John Y. Mason

John Young Mason
16th United States Secretary of the Navy 18th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office March 26, 1844 – March 4, 1845 September 10, 1846 – March 4, 1849
Preceded by	Thomas W. Gilmer George Bancroft
Succeeded by	George Bancroft William B. Preston
18th United States Attorney General
In office March 5, 1845 – October 16, 1846
President	James K. Polk
Preceded by	John Nelson
Succeeded by	Nathan Clifford
Personal details
Born	(1799-04-18)April 18, 1799 Greensville County, Virginia, U.S.
Died	October 3, 1859(1859-10-03) (aged 60) Paris, France
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Mary Ann Fort Mason
Alma mater	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Judge, Planter

John Young Mason (April 18, 1799 – October 3, 1859) was an American politician, diplomat, and United States federal judge.

Early life, education, and career [edit]

Born in Hicksford, Greensville County, Virginia, Mason attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a member of Philanthropic Assembly. Mason graduated in 1816, and then read law at Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut to be admitted to the Southampton County, Virginia, bar in 1819. He had a private law practice in Southampton County from 1821 to 1831.

He married the daughter of a prominent land-owner in 1821 and became a planter himself, as well as continuing as a lawyer.

Political activities [edit]

He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1823 to 1827 and a in the Virginia State Senate from 1827 to 1831, was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1829-1830, and from 1831 to 1837 served in the United States House of Representatives (the 22nd, 23rd and 24th United States Congresses), chairing the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1835 to 1836. During this time, he was an active supporter of most elements of Andrew Jackson's presidency, but was also a staunch advocate of states' rights. Jackson approved the appointment of George H. Thomas to the U.S. Military Academy in 1836 on his recommendation. Mason later served as a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention of 1850.

Federal judicial service [edit]

On February 26, 1841, Mason was nominated by President Martin Van Buren to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia vacated by the elevation of Peter Vivian Daniel to the Supreme Court of the United States. Mason was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 2, 1841, and received his commission the following day. He resigned from the bench on March 23, 1844, to take a cabinet post.

Cabinet service [edit]

Mason was the U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 1844 to 1845 in President John Tyler's Cabinet and then U.S. Attorney General and then again Secretary of the Navy from 1846 to 1849, succeeding George Bancroft, under President James K. Polk.

The period of Mason's service as Navy Secretary was marked by intense Congressional pressure for economy, requiring the decommissioning of the Navy's ships of the line and making it difficult to maintain a continuous naval presence on foreign stations. The construction of floating drydocks for several Navy Yards, the simplification of the Navy's ordnance system, an expansion of the Navy's scientific endeavors and the formalization of status of the naval engineers also marked Mason's first term as Secretary.

His second term was marked by efforts to sustain the Navy's combat forces in the Gulf of Mexico and along the far-distant Pacific coast, the beginning of construction of new steamers and an effort to obtain potential warships thorough the subsidization of civilian mail steamships. The latter was an early, and ultimately unsuccessful, experiment in public-private partnership.

Later life [edit]

He was in private legal practice from 1849 to 1854 and served as President of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1851 and from 1853, until his death in Paris, France in 1859, the U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France. In this capacity he attracted attention by wearing at the court of Napoleon III a simple diplomatic uniform (for this he was rebuked by U.S. Secretary of State William L. Marcy, who had ordered American ministers to wear a plain civilian costume), and by joining with James Buchanan and Pierre Soulé, ministers to Great Britain and Spain respectively, in drawing up (October 1854) the famous Ostend Manifesto.

In politics he was a typical Virginian of the old school, a states rights Democrat, upholding slavery and hating abolitionism.

After his death in Paris, his remains were conveyed to the United States and interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

USS Mason (DD-191) from 1920 to 1940, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy John Y. Mason.

John Y. Mason's Home historical marker

References [edit]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

• John Y. Mason at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• John Y. Mason at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Further reading [edit]

• Williams, Frances Leigh (1967). "The Heritage and Preparation of a Statesman, John Young Mason, 1799-1859". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75 (3): 305–330. JSTOR 4247323. 

