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Allen Granbery Thurman

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ALLEN GRANBERY THURMAN (1813-1895), American jurist and statesman, was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, on the 13th of November 1813. In 1819 he removed with his parents to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he attended the local academy for two years, studied law in the office of his uncle, William Allen,' and in 1835 was admitted to the bar, becoming his uncle's law partner. He began to take an active part in politics in 1844, and in 1845-1847 was a Democratic representative in Congress, where he advocated the Wilmot Proviso. From 1851 to February 1856 he was an associate justice of the state supreme court, and from December 1854 was chief justice. He was Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1867, and was defeated by Rutherford B. Hayes by a majority of less than 3000 votes; but the Democrats gained a majority in both branches of the state legislature, and Thurman was elected to the United States Senate, where he served from 1869 until 1881 - during the 46th Congress (1879-1881) as president pro tempore. Here he became the recognized Democratic leader and in 1879-1881 was chairman of the judiciary committee. He contested the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Bill, opposed the resumption of specie payments, advocated the payment of the public debt in silver and supported the Bland-Allison Act. He introduced the Thurman Bill, for which he was chiefly responsible, which became law in May 1878, and readjusted the government's relations with the bond-aided Pacific railways. Thurman was a member of the Electoral Commission of 1877, and was one of the American delegates to the international monetary conference at Paris in 1881. In 1876, 1880 and 1884 he was a candidate for the presidential nomination, and in 1888 was nominated for vice-president on the ticket with Grover Cleveland, but was defeated in the election. He died at Columbus, Ohio, on the 12th of December 1895.