BIOGRAPHY: John A. Kasson
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

*************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
*************************************************

Page 364

      Honorable JOHN A. KASSON,--Member of Congress from the Fifth Congressional 
District.
	Honorable John A. Kasson is a native of Vermont.  He was born in the Town of 
Charotte, on the east side of Lake Champlain, January 11, 1822.  His life exhibits a career of 
struggle, energy and self-reliance, such as has characterized few men who have risen to 
distinction in the political affairs of the West.  He began early in life to be trained in the 
school of self-support, his father dying when he was only six years of age.  After receiving 
his primary education at the common school, and at a country academy, he prepared for 
college in the City of Burlington, Vermont, where he entered the State University, in 1838, 
and graduated second in his class, in 1842.
	Mr. Kasson's chosen profession was the law, upon the study of which he entered 
immediately after graduating in the office of his brother, Charles D. Kasson, Esq., then a 
distinguished advocate at Burlington; but having little means he was obliged to relinquish 
his studies for a time, and sought employment as a teacher in Virginia.  This circumstance 
had much to do with the tone of his future political action on the slavery question.  While in 
Virginia he saw the enormities of slavery in a nearer and stronger light than ever before, 
which so much increased his repugnance to the institution, that he became its open and 
avowed opponent from that day forward, till slavery was finally wiped out by the 
emanicipation proclamation.
	On his return from Virginia he resumed the study of the law, at Worchester, 
Massachusetts, with Hon, Emery Washburn, afterwards governor of the state , and professor 
in the law school of Harvard University—continuing through many struggles and pecuniary 
embarrassments, which his energy and determination enabled him to successfully meet and 
conquer, till he was finally admitted at Lowell, to practice in the courts of Massachusetts.  
His ambition and determination were such, in relation to his profession, that he chose to 
enter it in the foremost legal state of the Union, and where the sentiment of justice and the 
equality of all men before the law was most in consonance with his own views and feelings.  
The influence of this training Mr. Kasson has never forgot in his political life.
	After his admission to the bar he went to New Bedford, where he entered the law 
office of Timothy Coffin, a famous advocate, especially in marine practice.  Here a year of 
additional study and partial practice, fitted him to form a law-partnership with Hon. Thomas 
D. Eliot, afterwards for many years a member of Congress from that district; and after five 
years practice in the United States and state courts of Eastern Massachusetts, he decided to 
go where a fresher and larger field opened more avenues to a young man for a successful 
career.  Accordingly he came West.  At St. Louis he spent one year in the law office of Hon. 
Joseph Crockett, and becoming familiar with the mode of practice in that state, opened an 
office of his own, speedily gaining a large and lucrative practice from merchants and 
mercantile corporations.  He has often spoken with affection of the late John J. Roe, who 
first enrolled himself as his steady client and firm friend.
	After six years of hard labor in his profession, the climate of St. Louis proved 
unfavorable to his health, and in 1857 he established himself at Des Moines, Iowa, where he 
engaged in the practice of law.  Attention to business, reputation and recognized talents, 
soon gave him a large docket.  The capital had just been removed from Iowa City to Des 
Moines, and Hon. Ralph Lowe elected governor.  He appointed him chairman of the 
commission to examine the condition of the various state offices, and his report, published in 
the state archives, shows careful attention to details and foresight to the safety of the public 
interests, which are characteristic of all his public actions.
	In 1858 he was appointed chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, and 
received praise from all parts of the state for the effective organization of the new party, 
which began to show itself from that time in continually increased majorities.
	In 1860 he was a delegate from Iowa to the National Republican Convention, at 
Chicago, which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the presidency.  He represented his state in the 
committee on the platform.  He was also a member of the sub-committee that drafted the 
platfrom, and the author of the famous resolution declaring  freedom to be the normal 
condition of the territories of the United States.
	His services in harmonizing conflicting views and presenting a platform for the union 
of a majority of the people of the United States, were so eminent that the New York Tribune, 
in a leading editorial, immediately after the convention, declared the party chiefly indebted 
to Mr. Kasson as the principal author of the platform.  He also took the stump at the close of 
the convention, advocating Lincoln's election, in Illinois and Iowa.
	In 1861, at the request of Senator Grimes, supported by the names of several other 
Republican senators, Mr. Kasson was appointed, by President Lincoln, First-Assistant 
Postmaster General .  It was the second nomination made by the President, and was 
confirmed by the senate.  It was a surprise to Mr. Kasson himself, who had neither solicited 
nor expected the office.
