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Richard Wigginton Thompson

9 June 1809 - 9 Feb. 1900

Richard W. Thompson was born in Culpeper County, Virginia. In 1831, he moved to Kentucky and settled shortly thereafter in Lawrence County, Indiana. He began practicing law in Bedford, Indiana, after being admitted to the bar in 1834. During the Civil War, he was the commander of Camp Thompson, Indiana, and provost marshal of the Terre Haute district. President Lincoln appointed him collector of internal revenue for the seventh Indiana district, a post that Thompson held for one term (1864-1866).President Hayes appointed Thompson Secretary of the Navy. Thompson resigned from this post in 1881 to become chairman of the American Committee of the French Panama Canal Company. In addition to his life of public service, Thompson was the author of four books including The Papacy and the Civil Power.

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Bibliography
Comments on Letters on the Spanish Inquisition. unpublished manuscript. [ISL Manuscript Section,
V207]
The Footprints of the Jesuits. Cincinnati: Cranston & Curtis, 1894. [ISL call number: I 271.5 T475f]
The History of Protective Tariff Laws. Chicago, 1888. [ISL call number: I 337.3 T475]
The Papacy and the Civil Power. New York: Harper, 1876. [ISL call number: I 322 T475]
Recollections of Sixteen Presidents from Washington to Lincoln. Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Co., 1894. [ISL call number: I 923 T475r (2 volumes)]

MA BF 12-11-2014