From 1822 to 1823, and in 1829, Corwin was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, where he made a spirited speech against the introduction of the whipping post into Ohio. In 1830 he was elected as a
Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served from March 4, 1831, until his resignation, effective May 30, 1840, having become a candidate for the office of
Governor of Ohio. Known for his sharp wit, debating skills, and endless campaigning, he was elected Governor in 1840, defeating incumbent
Wilson Shannon. Shannon defeated Corwin in a rematch two years later. Corwin was a
Presidential elector in 1844 for the
Whig Party ticket of
Henry Clay and
Theodore Frelinghuysen. Corwin was also a member of the United States Senate, having been elected by the
Ohio General Assembly as a
Whig and served from March 4, 1845, to July 20, 1850. As a legislator he spoke seldom, but always with great ability, his most famous speech being one given on February 11, 1847, opposing the
Mexican–American War. Thomas Corwin, as quoted by Canadian humorist
Stephen Leacock: created by the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing|upright He resigned from the Senate to become President
Millard Fillmore's Secretary of the Treasury shortly after the death of President
Zachary Taylor. Like his immediate predecessor,
William M. Meredith, Corwin believed in a protective tariff. Still, he did not want to make sudden or drastic changes in the free-trade tariff law of 1846. He objected to that law's provisions, which taxed some imported raw materials at a higher rate than the imported manufactured goods made from those materials, stating in a report to Congress that "such provisions certainly take from the manufacturer and artisan that encouragement which the present law was intended to afford." As a longtime Whig, however, Corwin was unsuccessful in passing any tariff legislation in a Congress controlled by
Democrats. He retired as Secretary shortly after the end of Fillmore's administration. In 1857, former Ohio Governor
William Bebb shot a man and was tried in 1858 for manslaughter in
Winnebago County, Illinois, where he lived. Corwin and co-counsel
Judge William Johnston obtained an acquittal with an argument of self-defense. He was again elected to the House of Representatives in 1858, this time as a
Republican and a member of the 36th Congress. In 1860, he was chairman of the House "Committee of Thirty-three", consisting of one member from each state, and appointed to consider the condition of the nation and, if possible, to devise some scheme for reconciling the North and the South in the secessionist crisis following the
election of
Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. and war began anyway. Thus, the initiative failed in its goal of preventing the outbreak of the
American Civil War. Corwin was reelected to the House of Representatives in 1860 but resigned on March 12, 1861, after being appointed by the newly inaugurated President Lincoln to become
Minister to Mexico, where he served until 1864. Corwin, well regarded among the Mexican public for his opposition to the Mexican–American War while in the Senate, helped keep relations with the Mexicans friendly throughout the course of the Civil War, despite Confederate efforts to sway their allegiances. ==Death and legacy==