Mendes Israel Cohen | |
|---|---|
 Cohen in 1818 | |
| Born | |
| Died | May 7, 1879 (aged 82) |
Mendes Israel Cohen (1796-1879) was a Jewish American politician, traveler and businessman who lived in Baltimore, Maryland.
Mendes Israel Cohen | |
|---|---|
| Cohen in 1818 | |
| Born | |
| Died | May 7, 1879 (aged 82) |
Mendes Israel Cohen (1796-1879) was a Jewish American politician, traveler and businessman who lived in Baltimore, Maryland.
Cohen was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1796, one of nine children of Israel I. Cohen and Judith Solomon Cohen. [1] The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1803. As a young man he worked in the family businesses: Cohen's Lottery and Exchange, and Jacob I. Cohen, Jr. and Brothers Banking House. [2] The Cohens' lottery raised money to help finance construction of Baltimore’s Washington Monument in Mount Vernon. In 1821, they and their lottery were the subject of a Supreme Court lawsuit Cohens v. Virginia, asserting the federal government’s right to review and overturn state Supreme Court decisions. [3]
In the War of 1812, Cohen and his brothers Philip and Jacob joined a volunteer company charged with defending Baltimore–Nicholson’s Artillery Fencibles--serving under Captain Joseph H. Nicholson. [4] He participated in the Battle of Baltimore. [5]
In 1829, Cohen retired from the family business a wealthy man and traveled the world collecting artifacts. [6] [7] He visited England, Russia, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, and most of the countries in Central and Western Europe. He was said to be the first American to tour the Nile Valley. [6] [2] He was a prolific writer of letters, which often contained his itinerary and appointments. Cohen attended the coronation of William IV in June 1830 and the funeral of King George IV in August 1830. [7] He met Pope Gregory XVI on January 29, 1831. He represented Maryland at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. [7] He was the first American citizen who received permission from the Ottoman Empire to visit Palestine and he wrote about the hardships of the Jews of Jerusalem. [7]
Cohen returned to the United States and became a public servant, first as an aide to the Maryland governor, Thomas Veazey. Veazey gave Mendes the ceremonial title "Colonel" in recognition of his service in the Battle of Baltimore. [8] He was elected to the House of Delegates from Baltimore City in 1847 and served a single term. He was the first Jewish member of the Maryland General Assembly and serves as a trustee to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. [2] He was also on the board of the Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1858 when they launched plans for the Hebrew Hospital of Baltimore, now known as Sinai Hospital.
Cohen was a lifelong bachelor and died without heirs. His collections from his travels were donated in 1884 by his namesake nephew to Johns Hopkins University, where they became the Cohen collection of Egyptian antiquities. [9] [10] His portrait was painted by Joseph Wood (1818) and Rembrandt Peale (1838). The Jewish Museum of Maryland created an exhibit about his life in 2015. [3]
Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. 264 (1821), is a landmark case by the Supreme Court of the United States that is most notable for the Court's assertion of its power to review state supreme court decisions in criminal law matters when the defendant claims that their constitutional rights have been violated. The Court had previously asserted a similar jurisdiction over civil cases involving U.S. parties.
Philip Francis Thomas was an American lawyer, mathematician and politician. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates and was the 28th Governor of Maryland from 1848 to 1851. He was appointed as the 23rd United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1860 in the Buchanan administration. After unsuccessfully standing for the United States Senate in 1878, he returned to the Maryland House of Delegates, and later resumed the practice of law.
Emerson Columbus Harrington was the 48th Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1916 to 1920. He also served as Comptroller of the Maryland Treasury from 1912 to 1916.
Joshua Barney was an American Navy officer who served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War. He later achieved the rank of commodore in the United States Navy and also served in the War of 1812.
John Montgomery was an American lawyer from Baltimore, Maryland. He represented the sixth district of Maryland in the U.S. Congress from 1807 until 1811. He served as the Attorney General of Maryland from 1811 to 1818 and Mayor of Baltimore from 1820 to 1822 and 1824 to 1826.
Alexander Contee Hanson was an American lawyer, publisher, and statesman. He represented the third district of Maryland in the U.S. House, and the state of Maryland in the U.S. Senate.
Thomas Ward Veazey was a Maryland politician that served in a variety of roles. The zenith of his career was being the 24th Governor of the state from 1836 to 1839, when he was selected to serve three consecutive one-year terms by the Maryland General Assembly. Veazey was the last Maryland governor to be elected in this fashion and also the last Whig Party member to serve as Maryland governor.
Julian L. Lapides was an American politician who served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1963 to 1967 and in the Maryland Senate from 1967 to 1995. Known to his friends and colleagues as "Jack", Lapides was often called the conscience of the Maryland State Senate. He later served as a member of the Maryland State Ethics Commission.
The Baltimore City Council is the legislative branch that governs the City of Baltimore and its more than 600,000 citizens. It has 14 members elected by district and a president elected at-large; all serve four-year terms. The Council holds regular meetings on alternate Monday evenings on the fourth floor of the Baltimore City Hall. The Council has seven standing committees, all of which must have at least three members. As of 2018, the President receives an annual salary of $119,000, the Vice President gets $77,000 and the rest of councillors receive $69,000. The current city council president, Nick Mosby, was sworn in December 10, 2020.
Caleb Bentley (1762–1851) was an American silversmith, shopkeeper, and first postmaster in Brookeville, Maryland. Bentley was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1762.
Meyer Melvin Cardin was an American jurist and politician who served as an associate judge on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. He served one term in the Maryland General Assembly and was a member of the Cardin political family. His brother, son, and grandnephew have all been elected to state or national positions.
Lieutenant Colonel William Steuart was a stone mason in colonial Maryland, and Mayor of Baltimore from 1831 to 1832. He was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army during the War of 1812, and saw service during the Battle of Baltimore, where he commanded the 38th United States Infantry foot regiment.
Samuel Hinks (1815–1887) was Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1854 to 1856. He was a member of the Know-Nothing party. He was succeeded in 1856 by fellow Know-Nothing Thomas Swann.
Stephen H. Sachs is a former Maryland politician and former Attorney General of Maryland.
Jacob Small was an American politician who served as the sixth mayor of Baltimore from 1826 to 1831, when he resigned from office. He designed the Ellicott City Station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), finished in 1831. It is the oldest surviving railway station in the United States, as well as being one of the oldest in the world.
Jacob I. Cohen Jr. was an American banker, railroad executive, and civic leader in Baltimore who helped win the right for Jews to hold public office in Maryland.
Few Jews arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, in its early years. As an immigrant port of entry and border town between North and South and as a manufacturing center in its own right, Baltimore has been well-positioned to reflect developments in American Jewish life. Yet, the Jewish community of Baltimore has maintained its own distinctive character as well.
Richard Randall was a physician and colonial agent of the American Colonization Society in Liberia from December 22, 1828 to April 19, 1829. He was born in 1796 at Annapolis.
Shinah Solomon Etting was the matriarch of one of the first Jewish families to live in Baltimore, Maryland.
Judith Solomon Cohen was the matriarch of one of the earliest Jewish families in Baltimore, Maryland.
