View source for Michael Hahn

{{Short description|American politician (1830–1886)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Michael Hahn
|image        = Governor Michael Hahn, by John Genin.jpg
|caption      = Portrait of Hahn by [[John Genin]] ({{circa|1865}})
|order        = [[Governor of Louisiana]]
|lieutenant   = [[James Madison Wells|James Wells]]
|term_start   = March 4, 1864
|term_end     = March 4, 1865
|predecessor  = [[George Foster Shepley (judge)|George Shepley]] (Military Governor)<br>[[Henry Watkins Allen|Henry Allen]] (Confederate Governor)
|successor    = [[James Madison Wells|James Wells]]
|state1       = [[Louisiana]]
|district1    = {{ushr|LA|2|2nd}}
|term_start1  = March 4, 1885
|term_end1    = March 15, 1886
|predecessor1 = [[E. John Ellis|John Ellis]]
|successor1   = [[Nathaniel D. Wallace|Nathaniel Wallace]]
|term_start2  = February 17, 1863<ref>{{Cite news |date=1863-02-18 |title=The Proceedings of Congress: House of Representatives |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1863/02/18/80273990.html |access-date=2024-07-10 |work=The New York Times |pages=8 |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
|term_end2    = March 4, 1863
|predecessor2 = [[Miles Taylor (politician)|Miles Taylor]]
|successor2   = [[James Mann (1822–1868)|James Mann]] (1868)
|birth_name   = George Michael Decker Hahn
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1830|11|24}}
|birth_place  = [[Klingenmünster]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]] (now [[Germany]])
|death_date   = {{death date and age|1886|3|15|1830|11|24}}
|death_place  = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
|party        = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (before 1862)<br>[[Unionist politician (American Civil War)|Union]] (1862–1863)<br>[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (1863–1886)
|education    = [[Tulane University]] ([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
|signature    = Michael Hahn signature (1864).png
}}
'''George Michael Decker Hahn''' (November 24, 1830 – March 15, 1886), was an attorney, politician, publisher and [[planter (plantation owner)|planter]] in [[New Orleans]], Louisiana. He served twice in [[United States Congress|Congress]] during two widely separated periods, elected first as a [[Unionist politician (American Civil War)|Unionist]] to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862, as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1865, and later as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1884. He was elected as the 19th [[List of Governors of Louisiana|Governor of Louisiana]], serving from 1864 to 1865 during the [[American Civil War]], when the state was occupied by Union troops. He was the first German-born governor in the United States,<ref name="germans"/> and is also claimed as the first ethnic Jewish governor.<ref name="ej">{{cite book | title = [[Encyclopedia Judaica]] | year = 2007 | publisher = Granite Hill Publishers | editor = Fred Skolnik, Michael Berenbaum | isbn = 9780028659367 | pages = 231}}</ref> By that time, he was a practicing [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]].<ref name="sos">{{cite web | publisher = Louisiana Secretary of State | url = http://www.sos.la.gov/HistoricalResources/AboutLouisiana/LouisianaGovernors1861-1877/Pages/MichaelHahn.aspx | title = Michael Hahn, 1864-1865}}</ref>

In 1865, Hahn was elected to the U.S. Senate, but [[Radical Republicans]] refused to allow him or other senators-elect from former Confederate states to be seated. Later, he was elected for several terms as a Republican to the state House during the [[Reconstruction era (United States)|Reconstruction era]], where he was also elected as Speaker. Hahn was active as a publisher and editor, owning and operating three newspapers in succession that supported the Republican Party, its program, and its candidates in the state. He spent much of his wealth in supporting these papers. Hahn continued to be politically active, being elected to Congress from [[Louisiana's 2nd congressional district]] in 1884 with a strong majority. He served about a year before his death in office.

