Samuel D. Ingham

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Samuel Delucenna Ingham


image_width=230px
order=9th
title=United States Secretary of the Treasury
term_start=March 6, 1829
term_end=June 20, 1831
predecessor=Richard Rush
successor=Louis McLane
birth_date=September 16, 1779
birth_place=New Hope, Pennsylvania, USA
death_date=death date and age|1860|6|5|1779|9|16
death_place=Trenton, New Jersey, USA
party=Democratic-Republican, Democrat
spouse=
profession=Politician, Lawyer
religion=

Samuel Delucenna Ingham (September 16, 1779 – June 5, 1860) was a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Andrew Jackson.

Early life and education

Born near New Hope, Pennsylvania, after a pursuit of classical studies, he engaged in the manufacture of paper.

Political career

He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1806 to 1808, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1813 to 1818 and again from 1822 to 1829.

During the 13th Congress he was chair of the House Committee on Pensions and Revolutionary War Claims, during the 14th, 15th, 19th and 20th Congresses, he was chair of the House Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads and was also chair of the House Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department during the 15th Congress.

He served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1819 to 1820, and as the ninth Secretary of the U.S. Treasury from March 6, 1829 to June 21, 1831.

The inauguration of President Jackson coincided with the opening of an industrial expansion in the United States and was a symbol of a new government dedicated to the common man—a new Jacksonian democracy.

The Second Bank of the United States, viewed by Jackson and much of the nation as an unconstitutional and dangerous monopoly, was Ingham's primary concern as Secretary of the Treasury—Jackson not only mistrusted the Second Bank of the United States, but all banks.

Jackson thought that there should be no paper currency in circulation, but only coins, and that the U.S. Constitution was designed to expel paper currency as part of the monetary system. Ingham believed in the Second Bank and labored to resolve conflicts between Jackson, who wanted it destroyed, and the Bank's president, Nicholas Biddle.

Ingham was unable to reach any resolution between Jackson and Biddle but he left office over an incident unrelated to the Bank. Unwilling to comply with Jackson's demand that Peggy Eaton, the socially unacceptable wife of Secretary of War John H. Eaton, be invited to Washington social functions, Ingham and several other members of Jackson's cabinet resigned, a scandal known as the Petticoat Affair.

After resigning as Secretary of the Treasury, Ingham resumed the manufacture of paper and also engaged in the development of anthracite coal fields. Ingham died in Trenton, New Jersey and is interred in the Solebury Presbyterian Churchyard, Solebury, Pennsylvania. Ingham County, Michigan, one of several Cabinet counties named for members of Jackson's administration, is named in Ingham's honor.

References