Walter Q. Gresham

Walter Q. Gresham
Born	Walter Quintin Gresham 17 3, 1832
Birthplace	Lanesville, Indiana, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Attorney, jurist, statesman, politician
Known for	Serving as U.S. Secretary of State, Postmaster General, Secretary of the Treasury, and federal judge
Spouse(s)	Matilda McGrain
Awards	Honorary degree, Indiana University

Walter Quintin Gresham (March 17, 1832 – May 28, 1895) was an American attorney, jurist, statesman, and politician whose career spanned the transformative decades of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Born in a small Indiana town on the eve of deep national division, Gresham rose through law, war, and public service to hold some of the highest offices in the United States government. He served as the 31st United States Postmaster General and briefly as the 35th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Chester A. Arthur, and later as the 33rd United States Secretary of State under President Grover Cleveland. A Union officer wounded in the American Civil War, Gresham also had a distinguished judicial career, serving on the United States District Court for the District of Indiana, the United States Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He was twice a serious candidate for the Republican presidential nomination before crossing party lines to support Cleveland and the Democrats in 1892. Gresham died in office as Secretary of State in 1895, and President Cleveland issued an official proclamation mourning his passing. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Early Life

Walter Quintin Gresham was born on March 17, 1832, in Lanesville, Harrison County, Indiana, a small community in the southern part of the state. Indiana at the time was a relatively young state, having been admitted to the Union only sixteen years earlier, and much of its southern territory retained a frontier character. Gresham's father, William Gresham, was a farmer and local figure; his mother was Sarah Davis Gresham.

Growing up in rural Indiana, Gresham was shaped by the agrarian values and political culture of the antebellum Midwest. Southern Indiana, situated across the Ohio River from slaveholding Kentucky, was a region where questions of slavery, economic development, and national expansion were matters of daily concern. These formative influences would later inform Gresham's political alignments and his views on issues such as tariff policy and territorial expansion.

As a young man, Gresham pursued legal studies and was admitted to the bar in Indiana. He developed an early interest in politics, aligning himself initially with the Whig Party, the dominant political organization among many commercially minded Midwesterners. With the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, Gresham briefly associated with the American Party in 1855 before joining the newly formed Republican Party in 1856, a trajectory common among antislavery Whigs of the era.

Gresham entered public life at a young age. In 1860, he was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, serving a single term from 1860 to 1861. His time in the state legislature coincided with the onset of the secession crisis and the outbreak of the Civil War, events that would dramatically alter the course of his life and career.

Civil War Service

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Gresham left the Indiana legislature to join the Union Army. He rose through the ranks and saw significant combat during the conflict. Gresham served as a colonel and eventually attained the rank of brevet major general of volunteers, reflecting distinguished service in the field.

Gresham participated in several major campaigns in the Western Theater. He was seriously wounded during the Atlanta Campaign in 1864, suffering an injury that would affect him for the rest of his life. The wound was severe enough to effectively end his active military service, though he retained his commission through the end of the war.

His wartime record established Gresham as a figure of prominence in Indiana's Republican circles and among the broader community of Union veterans. Military service was a common pathway to political advancement in the post-war era, and Gresham's battlefield credentials enhanced his standing as he transitioned back to civilian life and the legal profession.

Career

Federal Judiciary: District Court

In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Gresham to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Indiana. He succeeded Judge David McDonald in the position. Gresham held this seat for nearly fourteen years, from September 1, 1869, to April 9, 1883, when he resigned to join the cabinet of President Chester A. Arthur.

During his lengthy tenure on the district court, Gresham presided over a wide array of cases during the turbulent period of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age. The federal judiciary in this period was increasingly called upon to adjudicate disputes involving railroads, corporations, labor, and the expanding scope of federal authority. Gresham developed a reputation as a capable and independent-minded jurist, qualities that brought him to the attention of national political figures.

Postmaster General (1883–1884)

On April 9, 1883, President Chester A. Arthur appointed Gresham as the 31st United States Postmaster General, succeeding Timothy O. Howe, who had died in office. The Post Office Department was at the time one of the largest and most politically significant branches of the federal government, responsible for a vast network of mail delivery across the expanding nation and serving as a major source of patronage appointments.

Gresham served as Postmaster General for approximately seventeen months, from April 1883 to September 1884. During his tenure, he oversaw the operations of the postal system and dealt with the administrative and political challenges inherent in managing one of the government's most sprawling bureaucracies. His performance in the role further elevated his profile within the Arthur administration and the national Republican Party.

