Richard W. Thompson - Secretary of The Navy

Secretary of The Navy

Thompson, as Secretary of the Navy, had never been among the leading figures of the Cabinet (William Evarts, John Sherman, or Carl Schurz) nor had been even a close colleague and friend of President Hayes like Vice President William Wheeler. Even the Postmaster General, David Key, who was the second Confederate veteran to serve in a Federal Cabinet since the American Civil War was more notable. Reputedly Thompson was unprepared for his post. A popular (if suspect) story is that he was taken for a tour of one of our warships, and went below deck becoming thunderstruck and shouting, "My God, the durned thing's hollow!!" Thompson (being from Indiana) was not from a state with a seacoast, but Indiana has several rivers running through it. It is not hard to believe Thompson was on a steamboat at some point and saw the inside of it.

When he assumed the role of Secretary of the Navy he was replacing Grant's Secretary for nearly eight years, George Robeson. Whatever was the situation caused or allowed by Robeson's handling of the Navy, Thompson offered little additional guidance. His most notable involvement in any naval activity was actually on the sidelines: when Lt. George Washington De Long and James Gordon Bennett Jr. set up the USS Jeannette Expedition to the North Pole in 1879, Thompson gave some advice to the preparations, but seemed determined to watch the extent of Government involvement in the project. His waffling (about escort vessels and later rescue vessels) were somewhat irritating. While not responsible for that tragedy, Thompson certainly did not help matters by his hair-splitting legalisms.

In 1880 a new matter arose that had a bearing with Thompson leaving his post. The French were in the process of funding the new Panama Canal Company under Comte Ferdinand de Lesseps. The Hayes administration, while willing to keep good relations with the French, were fully suspicious about a French owned Canal across the Isthmus of Panama as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Thompson was aware of this. But Thompson was also approached by the American based section of the Panama Company with a job offer. The American section was headed and funded by J. & W. Seligman & Co., then headed by Jessie Seligman. The Seligmans were old friends of former President Ulysses S. Grant, and had offered Grant the position of the Presidency of the Canal Company. But Grant refused it. Looking around for a replacement they turned to Thompson. He accepted, and then resigned from the Cabinet. Later on this whole matter became an issue before Congressional Committee that questioned both Seligman and Thompson. Eventually Thompson would leave the Panama Company, but his reputation was somewhat tarnished by the situation. He was not connected with it at the time of the great scandalous collapse of the enterprise in 1889.

Retiring to Indiana, Thompson lived out the remainder of his days in his adopted state. He died in 1900 at Terre Haute, Indiana.

The United States Navy destroyer USS Thompson (DD-305) was named in his honor.

He was also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Alabama(Psi chapter).