	He immediately entered upon the duties of his office, which were greatly increased by 
the disturbance of all party relations, caused by the late civil war.  Nearly the whole burden 
of administering the department devolved upon him, as the Postmaster General gave his 
chief attention to cabinet affairs and the prosecution of the war.  During his service in the 
department covering a period of about two years, he found time not only for the details of 
postal administration, but to revise and codify all the postal laws—to revise the foreign 
postal treaty and to lay the basis for uniformity and great reduction of rated in foreign 
countries.
	In 1862, the State of Iowa became entitled to six representatives in Congress.  The 
new fifth district was composed of twenty-three counties, embracing the capital and nearly 
one-fourth of the territory of the state.  While Mr. K. was at Washington, the first 
Republican convention of the fifth district offered him a nomination for Congress.  He 
accepted it, placed his resignation in the lands of the Postmaster General, and actively 
entered upon the canvass in the joint debate with his Democratic competitor, D. O. Finch.  
This is believed to have been the first introduction in the state of joint debate between 
competitors.  Its effects were to increase largely the Republican vote.  He was elected by 
about 3,000 majority to the thirty-eighth Congress.
	After his election, at the request of the Postmaster General, he returned to Washington 
to complete some unfinished reforms which he had inaugurated in that department.  One of 
these was the amelioration of the service, and could only be effected by concert of action by 
between the governments of Europe and America.  The object was to establish a uniform 
system of postal international accounts, with cheaper and uniform postage.  At the 
suggestion of the Post Office Department, the State Department invited a Congress of postal 
representatives, to meet at Paris, and take all of these questions into consideration, and, if 
possible, to establish common rules as the basis for future conventions.  Mr. Lincoln 
appointed Mr. Kasson to represent the United States in this Congress.  The governments of 
Great Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Prussia, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, 
Spain, the Sandwich Islands, and one or two of the South American Republics, were 
represented in this Congress.  The rules were established have effected great changes in the 
postal intercourse, and have been the basis of all the postal treaties since made by the United 
States.  At the close of the Congress, a vote of thanks was unanimously passed to Mr. 
Kasson and his Government for the beneficent work they had inaugurated.
	In 1864 he was re-elected, after a joint debate through the district with his 
Democratic opponent, M. D. McHenry, by about 6,000 majority.  As a member of Congress 
he was a worker, and has left a record that will live in history through all coming time.
      We find, by reference to the Congressional Globe, commencing with the volume dated Dec.
 1863, that John A. Kasson, as a member of Ways and Means Committee--Thaddeus Stevens, 
Chairman--took prominent part with, and was the trusted aid of, that Republican veteran, 
in fighting successfully, among other things, for a national banking system--advocating 
with gifted mind and the stern logic of facts, the nation's cause, and meeting successfully 
the sophistries of Pruyn, Kernan, and other shining lights on the Democratic side.
      He took active and prominent part in conducting the debates on the various bills for 
appropriations necessary to save the nation's life.
      He sustained with eloquence and patriotic devotion the enrollment and conscription 
act, providing for prompt and ample support to our soldiers in the field, and in aid of 
the military operations against the rebellion; making a speech with telling force in favor 
of calling out colored men and engrafting them in the military service.
      He advocated the abolition of the abuses of the franking privilege.
      He advocated and urged the reservation of mineral property for the use of the men 
who would work the lodes.
      He reported, as chairman of the committee on Coinage and Weights and Measures, and 
had passed bills abolishing the three and 5 cents paper money nuisances, and substituting 
coins therefor.
      He had to Iowa land grant law so amended as to secure future grants from becoming 
great monopolies, and lands from being tied up for years, and settlement thereof impeded, 
and compelling lands to be sold at public auction within a limited time, unless previously 
sold at private sale.
      He procured the revision of the postal laws lowering and making uniform rates of postage.
      He was a strong prop and one of the reliable supports to the Freedmen's Bureau for the 
protection of the freedmen.
      He spoke with burning eloquence and patriotic appeal in favor of rescuing our sick and 
imprisoned soldiers from the enemy by more speedy exchange of prisoners.
      His great speech (in January 1865) in favor of the amendment of the United States 
Constitution for the emancipation of all the slaves in the United States, was alike credible to 
Republican Iowa and her honored representative, and elicited the applause of the good ingrate 
of every nation.  The Democratic members pronounced it the most convincing and unanswerable 
speech made on the Republican side of the House.  The Republican members attested their 
appreciation of it by subscribing for many thousand copies for distribution throughout the 
country.  The entire speech shows itself to be the work of her master mind.  To give extracts 
to illustrate the train of argument would be impossible in the brief space which we have at our 
disposal.  As an able debater and a smooth, fluent orator, Mr. Kasson stands in the front link 
in the Western States, and has few superiors anywhere in the country.
