Baltimore & the Fifteenth Amendment, May 19, 1870
An Interactive Historical Investigation by David Troy © 1996
 |
JOHN
A. J. CRESWELL Speaker, Politician, and an Organizer of the Republican Party in Maryland. |
| The HON. JOHN A. J. CRESWELL was an
organizer of the Republican Party in Maryland. He was born in Port
Deposit, Maryland on November 18, 1828. He graduated with the class of
1848 at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and in 1850 was
admitted to the Bar at Elkton, Maryland. Mr. Creswell filled various
elected positions for first the Union and then the Republican Party -
Delegate to the Maryland Legislature, Adjutant General of the State of
Maryland, Representative to the Thirty-Eighth U. S. Congress, U.S.
Senator, and Postmaster General under President Grant. Mr. Creswell was well-known for his eloquence and oratory. During the second session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, he gained national fame with his first important speech, which was made in support of the 13th Amendment. Henry Winter Davis considered this speech, and that of James S. Rollins, " the two ablest delivered in the House on the proposed amendment." On February 22, 1866, while in the Senate, Mr. Creswell delivered his famous oration on the life and character of his friend and colleague, Henry Winter Davis. He was also the keynote speaker at the celebration for the ratification of the 15th Amendment, held in Baltimore. Summarized from the Cecil Whig, February 26, 1876; and The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia, National Biographical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1879. Engraving by American Bank Note Co., New York (from The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia) This information on John Creswell was kindly submitted by Fred Kelso of Port Deposit, MD. |
|
|