Secretary of the Treasury (1884)

In September 1884, following the death of Secretary Charles J. Folger, President Arthur transferred Gresham to serve as the 35th United States Secretary of the Treasury. Gresham's tenure at the Treasury was extremely brief, lasting only from September 5 to October 28, 1884. He served in this capacity essentially as an interim appointee, with Hugh McCulloch succeeding him after Gresham's departure to accept a judicial appointment.

Despite the brevity of his service, Gresham's willingness to step into the Treasury role at a moment of transition demonstrated the trust Arthur placed in him as a capable administrator. The Treasury Department in 1884 was responsible for managing the nation's finances, overseeing customs revenue collection, and maintaining the stability of the currency during a period of ongoing debate over monetary policy, including the silver question.

Presidential Aspirations (1884 and 1888)

Gresham was a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination on two occasions. In 1884, he was mentioned as a potential candidate, though the nomination ultimately went to James G. Blaine. In 1888, Gresham again sought the Republican nomination, this time in a more competitive contest. The 1888 Republican National Convention ultimately nominated Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Indianan and former senator, who went on to defeat the incumbent President Grover Cleveland in the general election.

Indiana occupied a pivotal position in late nineteenth-century presidential politics. As a swing state with significant electoral votes, the state produced a disproportionate number of presidential and vice-presidential candidates during this period. Gresham's candidacies were part of this broader pattern of Indiana's outsized influence on national party politics.

The failure to secure the nomination in 1888, combined with growing disagreements over tariff policy and other issues, contributed to Gresham's increasing disillusionment with the Republican Party. He was a proponent of lower tariffs at a time when the Republican mainstream favored protectionism, and he clashed with party leaders over the direction of economic policy.

Federal Judiciary: Circuit and Appeals Courts (1884–1893)

After his brief stint at the Treasury, Gresham returned to the federal bench. On October 28, 1884, President Arthur appointed him to the United States Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit, succeeding Judge Thomas Drummond. The Seventh Circuit encompassed Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and the circuit court handled a significant volume of important commercial and constitutional litigation.

Gresham served on the circuit court for nearly nine years. When the federal judiciary was reorganized under the Evarts Act of 1891, which established the circuit courts of appeals, Gresham transitioned to the newly created United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on June 16, 1891, by operation of law. He served on the appellate court until March 3, 1893, when he resigned to accept his appointment as Secretary of State. His successor on both courts was James Graham Jenkins.

During his years on the federal bench in the 1880s and early 1890s, Gresham presided over cases that reflected the major economic and social tensions of the Gilded Age, including disputes involving railroads, labor organizations, and the growing power of industrial corporations. His judicial opinions contributed to the development of federal law in the Seventh Circuit during a period of rapid legal evolution.

Departure from the Republican Party

By the early 1890s, Gresham had become deeply dissatisfied with the Republican Party's positions on tariff policy, monetary policy, and what he perceived as the party's increasingly close ties to corporate interests. He was critical of the high protective tariff embodied in the McKinley Tariff of 1890 and believed that the Republican leadership had abandoned the principles of reform and good governance.

In the 1892 presidential election, Gresham made the dramatic decision to leave the Republican Party and support the Democratic candidate, former President Grover Cleveland, in his bid to return to the White House. This was a significant political act for a figure who had been a lifelong Republican and a two-time contender for the party's presidential nomination. Gresham's defection attracted national attention and was seen as emblematic of the broader discontent among reform-minded Republicans, sometimes called Mugwumps, with the direction of their party.

Secretary of State (1893–1895)

Following Cleveland's victory in the 1892 election, the president-elect appointed Gresham as the 33rd United States Secretary of State. Gresham assumed office on March 7, 1893, succeeding John W. Foster. The appointment of a former Republican to head the State Department was seen as both a reward for Gresham's political support and a signal of Cleveland's desire for a bipartisan approach to foreign policy.

As Secretary of State, Gresham oversaw American foreign policy during a period of significant international tension and domestic economic distress. The Panic of 1893 plunged the United States into a severe economic depression shortly after Cleveland took office, and the administration's foreign policy decisions were made against a backdrop of financial crisis and social unrest.

