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Stephen B. Elkins (1891–1893)

… worked as territorial district attorney in 1866. In 1867, President Andrew Johnson named Elkins territorial attorney … who had invested in land and mining, founding and presiding over the First National Bank of Santa Fe. By 1890, …

Hoke Smith (1893–1896)

… and as a strong backer of Grover Cleveland. The new President nominated Smith to be interior secretary on March … He was elected governor of Georgia in 1907 and 1911 and presided over the disenfranchisement of Georgia’s …

William Wilkins (1844–1845)

… (later chartered as the Bank of Pittsburgh) and serving as president of the Monongahela Bridge Company. He pursued an … By 1820, Wilkins had left that position to become the presiding judge of the Fifth Pennsylvania Judicial District. …

W. Michael Blumenthal (1977–1979)

… 1954 to 1957. Leaving academia, Blumenthal worked as vice president and director of the Crown Cork International Corporation (1957-1961) and then served President John F. Kennedy as deputy assistant secretary of …

Peter G. Peterson (1972–1973)

… the University of Chicago (1951). Peterson was elected president of Bell and Howell in 1961. During the Nixon administration, he was assistant to the President for international economic affairs (1971-1972) and …

John W. Foster (1892–1893)

… the paper into a forum for Republican politics. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant named Foster the U.S. minister to … Foster held for eleven years before being transferred by President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 to a similar position …

Edward Everett (1852–1853)

… Everett was in England and while there, began serving as President William Henry Harrison’s envoy extraordinary and … recalled him in 1845, and Everett promptly assumed the presidency of Harvard University, where he served for three …

James Buchanan (1845–1849)

… from 1821 to 1831. Buchanan was a major supporter of President Andrew Jackson’s policies, and Jackson rewarded him … in 1856, he was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidency, a position Buchanan had sought since 1844. James …

John H. Eaton (1829–1831)

… winning reelection twice. He left the Senate in 1829 when President Andrew Jackson appointed him secretary of war, a … of Jackson's, Eaton was ostracized by many in the President's cabinet due to his marriage to a woman of low …

James Harlan (1865–1866)

… governor of Iowa. From 1853 to 1855, Harlan served as president of Iowa Wesleyan College, before being elected to … yet again in 1881, Harlan withdrew and served as the presiding judge of the Alabama Claims Commission from 1882 to …

William Jennings Bryan (1913–1915)

… behind him and brought him his party's nomination for the presidency. He would lose the election that November to … war, William Howard Taft. Four years later, Bryan became President Woodrow Wilson's secretary of state. He would … of the British cruise liner Lusitania, fearing that the President's stern warnings to Germany, and Wilson's …

Bainbridge Colby (1920–1921)

… convention to support Theodore Roosevelt's bid for the presidency under the banner of the Progressive, or Bull … Following American entrance into the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Colby to the U.S. Shipping …

William H. Crawford (1817–1825)

… 1813, spending the end of his second term as the senate's president "pro tempore" following the death of Vice-president … secretary of the treasury, serving in the cabinets of Presidents Madison and James Monroe until 1825. Crawford …

Rodney Slater (1997–2001)

… State Highway Commission, chairing the commission in 1992. President Clinton appointed Slater administrator of the …

Mary Lincoln

… had recently entered the American lexicon to describe the President's partner. Mary held elegant buffet dinners, …

Samuel Dexter (1800–1801)

… Senate (1799-1800).In 1800, Dexter accepted an offer from President John Adams to join his cabinet as secretary of war. … a convenient solution for the final months of the Adams presidency. With the arrival of the Jefferson administration …

James Speed (1864–1865)

… for Washington, D.C., where he became an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln. By 1864, Lincoln had tapped Speed … of Edward Bates. Speed served in that capacity until the President’s assassination in 1865; he then remained with new …

James Speed (1865–1866)

… for Washington, D.C., where he became an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln. By 1864, Lincoln had tapped Speed … of Edward Bates. Speed served in that capacity until the President’s assassination in 1865; he then remained with new …

Jack Lew (2013-2017)

… to House Speaker Tip O'Neill, Jr. Lew also served in President Bill Clinton's administration as special assistant to the President from 1993 to 1994, the deputy director of the …

Bess Truman

… and served as a confidante and political adviser. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected Senator Truman as … she told them, "You don't need to know me. I'm only the president's wife and the mother of his daughter."Bess, of …