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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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John A. Dix
(1861)
After the resignation of Secretary of the Treasury Philip
F. Thomas in 1860 and the secession of South Carolina the same year, the
moneyed interests in the East demanded that John A. Dix (1798-1879) be made
Secretary. A former postmaster and Senator from New York,
Dix was reputed to be "a cultivated writer, a fluent vigorous speaker, a
man of great courage, prompt decision and proved executive ability."
Entering office during a financial panic, he quickly
obtained the much needed loans from banks and the American people that
his predecessor had failed to secure. He won further confidence in the
North by dispatching a message to a Treasury customs official in New Orleans
to take possession of a Treasury Department revenue cutter there. "If
anyone attempts to haul down the American flag," he ordered, "shoot him
on the spot." Dix was in office less than three months, resigning at the
end of Buchanan's presidency. Buchanan's successor, President Lincoln,
rewarded his performance as Secretary with the commission of Major General
in charge of Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia during the Civil War.
About the Artist
Caroline L. Ormes Ransom, born in Newark, Ohio and
educated in New York and Germany under Daniel Huntington and others, became
well known as a Washington, D.C. artist through her successful government
portrait commissions. Several of her portraits hang in the United States
Capitol and that of Representative Joshua Giddings of Ohio, acquired in
1867, was said to be the first work of art by a woman purchased by the
federal government. Ransom was an active participant in Washington society
as the founder of the Classical Club of Washington and as a founding member
of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In addition to her 1883 portrait
of John A. Dix which she copied from Daniel Huntington's original, Ransom
is represented in the Treasury collection by her portrait of Alexander
Hamilton, also a copy.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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