==Early life and education==

Hahn was born in 1830 as the last child in his family, in [[Klingenmünster]], [[Palatinate (region)|Palatinate]], then part of the [[Kingdom of Bavaria]], now of [[Rhineland-Palatinate]], [[Germany]]. His father died before he was born.<ref name="Dawson1990">{{cite book|author=Joseph G. Dawson|title=The Louisiana Governors: From Iberville to Edwards|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Us6aJWqAdZ0C&pg=PA148|date=1 January 1990|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|isbn=978-0-8071-1527-5|pages=148–152|chapter=Michael Hahn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein|title=The Mysteries of New Orleans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SGXXHO3IlbIC&pg=PA549|date=10 June 2002|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-6882-5|page=549}}</ref> Some sources indicate that Hahn's parents were Jewish.<ref name="ej"/><ref name="stone">{{cite book | title = The Jews of Capitol Hill | first = Kurt | last = Stone | page=23&ndash;24 | publisher = Scarecrow Press | year = 2010 | isbn = 9780810877382}}</ref>

With his widowed mother and four older siblings, Hahn immigrated as a child to the United States, arriving in [[New York City]]. The family traveled to the [[Republic of Texas]], before settling in [[New Orleans]] in 1840. The following year, Hahn's mother died of [[yellow fever]] and the children were orphaned.<ref name="Dawson1990"/> With the help of his older siblings, Hahn continued his education and graduated from City High School. In 1849, at the age of 19, he began [[reading law]] under [[Christian Roselius]], a prominent [[Whig party (United States)|Whig]] attorney and later [[List of Attorneys General of Louisiana|Attorney General of Louisiana]].<ref name="Dawson1990"/> In 1851, Hahn graduated from the University of Louisiana ([[Tulane University]]) with a law degree. He worked in Roselius's office after getting his degree.<ref name="LHA"/>

==Political career==
The following year Hahn was elected to the New Orleans city school board at the age of 22; he ran the school system as its director.  He joined the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic party]] faction led by [[Pierre Soulé]]. In the Presidential Election of 1860, Hahn supported [[Stephen Douglas]].<ref name="Dawson1990"/> He was fluent in English, French and German.

In 1860, Hahn opposed secession, delivering a pro-[[United States|Union]] speech in [[Lafayette Square, New Orleans|Lafayette Square]]. He avoided taking an oath of allegiance to the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. Opposed to secession and a supporter of the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]], Hahn was elected in 1862 as the [[U.S. representative]] from [[Louisiana's 2nd congressional district]]. This incorporated most of New Orleans, which had been occupied by Union forces.

Hahn was one of two Louisiana Representatives seated in the [[37th Congress]], which adjourned on March 4, 1863, during the Civil War.<ref name="Dawson1990"/> Eventually, Hahn advised that there should be no more representation from Louisiana until it was "reconstructed." During his time in Washington, Hahn met and befriended President [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref name="CowanMcGuire2010">{{cite book|author1=Walter Greaves Cowan|author2=Jack B. McGuire|title=Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y-0-kmu4vk0C&pg=PA90|date=30 June 2010|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-320-4|pages=90–92}}</ref>

==Term as governor==
[[File:Colonel-Short's-Villa-818.JPG|thumb|left|In March 1864 Colonel's Short Villa briefly served as the executive mansion of the newly elected Federal Governor of Louisiana, Michael Hahn.]]

In 1864, with almost all of Louisiana under federal occupation, General [[Nathaniel P. Banks]], the [[Union Army|Union Military]] Commander of the [[Army of the Gulf|Department of the Gulf]] (responsible, among other things, for civil order in occupied Louisiana), called state elections and convened a constitutional convention. [[Benjamin Franklin Flanders]] and [[Thomas Jefferson Durant]], prominent Unionists, opposed the moderate plan called for by General Banks.  Hahn purchased a pro-slavery [[newspaper]], the ''New Orleans True Delta,'' and used it to promote moderate Unionism supporting Banks' plan, including emancipation of slaves.<ref name="CowanMcGuire2010"/>  Hahn ran for governor with the Free-State Party and won the election with 54% or 11,411 votes. [[J. Q. A. Fellows]], a conservative Democrat, received 26% or 2,996 votes; and Benjamin Franklin Flanders, the radical Republican, received 20% or 2,232 votes.

