chairman [1]
^ "Wisconsin U.S. House Election Results" (PDF). Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 5, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
^ "Official Canvass". Wisconsin Democrat. December 15, 1849. p. 3. Retrieved December 19, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.

v t e United States senators from Wisconsin
Class 1	Dodge Doolittle Carpenter Cameron Sawyer Mitchell Quarles La Follette Sr. La Follette Jr. McCarthy Proxmire Kohl Baldwin
Class 3	Walker Durkee Howe Carpenter Cameron Spooner Vilas Spooner Stephenson Husting Lenroot Blaine Duffy Wiley Nelson Kasten Feingold Johnson

v t e United States Postmasters General
Confederal	Franklin Bache Hazard
Federal	Osgood Pickering Habersham G. Granger Meigs McLean
Cabinet level Post Office Department	Barry Kendall Niles F. Granger Wickliffe Johnson Collamer Hall Hubbard Campbell A. Brown Holt King Blair Dennison Randall Creswell Marshall Jewell Tyner Key Maynard James Howe Gresham Hatton Vilas Dickinson Wanamaker Bissell Wilson Gary Smith Payne Wynne Cortelyou Meyer Hitchcock Burleson Hays Work New W. Brown Farley Walker Hannegan Donaldson Summerfield Day Gronouski O'Brien Watson Blount
U.S. Postal Service	Blount Klassen Bailar Bolger Carlin Casey Tisch Frank Runyon Henderson Potter Donahoe Brennan DeJoy

v t e Cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885)
Secretary of State	James G. Blaine (1881) Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (1881–1885)
Secretary of the Treasury	William Windom (1881) Charles J. Folger (1881–1884) Walter Q. Gresham (1884) Hugh McCulloch (1884–1885)
Secretary of War	Robert Todd Lincoln (1881–1885)
Attorney General	Wayne MacVeagh (1881) Benjamin H. Brewster (1881–1885)
Postmaster General	Thomas Lemuel James (1881) Timothy O. Howe (1881–1883) Walter Q. Gresham (1883–1884) Frank Hatton (1884–1885)
Secretary of the Navy	William H. Hunt (1881–1882) William E. Chandler (1882–1885)
Secretary of the Interior	Samuel J. Kirkwood (1881–1882) Henry M. Teller (1882–1885)

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	Germany United States Israel
People	US Congress
Other	SNAC

The Honorable Timothy O. Howe


30th United States Postmaster General
In office December 20, 1881 – March 25, 1883
President	Chester A. Arthur
Preceded by	Thomas Lemuel James
Succeeded by	Walter Q. Gresham
United States Senator from Wisconsin
In office March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1879
Preceded by	Charles Durkee
Succeeded by	Matthew H. Carpenter
Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court
ex officio
In office January 1, 1851 – June 1, 1853
Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge for the 4th Circuit
In office January 1, 1851 – 1855
Preceded by	Alexander W. Stow
Succeeded by	William R. Gorsline

Personal details
Born	Timothy Otis Howe (1816-02-24)February 24, 1816 Livermore, Maine, U.S.
Died	March 25, 1883(1883-03-25) (aged 67) Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery Green Bay, Wisconsin
Political party	Republican Whig (before 1854)
Spouses	Linda Ann Haines (died 1881)
Children	Mary (Totten) ^{(b. 1844; died 1913)} Frank Howard Howe ^{(b. 1850; died 1897)}
Education	Maine Wesleyan Seminary

Legal offices
Preceded by Alexander W. Stow	Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge for the 4th Circuit 1851 – 1855	Succeeded by William R. Gorsline
U.S. Senate
Preceded by Charles Durkee	U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Wisconsin 1861 – 1879 Served alongside: James R. Doolittle (1861–1869) Matthew H. Carpenter (1869–1875) Angus Cameron (1875–1879)	Succeeded by Matthew H. Carpenter
Political offices
Preceded by Thomas L. James	United States Postmaster General Served under: Chester A. Arthur 1881 – 1883	Succeeded by Walter Q. Gresham