WAYNE MACVEAGH.
MACVEAGH, WAYNE, lawyer, diplomat, publicist, was born near Phoenixville, Chester county, Pennsylvania, April 19, 1833. When sixteen years of age, he entered Yale college from which he was graduated in 1853 and immediately thereafter he took up the study of law. He was admitted to the Chester county, Pennsylvania, bar in 1856, and began to practise law at West Chester, Pennsylvania.
From 1859 to 1862, he served as district attorney for Chester county; the year following he was made chairman of the Republican state committee; and he rose rapidly in professional and public esteem. The threatened invasion of Pennsylvania by Confederate troops in 1863 impelled him to volunteer his services as captain of emergency infantry, and he subsequently served as a major of cavalry on the staff of General Couch.
President Grant appointed him United States minister to Turkey in 1870; and after a brief diplomatic career at the Ottoman court, he returned to Pennsylvania, and resumed his professional course. In 1872 he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention of his state; and he took an important part in the work of that body during its two years sitting. President Hayes, in April, 1877, appointed him head of the committee known as the "MacVeagh Committee," to harmonize certain disputes arising from conflicting state governments in the state of Louisiana; the efforts of which committee resulted in the withdrawal of the United States troops from New Orleans and a final amicable adjustment.
On March 4, 1881, Mr. MacVeagh was made attorney-general of the United States by President Garfield and he continued to hold that portfolio until September 9, of the same year, when he resigned and again returned to the practice of law in Philadelphia. He supported Grover Cleveland for the presidency in 1892 and after the election of Mr. Cleveland, he received the appointment of United States ambassador to Italy, which post he held from 1893 to 1897. Since the latter date he has resided in Washington, in the active practice of the law.
