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Isaac Wayne MacVeagh
37th United States Attorney General
In office March 5, 1881 – December 15, 1881
Preceded by	Charles Devens
Succeeded by	Benjamin H. Brewster
Born	April 19, 1833(1833-04-19) Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	January 11, 1917 (aged 83) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Republican, Democrat
Alma mater	Yale University
Profession	Lawyer, Politician
Military service
Service/branch	Militia Union Army
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Isaac Wayne MacVeagh (April 19, 1833 – January 11, 1917) was an American politician and diplomat.

[edit] Biography

Born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, he attended Yale University, where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter), and graduated 10th in his class in 1853. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and was District Attorney of Chester County, Pennsylvania, from 1859 through 1864.

He led militia forces organized to battle back threatened Confederate invaders in 1862 and 1863 and served in the Union army during the American Civil War as an infantry captain and as a major in the cavalry.

He became a leader in the Republican party, and was a prominent opponent of his father-in-law, Simon Cameron, in the fight within the party in 1871.

MacVeagh was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey in 1870 through 1871, and was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1872 and 1873. In 1875, he co-founded the Philadelphia-based law firm known today as Dechert LLP.^[1] He also served as chairman of the MacVeagh Commission, sent in 1877 by President Rutherford B. Hayes to Louisiana, which secured the settlement of the contest between the two existing state governments and thus made possible the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the state.

MacVeagh was the 37th Attorney General of the United States in 1881 under President James A. Garfield, but resigned immediately after Garfield's death. In 1892 he supported Grover Cleveland, the Democratic nominee for the presidency, and from 1893 to 1897 was U.S. Ambassador to Italy. He returned to the Republican party in 1896. In 1903 he was chief counsel of the United States before the Hague tribunal in the case regarding the claims of Germany, Britain and Italy against the republic of Venezuela.

His brother Franklin MacVeagh was a U.S. Treasury Secretary.

[edit] See also

United States Army portal

American Civil War portal

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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v • d • e Cabinet of President James A. Garfield (1881) Vice President Chester A. Arthur Secretary of State James G. Blaine Secretary of the Treasury William Windom Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh Postmaster General Thomas Lemuel James Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt Secretary of the Interior Samuel J. Kirkwood

v • d • e Cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885) Vice President None (1881-1885) Secretary of State James G. Blaine (1881) • Frederick Theodore 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 Moore Teller (1882-1885)