Editing Jacob Thompson (section)

==Early life==
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Born in [[Leasburg, North Carolina]] in 1810 to Nicolas Thompson and Lucretia (van Hook) Thompson,<ref>{{cite web |last1=College |first1=Dickinson |title="Thompson, Jacob" |url=http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/6708 |website=House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College |publisher=Dickinson College |access-date=30 August 2020}}</ref> Thompson attended Bingham Academy in [[Orange County, North Carolina]] and later went on to graduate from the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina]] in 1831, where he was a member of the [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies|Philanthropic Society]]. Afterwards, he served on the university faculty for a short time until he left to study law in 1832. He was admitted to the bar in 1834 and established a law practice in [[Pontotoc, Mississippi]] in 1837, and made an unsuccessful bid to become the state attorney general.
[[File:Buchanan Cabinet.jpg|thumb|right|300px|''President Buchanan and his Cabinet''<br/>From left to right: Jacob Thompson, [[Lewis Cass]], [[John B. Floyd]], [[James Buchanan]], [[Howell Cobb]], [[Isaac Toucey]], [[Joseph Holt]] and [[Jeremiah S. Black]], (c. 1859)]]

=== Congressional years ===
Thompson's involvement in politics began in earnest as he was elected to the [[26th United States Congress|26th Congress]], serving through to the [[31st United States Congress|31st Congress]] (1849–1851).

He was appointed to the [[United States Senate]] in 1845 but never received the commission, and the seat went to [[Joseph W. Chalmers]]. Thompson was the chairman of the [[United States House Committee on Resources|Committee on Indian Affairs]] in the [[29th United States Congress|29th Congress]]. He lost reelection to the [[32nd United States Congress|32nd Congress]] and went back to practicing law in Mississippi. In 1853, when [[President Franklin Pierce]] offered him to become a [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Cuba|U.S Consul to Havana]] he refused it. Thompson lost the [[1854–55 United States Senate elections|1855 senate election]] to [[Jefferson Davis]], but in 1857, newly elected [[President of the United States|President]] [[James Buchanan]] appointed Thompson [[United States Secretary of the Interior]] from 1857 to 1861.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://millercenter.org/president/buchanan/essays/thompson-1857-secretary-of-the-interior | title=Jacob Thompson (1857–1861) &#124; Miller Center | date=October 4, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/22881?ret=True | title=THOMPSON, Jacob &#124; US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives }}</ref>

In the later years of the [[James Buchanan#Administration and Cabinet|Buchanan administration]], the cabinet members argued with one another on issues of [[slavery]] and [[Secession in the United States|secession]].{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} In an 1859 speech, Thompson advanced a moderate unionist position. He denounced [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] in the North who spoke of the slavery issue as an "irrepressible conflict" and Southern extremists who favored reopening the [[Atlantic slave trade]].{{sfn|Dew|2001|p=31}}

===Alignment with Confederacy===
While still serving as Interior Secretary, Thompson was appointed by the state of Mississippi as a "secession commissioner" to North Carolina and tasked to convince that state to secede from the Union in the wake of the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 presidential election]]. On December 17, he passed through [[Baltimore]] on the way to North Carolina. "Secretary Thompson has entered openly into the secession service, while professing still to serve the Federal authority," the ''[[New York Times]]'' reported on December 20.{{sfn|Dew|2001|p=30}} The next day, Thompson met with Governor [[John W. Ellis]] in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]. He wrote an open letter to Ellis which was published in the ''Raileigh State Journal'' on December 20. Thompson wrote that the South faced "common humiliation and ruin" if it remained in the Union. He warned that a Northern "majority trained from infancy to hate our people and their institutions" would overthrow slavery. The result would be "the subjugation of our people."{{sfn|Dew|2001|pp=31-32}}

Thompson resigned as Interior Secretary in January 1861. When he resigned, [[Horace Greeley]]'s ''New-York Daily Tribune'' denounced him as "a traitor", remarking, "Undertaking to overthrow the Government of which you are a sworn minister may be in accordance with the ideas of cotton-growing chivalry, but to common men cannot be made to appear creditable."<ref>''New-York Daily Tribune'', January 9, 1861, p. 4.</ref>

Thompson became [[Inspector General]] of the [[Confederate States Army]]. Though not a military man, Thompson later joined the army as an officer and served as an aide to General [[P.G.T. Beauregard]] at the [[Battle of Shiloh]].{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}

He attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and was present at several other battles in the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|Western Theater]] of the war, including Corinth, Vicksburg, and Tupelo.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}

===Commissioner in Canada===
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In March 1864, [[Jefferson Davis]] asked Thompson to lead a secret delegation in Canada. He accepted and arrived in Montreal in May of that year. Thompson appears to have been the leader of [[Confederate Secret Service]] operations in Canada.

From there, he directed a failed plot to free Confederate prisoners of war on [[Johnson's Island]], off [[Sandusky, Ohio]], in September. He also arranged the purchase of a steamer, with the intention of arming it to harass shipping in the [[Great Lakes]]. Regarded in the North as a schemer and conspirator, many devious plots were associated with his name, though much of this may have been public hysteria.

On June 13, 1864, Thompson met with former New York Governor [[Washington Hunt]] at [[Niagara Falls]].<ref>p. 145, Castleman, John Breckenridge. ''Active Service''. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing, 1917.</ref> According to the testimony of the Peace Democrat [[Clement Vallandigham]], Hunt met Thompson, talked to him about creating a Northwestern Confederacy, and obtained money for arms, which was routed to a subordinate. Thompson gave [[Benjamin Wood (American politician)|Benjamin Wood]], the owner of the ''[[New York Daily News (19th century)|New York Daily News]]'', money to purchase arms.<ref>p. 146, Castleman, John Breckenridge. ''Active Service''. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing, 1917.</ref>

One plot was a planned burning of [[New York City]] on November 25, 1864 in retaliation for Union Generals [[Philip Sheridan]] and [[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s [[scorched-earth]] tactics in the South.<ref>p. 54, Benn Pitman. United States. Army. Military Commission (Lincoln Assassins: 1865). ''The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators''. Cincinnati, OH: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865.</ref>

Some speculate that [[John Wilkes Booth]], who assassinated [[Abraham Lincoln]], met Thompson, but that has not been proved. (In the years after the war, Thompson worked hard to clear his name of involvement in the assassination.) His manor, called "Home Place," in [[Oxford, Mississippi]] was burned down by [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops in 1864.

In the spring of 1865, Canadian customs raided a house in [[Toronto]] that had been rented by Thompson. They found [[Coal torpedo|coal torpedoes]] and other incendiary devices hidden beneath the floorboards.<ref>Adam Mayers, "Spies across the border," in ''Civil War Times Illustrated.'' June 2001, pg. 31.</ref>