Michael C. Kerr
American politician (1827–1876)
title: "Michael C. Kerr" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1827-births", "1876-deaths", "people-from-titusville,-pennsylvania", "speakers-of-the-united-states-house-of-representatives", "people-from-new-albany,-indiana", "democratic-party-united-states-representatives-from-indiana", "university-of-louisville-school-of-law-alumni", "19th-century-deaths-from-tuberculosis", "tuberculosis-deaths-in-virginia", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "19th-century-members-of-the-indiana-general-assembly"] description: "American politician (1827–1876)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_C._Kerr" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American politician (1827–1876) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Michael C. Kerr |
| image | Michael C. Kerr - Brady-Handy (cropped).jpg |
| caption | Kerr, 1865–1876 |
| order | 28th |
| office | Speaker of the United States House of Representatives |
| term_start | December 6, 1875 |
| term_end | August 19, 1876 |
| predecessor | James G. Blaine |
| successor | Samuel J. Randall |
| office3 | Leader of the House Democratic Caucus |
| term_start3 | December 6, 1875 |
| term_end3 | August 19, 1876 |
| predecessor3 | James Lawrence Orr |
| successor3 | Samuel J. Randall |
| office4 | Member of the |
| U.S. House of Representatives | |
| from Indiana | |
| term_start4 | March 4, 1875 |
| term_end4 | August 19, 1876 |
| predecessor4 | William S. Holman |
| successor4 | Nathan T. Carr |
| constituency4 | 3rd district |
| term_start5 | March 4, 1865 |
| term_end5 | March 3, 1873 |
| constituency5 | 2nd district |
| predecessor5 | James A. Cravens |
| successor5 | Simeon K. Wolfe |
| office6 | Member of the Indiana House of Representatives |
| term6 | 1856–1857 |
| birth_name | Michael Crawford Kerr |
| birth_date | March 15, 1827 |
| birth_place | Titusville, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| death_date | August 19, 1876 (aged 49) |
| death_place | Rockbridge County, Virginia, U.S. |
| party | Democratic |
| alma_mater | University of Louisville |
| profession | Lawyer |
| :: |
| name = Michael C. Kerr | image = Michael C. Kerr - Brady-Handy (cropped).jpg | caption = Kerr, 1865–1876 | order = 28th | office = Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | term_start = December 6, 1875 | term_end = August 19, 1876 | predecessor = James G. Blaine | successor = Samuel J. Randall | office3 = Leader of the House Democratic Caucus | term_start3 = December 6, 1875 | term_end3 = August 19, 1876 | predecessor3 = James Lawrence Orr | successor3 = Samuel J. Randall | office4 = Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana | term_start4 = March 4, 1875 | term_end4 = August 19, 1876 | predecessor4 = William S. Holman | successor4 = Nathan T. Carr | constituency4 = 3rd district | term_start5 = March 4, 1865 | term_end5 = March 3, 1873 | constituency5 = 2nd district | predecessor5 = James A. Cravens | successor5 = Simeon K. Wolfe | office6 = Member of the Indiana House of Representatives | term6 = 1856–1857 | birth_name = Michael Crawford Kerr | birth_date = March 15, 1827 | birth_place = Titusville, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = August 19, 1876 (aged 49) | death_place = Rockbridge County, Virginia, U.S. | nationality = | party = Democratic | otherparty = | spouse = | relations = | children = | residence = | alma_mater = University of Louisville | occupation = | profession = Lawyer | signature = | website = | footnotes = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Mike_Kerr_Home.jpg" caption="Kerr's home in [[New Albany, Indiana"] ::
Michael Crawford Kerr (March 15, 1827 – August 19, 1876) was an American lawyer and legislator who served as the first Democratic speaker of the United States House of Representatives after the Civil War.
Early life
He was born at Titusville, Pennsylvania and educated at the Erie Academy. He graduated from the University of Louisville School of Law in 1851. He moved to New Albany, Indiana in 1852 and was a member of the State Legislature from 1856 to 1857.
Political career
He was elected to Congress in 1864 as a War Democrat, having vigorously opposed the Copperhead element in his district. He won the praise of Republican Governor Oliver P. Morton for helping suppress illegal conspiracies by Copperheads.
Kerr served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Indiana from 1865 to 1873. In Congress he was looked upon as one of the leaders of the Democratic Party. He strongly opposed the Republican policy of Reconstruction in the Southern States. He was not re-elected in 1872.
His hard money views on financial questions did not meet with favor in his agrarian constituency, where he openly antagonized the inflationists and the Greenback element and favored the resumption of specie payments. In 1874, however, after a sharp contest he won the seat back, and on his re-entry into Congress was elected to the speakership. He presided as Speaker at only the first session of the Forty-fourth Congress and died of consumption shortly after its adjournment.
Notes
Bibliography
- Halsell, Willie D., ed. "Advice from Michael C. Kerr to a Reconstructed Rebel Congressman." Indiana Magazine of History 33 (September 1941): 257–61.
- Smith, William Henry. The history of the state of Indiana (1897) p. 798-800 online
- Stampp, Kenneth. Indiana politics during the Civil War (1949)
References
- Jacob Piatt Dunn, ''Indiana and Indianans'' (1919) [https://books.google.com/books?id=vt4haf_0N58C&pg=PA651 vol 2 p 651-2 online]
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::