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Y. Mason

• John Y. Mason at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

v t e United States Department of the Navy leadership Secretaries Cabinet level Stoddert Smith Hamilton Jones Crowninshield S Thompson Southard Branch L. Woodbury Dickerson Paulding Badger Upshur Henshaw Gilmer Mason Bancroft Mason Preston Graham Kennedy Dobbin Toucey Welles Borie Robeson R Thompson Goff Hunt Chandler Whitney Tracy Herbert Long Moody Morton Bonaparte Metcalf Newberry Meyer Daniels Denby Wilbur Adams Swanson Edison Knox Forrestal Dept. of Defense Sullivan Matthews Kimball Anderson Thomas T. Gates Franke Connally Korth Nitze Ignatius Chafee Warner Middendorf Claytor Hidalgo Lehman Webb Ball Garrett O'Keefe Dalton Danzig England Winter Mabus Under Secretaries Forrestal Bard A. Gates Sullivan Kenney Kimball Whitehair Thomas T. Gates Franke Bantz Fay BeLieu Baldwin Baird Warner Sanders Middendorf Potter Macdonald Woolsey Murray Goodrich Garrett Howard Danzig Hultin Pirie Livingstone Aviles Work Assistant Secretaries Pre-1954 Fox Faxon Soley McAdoo T. Roosevelt Sr. Allen Hackett Darling Newberry Satterlee Winthrop F. Roosevelt G. Woodbury T. Roosevelt Jr. Robinson Jahncke H. Roosevelt Edison Compton Bard Hensel Kenney Andrews Koehler Askins Fogler Post-1954 Financial Management and Comptroller Installations and Environment Manpower and Reserve Affairs Research, Development and Acquisitions General Counsel of the Navy defunct: Air Installations and Logistics Material Research and Development Research, Engineering and Systems Shipbuilding and Logistics

v t e United States Attorneys General Randolph Bradford Lee Lincoln Breckinridge Rodney Pinkney Rush Wirt Berrien Taney Butler Grundy Gilpin Crittenden Legaré Nelson Mason Clifford Toucey Johnson Crittenden Cushing Black Stanton Bates Speed Stanbery Evarts Hoar Akerman Williams Pierrepont Taft Devens MacVeagh Brewster Garland Miller Olney Harmon McKenna Griggs Knox Moody Bonaparte Wickersham McReynolds Gregory Palmer Daugherty Stone Sargent W D Mitchell Cummings Murphy Jackson Biddle T C Clark McGrath McGranery Brownell Rogers Kennedy Katzenbach W R Clark J N Mitchell Kleindienst Richardson Saxbe Levi Bell Civiletti Smith Meese Thornburgh Barr Reno Ashcroft Gonzales Mukasey Holder

v t e Cabinet of President John Tyler (1841–1845) Vice President None (1841–1845) Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1841–1843) Abel P. Upshur (1843–1844) John C. Calhoun (1844–1845) Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Ewing (1841) Walter Forward (1841–1843) John C. Spencer (1843–1844) George M. Bibb (1844–1845) Secretary of War John Bell (1841) John C. Spencer (1841–1843) James M. Porter (1843–1844) William Wilkins (1844–1845) Attorney General John J. Crittenden (1841) Hugh S. Legaré (1841–1843) John Nelson (1843–1845) Postmaster General Francis Granger (1841) Charles A. Wickliffe (1841–1845) Secretary of the Navy George E. Badger (1841) Abel P. Upshur (1841–1843) David Henshaw (1843–1844) Thomas W. Gilmer (1844) John Y. Mason (1844–1845)

v t e Cabinet of President James K. Polk (1845–1849) Vice President George M. Dallas (1845–1849) Secretary of State James Buchanan (1845–1849) Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker (1845–1849) Secretary of War William L. Marcy (1845–1849) Attorney General John Y. Mason (1845–1846) Nathan Clifford (1846–1848) Isaac Toucey (1848–1849) Postmaster General Cave Johnson (1845–1849) Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft (1845–1846) John Y. Mason (1846–1849)