He was born in
Charlotte, Vermont, on January 11, 1822, to John Steele Kasson and Nancy Blackman. Kasson attended local school as a child and later graduated from the
University of Vermont in 1842. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing practice in
St. Louis, Missouri. He moved to
Des Moines, Iowa, in 1857 and commenced practice there. He was a delegate to the
Republican National Convention in 1860, where he quickly rose to a position of great influence. Appointed as Iowa's representative on the platform committee, he was one of five delegates on the subcommittee responsible for reconciling competing resolutions into a coherent platform, and in the end was the principal draftsman of the final product, including the antislavery planks that were referenced by southern states as they seceded upon
Abraham Lincoln's election. In 1861,
President Lincoln appointed Kasson as First Assistant Postmaster General, a position he held until August 1862. In 1862, Kasson was elected a
Republican to represent
Iowa's new 5th congressional district in the
United States House of Representatives. His district included 22 counties in the southwestern quadrant of Iowa, including the city of Des Moines. He represented that district for two terms, from 1863 to 1867. There, he served as chairman of the
United States House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures from 1863 to 1867, during which time the
Metric Act of 1866, which he drafted, was passed. He was a
commissioner from the
United States to the International Postal Congress in
Paris, France, in 1863. However, in 1866 he lost the Republican nomination to
Civil War and
Indian Campaign General
Grenville M. Dodge. Afterward, he was a
commissioner from the
United States to negotiate postal conventions with
Great Britain,
France,
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
Germany,
Switzerland and
Italy in 1867. In 1868 he was elected to the
Iowa House of Representatives, where he served until 1872. That year he was returned to the U.S. House to represent
Iowa's new 7th congressional district, made up of ten counties in south-central Iowa. He represented that district in Congress for four years, serving from 1873 to 1877. He did not seek renomination in 1876, even though the
New York Times reported that summer that he would have "good chances of success" as a candidate to become the next
Speaker of the House. In 1877 Kasson was appointed
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary by
President Rutherford B. Hayes, a position he held until early 1881. At his suggestion, the four dollar
Stella pattern coins were minted in 1879 and 1880. In 1880 he ran once again for Congress, again winning the Republican nomination and general election to represent Iowa's 7th congressional district in the U.S. House. Once again, he was re-elected. His final period in Congress ended in 1884, when he was appointed
Envoy and Head of the U.S. Legation at Berlin, Germany, by
President Chester A. Arthur. He served in that position until 1885, when he was named as a special envoy to the
Congo Conference in
Berlin. He was also a special envoy to the Samoan International Conference in 1889. Kasson was a special
commissioner plenipotentiary from the
United States to negotiate reciprocity treaties in 1897 and was a member of the
United States and
British Joint High Commission to adjust differences with
Canada in 1898. Kasson died in
Washington, D.C., on May 18, 1910, and was interred in
Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines. ==References==