John Weiss Forney

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John Wien Forney

Clerk of the United States House of Representatives
In office 1851-12-01 – 1856-02-03
Preceded by	Richard M. Young
Succeeded by	William Cullom
In office 1860-02-03 – 1861-07-03
Preceded by	James C. Allen
Succeeded by	Emerson Etheridge
Secretary of the United States Senate
In office 1861-07-15 – 1868-06-04
Preceded by	Asbury Dickins
Succeeded by	George C. Gorham

Born	September 30, 1817(1817-09-30) Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Died	December 9, 1881 (aged 64)
Political party	Republican

John Weiss Forney (1817-09-13–1881-12-09) was an American journalist and politician. He was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania and at the age of 16 entered the printing office of the Lancaster Journal. Four years later he purchased the Lancaster Intelligencer, and in 1840 he became proprietor of the Journal and combined the two papers under the name of the Intelligencer and Journal. In 1845 President James K. Polk appointed him deputy surveyor of the port of Philadelphia, where he purchased a half interest in the Pennsylvanian, a Democratic paper of great influence, which under his editorial control attained a national importance. From 1851 to 1855 he was Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and he edited the Union, the organ of the Northern Democrats. He conducted James Buchanan's successful campaign for the presidency, and Buchanan would have given him a cabinet office if the appointment had been more popular in the South. Buchanan's influence was not strong enough to win Forney a seat in the United States Senate, which went instead to Simon Cameron. In August 1857, Forney established the Philadelphia Press. At first a Douglas Democrat, he became, in the latter days of the Buchanan administration, a Republican and contributed to the organization of that party and its early successes. From 1859 to 1861, he was a second time clerk of the House, and he published in Washington, D.C. the Sunday Morning Chronicle, which in 1862 was changed to a daily, and was throughout the Civil War looked upon as the organ of the Lincoln administration. After serving as Secretary of the United States Senate from 1861 to 1868, he disposed of his interest in the Chronicle and returned to Philadelphia where in 1871 he was made collector of the port by Presidemt Ulysses S. Grant. He was an earnest promoter of the Centennial Exposition and visited Europe in its interest in 1875. In 1877 he sold the Press and established a weekly, the Progress, which he edited until his death. In 1880 he left the Republican Party and supported Winfield Scott Hancock for the presidency. He is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

[edit] Authored

Letters from Europe (1869)
What I Saw in Texas (1872)
Anecdotes of Public Men (two volumes, 1873)
Forty Years of American Journalism (1877)
The New Nobility (1881)

[edit] Sources

McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania (1905)
This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.