Hahn was elected as the first German-born governor of an [[U.S. state|American state]].<ref name="germans">{{cite book|author=Merrill, Ellen C.|title=Germans of Louisiana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dh0Oa1lkheAC&pg=PA71|date=30 November 2014|publisher=Pelican Publishing|isbn=978-1-4556-0484-5|page=71}}</ref> He is also claimed as the first ethnic Jewish governor in the United States;<ref name="ej"/> by then he was worshipping as an Episcopalian.<ref name="sos"/>

[[File:Gov Hahn Louisiana 1864.jpg|right|thumb|Hahn's inauguration in [[Lafayette Square, New Orleans]], featured a huge brass band led by [[Patrick Gilmore]].]]
On March 4, 1864, Hahn was inaugurated as governor of Union-held Louisiana in an elaborate ceremony paid for by General Banks.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=The Inauguration Ceremonies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1864/03/14/news/the-inauguration-ceremonies.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=14 March 1864 |access-date=13 January 2015 }}<br/>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |agency=New Orleans Times |title=The Election in Louisiana.; grand Ball at the Inauguration of Gov, Hahn, A Splendid and Interesting Affair |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1864/03/20/news/election-louisiana-grand-ball-inauguration-gov-hahn-splendid-interesting-affair.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=20 March 1864 |access-date=13 January 2015 }}</ref> As governor, Hahn supported [[universal education]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Breaux |first=Peter J. |title=William G. Brown and The Development of Education: A Retrospective On The Career Of A State Superintendent of Public |type=Doctor of Philosophy |url=http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3032&context=etd |date=20 October 2006 |publisher=Florida State University |access-date=12 January 2015 |docket=3066 }}</ref>

In his term, Hahn tried to gain suffrage for [[freedmen]] and previously [[free people of color]], but it was too early. He approved the state's ratification of the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]].  Hahn's administration made serious attempts to ensure enfranchisement of black Louisianans, laid the foundation for a public school system for blacks, and began an aborted [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]] in Louisiana. Governor Hahn played a leading role in the state constitutional convention of 1864, but he was opposed by [[Major General]] [[Stephen A. Hurlbut]], who replaced Banks as commander of the Department of the Gulf. General Hurlburt refused to recognize the state civil government of Hahn.

Hahn resigned as governor in March 1865, and was elected by the state legislature to the [[U.S. Senate]] in 1865.<ref name="CowanMcGuire2010"/> However, [[Radical Republicans]] did not seat him, as they believed the state had more work to do before being allowed to rejoin the Union.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Spencer C. Tucker|author2=Paul G. Pierpaoli Jr.|title=American Civil War: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection &#91;6 volumes&#93;: The Definitive Encyclopedia and Document Collection|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dvYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA835|date=30 September 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-682-4|page=835|chapter=Hahn, Michael}}<br/>{{cite book|author1=Joan B. Garvey|author2=Mary Lou Widmer|title=Louisiana: The First 300 Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJQSW_ObYNIC&pg=PA118|year=2001|publisher=Pelican Publishing|isbn=978-0-9612960-4-9|page=118}}</ref>

Lieutenant Governor [[James Madison Wells]] succeeded Hahn as governor after his resignation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Zuczek|title=Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era: M-Z and primary documents|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QA3hdQzOVC4C&pg=PA405|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-33075-9|page=405}}</ref>

==Political editor and congressman==
After [[Assassination of Abraham Lincoln|President Lincoln was assassinated]] in April 1865, [[U.S. Congress|Congress]] refused to seat any Representatives or Senators from the former Confederacy until a [[Reconstruction Era|reconstruction]] plan could be carried out.  Senator-elect Hahn returned to New Orleans and allied with radical Republicans calling for a [[Convention (meeting)|convention]] to revise Louisiana's Constitution of 1864 to include [[Black people|black]] [[suffrage]]. He was shot and severely wounded on July 30, 1866, in the [[New Orleans Riot]].<ref name="Dawson1990"/>

In 1867, Hahn became editor and manager of the ''New Orleans Republican'' newspaper, his platform for opposing President [[Andrew Johnson]]'s lenient Reconstruction program. In 1872, Hahn retired to a [[Plantations in the American South|plantation]] in [[St. Charles Parish, Louisiana|St. Charles Parish]]. There he established the village of [[Hahnville, Louisiana|Hahnville]] and published his third newspaper, the ''St. Charles Herald.''<ref name="Dawson1990"/> On his plantation, he grew [[sugar cane]], the common commodity crop in the "sugar parishes" of this region.<ref>{{cite book|author=Miriam G. Reeves|title=The Governors of Louisiana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7xm4r9Rzu8C&pg=PA71|year=1962|publisher=Pelican Publishing|isbn=978-1-4556-0520-0|page=71}}</ref>

From 1872 to 1878 Hahn served in the [[Louisiana State Legislature]]. He was elected as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Speaker of the [[Louisiana House of Representatives]] amid the [[Wheeler Compromise]]. In 1878 he was appointed as Superintendent of the [[New Orleans Mint|U.S. Mint]] in New Orleans, serving until January 1879. At that point, Hahn was appointed [[Judge]] of the 26th state judicial district, which included [[St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana|Saint John the Baptist]], [[St. Charles Parish, Louisiana|Saint Charles]], and [[Jefferson Parish, Louisiana|Jefferson]] parishes. During the 1880 elections, Hahn established and edited the ''New Orleans Ledger'' to promote Republican candidates.

