John Hanna was a United States Representative and United States Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

 from Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

.

Early years

Born near Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, he pursued classical studies and graduated from the Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University

DePauw University

DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...

) in 1850. He studied law, was admitted to the bar

Bar (law)

Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...

, and commenced practice in Greencastle

Greencastle, Indiana

Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Scots-Irish American Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylvania...

. He was mayor of Greencastle from 1851 to 1854.

Bleeding Kansas

He moved to Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 in 1857 and in December of that year was elected to its Territorial legislature. In 1858, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he introduced and secured passage (over the Governor's veto) of an act that repealed the 1855 law "To punish offenses against slave property", effectively making expansion of slavery in Kansas impossible. He returned to Indiana in 1858.

U.S. Attorney

In 1860, he was an Indiana elector for Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

. He was appointed United States Attorney for Indiana by President Lincoln in 1861. Active in pursuing disloyalty claims against Southern sympathizers, he appeared for the United States in Ex Parte Milligan

Ex parte Milligan

Ex parte Milligan, , was a United States Supreme Court case that ruled that the application of military tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating is unconstitutional. It was also controversial because it was one of the first cases after the end of the American Civil...

 prior to the appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. Reappointed by President Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...

 in 1865, he was removed by him in 1866 after he publicly denounced the president at a meeting in Indianapolis. He then retired to private law practice in partnership with civil war general Frederick Knefler

Frederick Knefler

Frederick Knefler served in the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War, joining as a first lieutenant in May 1861 and mustering out as a Brevet Brigadier General on June 11, 1865.-Early life:...

.

Congressman

He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth Congress in 1876, defeating the Democratic incumbent 19,534 to 18,236, as the Greenback party candidate polled 1,595 votes. He held office from March 4, 1877, to March 3, 1879, having been defeated in his bid for reelection in 1878 by Gilbert De La Matyr

Gilbert De La Matyr

Gilbert De La Matyr was an American cleric and politician from New York and Indiana.-Life:...

, who had been nominated by both the Democratic and Greenback parties, 18,727 to 17,881.