Gresham adopted a foreign policy approach characterized by restraint and opposition to territorial expansion and adventurism. He was skeptical of efforts to annex Hawaii, and under his guidance, the Cleveland administration withdrew the treaty of annexation that had been submitted to the Senate by the outgoing Harrison administration. Gresham believed that the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani in January 1893 had been carried out improperly with the assistance of American officials, and he recommended that the United States seek to restore the Hawaiian monarchy rather than proceed with annexation.

This position placed Gresham at odds with expansionists in both parties who favored American acquisition of Hawaii as a strategic and commercial asset in the Pacific. Cleveland transmitted a special message to Congress regarding the Hawaiian situation, reflecting the administration's cautious approach to the matter.

Gresham also dealt with other foreign policy challenges during his tenure. He managed relations with Great Britain over disputes in the Western Hemisphere, navigated tensions related to the ongoing instability in Latin America, and addressed questions arising from the treatment of American citizens abroad. Throughout, his approach reflected a preference for diplomatic negotiation over military intervention and a wariness of entangling the United States in overseas territorial commitments.

His tenure as Secretary of State has been characterized by later commentators as reflecting a "restrainer" approach to American foreign policy, prioritizing non-intervention and opposing the imperial impulses that would come to dominate American foreign policy by the end of the 1890s.

Personal Life

Walter Q. Gresham married Matilda McGrain, and the couple remained together throughout his career in public service. Matilda Gresham later authored a biography of her husband, Life of Walter Quintin Gresham, 1832–1895, which was published posthumously and provides a detailed account of his personal and professional life drawn from family papers and correspondence.

Gresham's Civil War wound continued to affect his health throughout his later years. Despite his physical limitations, he maintained an active career on the bench and in public life for three decades after the war's conclusion.

Gresham died on May 28, 1895, in Washington, D.C., while still serving as Secretary of State. He was sixty-three years old. President Cleveland issued Proclamation 376 announcing the death of his Secretary of State, honoring Gresham's service to the nation. A death mask was made of Gresham following his passing, a plaster cast that is preserved in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration.

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in recognition of his military and public service. His successor as Secretary of State was Richard Olney, who served for the remainder of Cleveland's second term.

Recognition

Gresham received an honorary degree from Indiana University, his home state's flagship institution of higher education, in recognition of his contributions to law and public service.

President Cleveland's official proclamation upon Gresham's death spoke to the esteem in which the Secretary of State was held by the administration. The proclamation stated that "Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State of the United States, is dead" and directed appropriate observances in recognition of his service.

Gresham's death mask, held by the National Archives, remains a notable artifact from the period. The Archives has featured the mask in public-facing content, noting its historical significance as a record of one of the nation's senior officials from the late nineteenth century.

The city of Gresham, Oregon, while often assumed to be named after Walter Q. Gresham, illustrates the broader cultural footprint of prominent nineteenth-century figures whose names became attached to communities across the expanding nation.

Gresham's career has attracted renewed scholarly and public attention in the twenty-first century, particularly from commentators interested in the history of American foreign policy restraint. His opposition to Hawaiian annexation and his broader skepticism of territorial expansion have been cited as examples of an alternative tradition in American diplomacy that stood against the prevailing tide of late nineteenth-century imperialism.

Legacy

Walter Q. Gresham's career illustrates the fluid and often unpredictable nature of American political life in the second half of the nineteenth century. A man who began as a Whig, briefly joined the American Party, spent decades as a Republican, and ended his career as a Democrat, Gresham defied easy categorization. His willingness to cross party lines based on principle — particularly his opposition to high protective tariffs and his support for governmental reform — set him apart from many of his contemporaries who maintained strict party loyalty throughout their careers.

As a jurist, Gresham served on the federal bench for a cumulative total of over two decades, spanning the district, circuit, and appellate levels. His judicial career coincided with a period of enormous legal change as the federal courts grappled with the consequences of industrialization, the expansion of corporate power, and the evolving relationship between state and federal authority. His transition from the bench to the cabinet and back again reflected the less rigid boundaries between judicial and executive service that characterized the era.

As Secretary of State, Gresham's opposition to the annexation of Hawaii represented a significant foreign policy position that, while ultimately unsuccessful in the long term — Hawaii was annexed in 1898, three years after his death — articulated a coherent vision of American foreign relations rooted in restraint and respect for the sovereignty of other nations. His stance anticipated debates over American imperialism that would intensify during and after the Spanish–American War of 1898.

Gresham's burial at Arlington National Cemetery places him among the honored military and civilian servants of the nation. His biography, written by his wife Matilda, remains a primary source for understanding both the man and the era in which he lived.