Ohio Governor, US Senator, Presidential Cabinet Secretary. Born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, he moved to Lebanon, Ohio with his family in 1798 when he was a child. During the War of 1812, he served as a wagon boy in General William Henry Harrison's Army. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in Ohio, and practiced as an attorney in Lebanon. He was the Prosecuting Attorney of Warren County from 1818 to 1828. He was elected to the Ohio Legislature and served from 1821 to 1823, and again from 1829 to 1830. Elected as a Whig to represent Ohio's 2nd District in the United States House of Representatives, he served from 1831 to 1840. Corwin is best remembered for his skill as a superior political orator. He came to be known by his fellow delegates as the "Terror of the House" because he delivered his speeches with spirited authority and witty debate. He resigned from Congress on May 30, 1840 to run for governor, won the election, became Ohio's 15th Governor, and served from 1840 to 1842. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1842. Corwin was later elected to represent Ohio in the United States Senate and served from 1845 to 1850. In 1853, Corwin accepted an appointment by President Millard Fillmore to the Cabinet as the United States Secretary of the Treasury. He joined the Republican Party in 1858, was again elected to the United States Congress, and served from 1859 to 1861. He was then appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the Ambassador to Mexico on March 12, 1861, largely because of his strong opposition to the Mexican-American war fifteen years earlier. He returned to America in 1864, retired from politics, and resettled in Washington D.C. He resumed his law profession until his death in 1865 when he was 71 years old. His father, Mathias Corwin, served eleven terms in the Ohio Legislature. His brother, Moses Bledsoe Corwin, was a United States Congressman from Ohio. His nephew, Franklin Corwin, was a United States Congressman from Illinois.