      Reelected to the 39th Congress, he was again assigned to duty on the Ways and Means 
Committee, and, although the committee was divided, and separate duties assigned its members, 
Thaddeus Stevens and Mr. Kasson were inseparable, and their special work devoted to 
appropriations.  To enumerate the bills in Mr. Kasson's charge, or make mention of all the 
debates in which he took permanent part, is not possible in the short space here allotted.
      He advocated and secured an amendment to the proposed Bankrupt Act, so as to save the 
homestead of the debtor (as under the laws of Iowa).
      The Civil Rights Bill was also ably advocated by him and he worked and voted to pass it 
over to President Johnson's veto.
      The Freedman's Bureau was again sustained by his help, until other securities were 
obtained for the freedmen.
      He advocated Hale's Qualifying Amendment to the Suffrage Bill, in the District of 
Columbia, as endorsed by a full of Republican caucus.  That amendment being defeated, he voted 
for the Universal Suffrage Bill, which was passed, and again voted to guess it over Mr. 
Johnson's veto.
      He worked and voted for Thaddeus Stevens' Reconstruction Committee.
      He worked and voted for the passage of the Reconstruction Bill over the veto of President 
Johnson.
      He introduced and made a speech in favor of a Declaratory Act--which passed the House--to 
enforce the Thirteenth (emancipation) Amendment, and prohibit the sale of freedmen back to 
slavery for fines, as was done in Maryland.
      He introduced and advocated the passage of a bill to prevent whipping and other cruel 
punishment of freedmen in the Southern States.
      He introduced and passed through the House of bill to transfer the control of Indian 
affairs to the War Department, and to regulate the management of Indian tribes.
      As Chairman of the Committee on Weights and Measures, he reported bills which which [sic] 
passed the House and Senate for including an legalizing a decimal system of weights and 
measures, uniform throughout the United States.  The report accompanying the bill is a document 
which will take its place with that of Thomas Jefferson and John Q.  Adams on the same 
subjects.
      In the numerous debates in general legislation, more of a business than of a political 
character, we find him an active participant, and a clear, forcible, and influential debater.
      In 1866 a combination of personal and political interests, while Mr. Kasson was yet 
engaged in his duties at Washington, defeated his renomination for a third term, after 
78 ballots in the convention.  This result gave dissatisfaction to the friends of Mr. Kasson, 
which soon kindled into a spirited division in the party--a disgrace in itself, and one that 
should not be countenanced by the well wishers of a good society.  It is hoped that the 
disaffection has now seen its end.
      At the close of his Congressional service, in March 1867, he was solicited by the 
Postmaster General to undertake the negotiation of definitive postal treaties with various 
European governments.  He sailed in April, of that year, on this mission, and negotiated new 
treaties with Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, thus 
gathering in the fruits of his labors in the Postal Congress of 1863, by reducing the rates of 
postage to about one-half of the previous tariff.
      During his absence on this duty his fellow-citizens of Polk County nominated and elected 
ham to the General Assembly of the State, and have ever since insisted upon re-electing him to 
the same office, whether he was at home or absent.
      In 1870 he made an extended to work, embracing southern Europe, Egypt, the Holy Land, 
Syria, Turkey and Greece.  It was not a mere trip of pleasure, but was made profitable in 
studying the customs, manners, religion and systems of government of the various nations which 
he visited, besides during his mind with a better knowledge of the lines and development of his 
race.
      In the Summer of 1872 he was called upon to become a candidate for Congress, and after a 
short contest with his competitors, was nominated by a decisive majority, in the congressional 
convention, a 50 against 24 votes, and was elected to the 43rd Congress, and is read-elected to 
the 44th and Centennial Congress, being his fourth term of service of his district in that 
capacity.  In the 43rd Congress he was still a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
      Mr. Kasson is not an office seeker.  In nearly every instance the office has sought the 
man.  Twice he was nominated and elected to the Legislature, while absent, and was nominated 
for boldest terms in Congress, while in performance of his duty at Washington.
      Such is a brief record of John A. Kasson.  Few men of his age have a more brilliant one, 
and few, if any, ever held a more confidential place in the hearts of the people.  In all his 
relations to society, he realizes that he is one of the people, and that their interests are 
his interests, and in their prosperity alone can he prosper.  Self-made and self-reliant, with 
his nerve-force and well-power, he is destined to carve a niche still higher in the scroll of 
fame, as a worthy, well tried, and true serving of the people.