Michael
Hahn was a congressman and governor
of the provisional Union government in Louisiana during the
Civil War, and a supporter of the abolition of slavery and the
extension of suffrage to black men.
He was born on November 24, 1830, in
Klingenmünster, Bavaria, to Margaretha Decker Hahn. After the
death of his father (whose name is unknown), his mother
immigrated with her children to the United States, eventually
settling in New Orleans, Louisiana, around 1840. In New
Orleans, young Hahn attended public schools, read law under an
attorney, and earned a law degree in 1851 from the University of
Louisiana (today, Tulane University). In 1851, he was also
admitted to the state bar and established a law practice in New
Orleans.
Hahn’s first electoral victory was winning
a seat on the New Orleans school board in 1852. During the
1850s, he earned notice for opposing slavery, U.S. Senator John
Slidell’s faction of the Louisiana Democratic Party, and the
presidential election of Democrat James Buchanan in 1856. Four
years later, he endorsed Democrat Stephen Douglas of Illinois
for president, and then in the winter of 1860-1861 urged
Louisianans not to support secession from the Union. Most
Unionists left New Orleans after Louisiana seceded, but Hahn
stayed in the city. He quietly refused to swear allegiance to
the Confederacy when renewing his license as notary public, but
otherwise kept a low profile.
When the Union gained control of New
Orleans in 1862, Hahn swore loyalty to the United States, and
was elected under the Reconstruction policy of the Lincoln
administration as a Republican to Congress. He was supposed to
serve in the last session of the 37th Congress
(December 3, 1862, to March 3, 1863), but was not seated until
February 3, 1863, because of debate over the legitimacy of the
Louisiana elections. After his one-month term, he returned to
New Orleans to work as a prize commissioner for the Union. In
January 1864, he became owner and editor of the New Orleans
True Delta, in which he encouraged emancipation of the
slaves.
In February 1864, Hahn was nominated for
governor of Louisiana at the Free State Party after radicals,
critical of the Lincoln administration’s alleged slow pace on
advancing black civil rights, bolted the convention. Presenting
himself as a moderate, Hahn won the election and was inaugurated
on March 4, 1864. Upon the private advice of President Lincoln,
Governor Hahn tried to convince delegates at the state
constitutional convention to grant suffrage to black men in the
proposed state constitution. He failed, but was able to see the
legislature authorized to do so. The state constitution, which
was approved by voters in September 1864, abolished slavery,
instituted minimum wages and maximum hours (nine) for laborers,
and limited the political power of the planter elite. On
February 17, 1865, the new state legislature heeded Governor
Hahn’s recommendation to approve the Thirteenth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery in the entire United
States (ratified, December 1865).
The state legislature elected Hahn to represent Louisiana in
the U.S. Senate, so he resigned as governor on March 3, 1865.
Controversy over Reconstruction policy, however, prevented him
from being seated. At a state constitutional convention on July
30, 1866, Hahn delivered an address endorsing voting rights for
black men. Later that day, a riot between white delegates,
their black supporters, and white opponents left 34 blacks and
three white Republicans dead and over 100 injured, including
Hahn, who was shot in the leg. The severe injury permanently
undermined his health.
In 1867, Hahn established and edited the
New Orleans Republican. In 1871, after failing to secure
the legislature’s election as a U.S. Senator, he closed the
Republican and moved to his sugar plantation in St. Charles
Parish, where he founded the town of Hahnville and began
publishing the St. Charles Herald. In 1872-1876, he
represented the parish in the state legislature, acting as
speaker of the State House in 1875. In August 1876, he was
appointed state registrar of voters, and earned respect for his
impartiality during the
contested presidential election, which ended with
Louisiana’s electoral vote being disputed. In 1879, President
Rutherford Hayes named him to a federal district judgeship. In
1884, Hahn was elected as a Republican to Congress, resigning as
judge in March 1885 to take his seat. Serving only a year, he
died in Washington, D.C., on March 15, 1885. |