John Weiss Forney

John Weiss Forney (30 September 1817 – 9 December 1881), also known as John Wien Forney, was an American newspaper publisher and politician. He was the owner of several newspapers including the Intelligencer and Journal, the Pennsylvanian, The Philadelphia Press, the Washington Daily Union, the Sunday Morning Chronicle, and the Progress.

He helped James Buchanan's presidential campaign and served as a Democratic clerk of the United States House of Representatives from 1851 to 1856. He broke with Buchanan over his pro-slavery stance, switched to the Republican Party and served as clerk of the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from 1860 to 1861. He served as the first Republican secretary of the United States Senate from 1861 to 1868.

Early life He was born September 30, 1817, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Jacob and Margaret (Wien) Forney. He was educated at the local schools in Lancaster. At age 13, he left school and worked at a store. In 1845 President James K. Polk appointed him deputy surveyor of the port of Philadelphia.

In 1856 he was the chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee. He was instrumental in securing the nomination of Pennsylvania's candidate, James Buchanan. He conducted Buchanan's successful campaign for the presidency, and Buchanan would have given him a cabinet office but he was not seen as sufficiently pro-slavery by politicians from Southern states. In January 1857, Buchanan's influence was not strong enough to win Forney a seat in the United States Senate, which went instead to Simon Cameron. In August 1857, Forney established The Philadelphia Press, an independent Democratic newspaper.

At first a Douglas Democrat and a supporter of Buchanan, he broke with Buchanan over his pro-slavery stance Among the events of his secretariat may be remembered that he was the first to read aloud, in a joint session of Congress, George Washington's Farewell Address, a reading that became traditional after 1888. 'In January 1862, with the Constitution endangered by civil war, a thousand citizens of Philadelphia petitioned Congress to commemorate the forthcoming 130th anniversary of George Washington's birth by providing that “the Farewell Address of Washington be read aloud on the morning of that day in one or the other of the Houses of Congress.” Both houses agreed and assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber on February 22, 1862, where Secretary of the Senate John W. Forney “rendered ‘The Farewell Address’ very effectively,” as one observer recalled.'

On the death of Lincoln, Forney supported Andrew Johnson for a short time, but afterward became one of the foremost in the struggle which resulted in the president's impeachment. In 1868, no longer Secretary of the Senate, he disposed of his interest in the Chronicle and returned to Philadelphia where in 1871 he was made collector of the port by President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1880 he left the Republican Party to rejoin the Democratic Party and was interred in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Personal life He married Elizabeth Reitzel in 1840 and together they had six children. Their son James Forney, was a colonel in the United States Marine Corps

Publications Address of John W. Forney of Pennsylvania, at the Great Democratic Jubilee, in Honor of the Election of Pierce and King, Held at the City of Washington, November 11, 1852., Washington: Lemuel Towers, 1852 Forney's War Press, Philadelphia, 1863 Letters from Europe, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers, 1867 What I Saw in Texas (1872) Anecdotes of Public Men Volume 1, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1873 A Centennial Commissioner in Europe (Philadelphia, 1876) Forty Years of American Journalism (1877) The Lesson of Kansas, Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., 1879 Life & Military Career of Winfield Scott Hancock, Philadelphia; Hubbard Bros, 1880 The New Nobility. A Story of Europe and America., New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1881