Timothy O. Howe

"Senator Howe" redirects here. For other uses, see Senator Howe (disambiguation).

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, District of Maine, Massachusetts, 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

Timothy Otis Howe (February 24, 1816 – March 25, 1883) was an American lawyer, jurist, Republican politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a United States senator for three terms, representing the state of Wisconsin from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1879. He later served as the 30th 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, at the time that the Wisconsin Supreme Court was simply a panel of the state's circuit court judges.

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. 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. 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. In 1861, Howe ran again and won election to the Senate, 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." During this time he was considered one of the "Radical Republicans" due to his support for racial equality and his opposition to discrimination.

1865 Congressional Hearings chaired by Senator Doolittle looked into Sioux Complaints from the Yankton and Dakota tribes. 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.

Electoral history

U.S. House of Representatives (1848)

Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District Election, 1848

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

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, November 6, 1849
	Democratic	Samuel Beall	16,446	52.33%	−5.37pp
	Whig	Timothy O. Howe	10,983	34.95%	−7.35pp
	Free Soil	John Bannister	3,976	12.65%
		Scattering	21	0.07%
Plurality			5,463	17.38%	+1.98pp
Total votes			31,426	100.0%	-7.40%
	Democratic hold

U.S. Senate (1861)

United States Senate Election in Wisconsin, 1861

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Vote of the 14th Wisconsin Legislature, January 23, 1861
	Republican	Timothy O. Howe	92	72.44%
	Democratic	Henry L. Palmer	34	26.77%
		Absent or not voting	1	0.79%
Plurality			58	45.67%
Total votes			127	100.0%
	Republican hold

Sources consulted

• Wisconsin Supreme Court biographical sketch

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

Further reading

• William H. Russell, "Timothy O. Howe, Stalwart Republican," Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 35, no. 2 (Winter 1951), pp. 90–99. In JSTOR