Biography

James Birdsall Harlan was born August 26, 1820, in Clark County, Illinois. He graduated from Asbury University in 1845 and was admitted to the bar in 1850. Early on in his life, he was an educator and surveyor. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Free Soil candidate in 1855. He served in the Senate until President Lincoln appointed him Secretary of the Interior in 1865. President Johnson renominated Harlan, but he resigned after one year because of differences over postwar policies. Later in 1866, Harlan resumed his position in the Senate and then became a Federal judge from 1882-1886. His daughter, Mary, became Robert Todd Lincoln’s wife, in 1868. Harlan retired in 1886 and died at his home Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in 1899.