Although Democrats had regained control of the state legislature, Hahn was personally admired for his integrity and consistency of position. In 1884, Hahn was elected to [[U.S. Congress|Congress]] as the Republican candidate from [[Louisiana's 2nd congressional district]] &ndash; a race that he won handily by 3,000 votes.<ref name="LHA">[http://www.lahistory.org/site25.php "Hahn, George Michael Decker"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225173835/http://lahistory.org/site25.php |date=2010-02-25 }}, ''Dictionary of Louisiana Biography,'' Louisiana Historical Association, 2008, accessed 2 March 2016</ref> Serving as the only Republican Congressman from Louisiana, Hahn died on March 15, 1886, in his room at the [[Willard InterContinental Washington|Willard Hotel]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] He suffered a ruptured blood vessel near his heart.<ref name="Dawson1990"/> His body was returned to New Orleans.

Hahn's funeral was conducted by an Episcopal priest, and he was buried in New Orleans's [[Metairie Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1621253/congressman_hahns_funeral/ |title=Congressman Hahn's Funeral |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 20, 1886 |page=1 |access-date=2015-01-21 |quote=The services were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Percival, Episcopalian, and the body was interred in Metairie Cemetery. |via = [[Newspapers.com]] }}  {{open access}}</ref> He had never married and died poor. He had spent much of his previous wealth in trying to maintain the Republican-oriented newspapers he published.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1621345/obituary_michael_hahn/ |title=Obituary: Michael Hahn |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 16, 1886 |page=2 |access-date=2015-01-21 |quote= He was unmarried, but had a sister in New-Orleans and another in Louisville. . . . He was a man of great personal popularity, and some years ago had acquired considerable wealth, much of which, however, he expended in trying to run a Republican newspaper in New-Orleans and much more perished through shrinkage of values. |via = [[Newspapers.com]] }}  {{open access}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)]]
* [[List of U.S. state governors born outside the United States]]
* [[New Orleans massacre of 1866]]
* [[Maximilian F. Bonzano]], another member of early 19th-century German New Orleans

==References==
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000019 Congressional Biography]
*Baker, Vaughn B., and Amos E. Simpson. "Michael Hahn: Steady Patriot" ''Louisiana History'' 13 (summer 1972): pp.&nbsp;229–52.
*{{Cite book |last=Andrews|first=Elisha Benjamin|title=The United States in our own time; a history from reconstruction to expansion; being an extension of "The history of the last quarter century|year=1903 |publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|pages=160–67|url=https://archive.org/stream/elishainourown00andrrich#page/n11/mode/2up}}

==External links==
*{{commonscat-inline}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000019 Michael Hahn's] Congressional biography
*[https://scphistory.org/georg-michael-hahn-exhibit/ Hahn exhibit at St. Charles Parish Virtual Museum]
*[http://www.la-cemeteries.com/Governors/Hahn,%20Michael/Hahn,%20Michael.shtml Cemetery Memorial] by La-Cemeteries
*{{Find a Grave|7208496}}

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{{Governors of Louisiana}}
{{SpeakerLAHouse}}
{{LARepresentatives}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Michael}}
[[Category:1830 births]]
[[Category:1886 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Südliche Weinstraße]]
[[Category:Bavarian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Governors of Louisiana]]
[[Category:Jewish American people in Louisiana politics]]
[[Category:Speakers of the Louisiana House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Tulane University alumni]]
[[Category:Politicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from New Orleans]]
[[Category:People from Hahnville, Louisiana]]
[[Category:Editors of Louisiana newspapers]]
[[Category:Louisiana Unionists]]
[[Category:People from the Palatinate (region)]]
[[Category:Unionist Party members of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana]]
[[Category:Republican Party governors of Louisiana]]
[[Category:Unionist Party state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:School board members in Louisiana]]
[[Category:American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law]]
[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:19th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature]]