John COCHRANE, Congress, NY (1813-1898)

COCHRANE, John, a Representative from New York; born in Palatine, N.Y., August 27, 1813; pursued preparatory studies, attended Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., and was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1831; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1834 and practiced in Palatine, Oswego, and Schenectady, N.Y.; moved to New York City in 1846; surveyor of the port of New York 1853-1857; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Commerce (Thirty-fifth Congress); unsuccessful candidate in 1860 for reelection to the Thirty-seventh Congress; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore in 1860; entered the Union Army as colonel of the Sixty-fifth New York Infantry June 11, 1861; became brigadier general July 17, 1862, and served until his resignation on February 25, 1863, on account of physical disability; chairman of the Independent Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1864, which nominated him for Vice President on the ticket with Frémont for President but withdrew, with General Frémont, before the election; attorney general of New York 1863-1865; collector of internal revenue for the sixth district of New York in 1869; declined the position of United States Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay tendered by President Grant in 1869; delegate to the Liberal Republican National Convention at Cincinnati in 1872; member of the board of aldermen and served as president in 1872 and again a member in 1883; appointed police justice of New York May 22, 1889, but resigned after serving a few weeks; died in New York City February 7, 1898; interment in Rural Cemetery, Albany, N.Y.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present