Richard W . Thompson Richard Wigginton Thompson ( June 9 , 1809 – February 9 , 1900 ) was an American politician . Thompson was born in Culpeper County , Virginia . He left Virginia in 1831 and lived briefly in Louisville , Kentucky before finally settling in Lawrence County , Indiana . There , he taught school , kept a store , and studied law at night . Admitted to the bar in 1834 , he practiced law in Bedford , Indiana , and served four terms in the Indiana General Assembly from 1834 to 1838 . He served as President pro tempore of the Indiana Senate for a short time and briefly held the office of acting Lieutenant Governor . In the presidential election of 1840 , he zealously advocated the election of William Henry Harrison . Thompson then represented Indiana in the United States Congress , serving in the United States House of Representatives from 1841 to 1843 and again from 1847 to 1849 . During the 1850s Thompson and some of his fellow Whigs ( such as his friend Schuyler Colfax ) transferred allegiance to the American Party , better known as the Know Nothing Party . They did so due to their suspicion of the increased immigration from Ireland and Germany , but also because of the view of the northern portion of the American Party to be opposed to slavery . In time Thompson and his allies would allow an alliance of their portion of the Whig Party ( which was collapsing with the American Party to prevent victories in elections by the Democratic Party . In the election of 1860 Thompson was his state ' s leader of those who organized the Constitutional Union Party . At the May convention , Indiana first supported John McLean , but fell in behind John Bell on the second ballot . Thompson was placed on the National Committee , but gave up the on third party strategy in August and supported Abraham Lincoln so as not to risk a Democratic victory in Indiana . Following the American Civil War , Thompson served as judge of the 18th Circuit Court of the state of Indiana from 1867 to 1869 . Active in Republican politics , he was the Platform Committee chairman at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago , he offered Vice President Schuyler Colfax ' s name for renomination at the 1872 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia , and gave the nominating speech for Oliver H . P . Morton for President at the 1876 Republican National Convention in Cincinnati . In 1877 , President Rutherford B . Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Navy ; and he held that office until December 1880 . Secretary of the Navy . Thompson , as Secretary of the Navy , had never been among the leading figures of the Cabinet ( William Evarts , John Sherman , or Carl Schurz ) nor had been even a close colleague and friend of President Hayes like Vice President William Wheeler . Even the Postmaster General , David Key , who was the second Confederate veteran to serve in a Federal Cabinet since the American Civil War was more notable . Reputedly Thompson was unprepared for his post . A popular ( if suspect ) story is that he was taken for a tour of one of our warships , and went below deck becoming thunderstruck and shouting , " My God , the durned thing ' s hollow ! ! " Thompson ( being from Indiana ) was not from a state with a seacoast , but Indiana has several rivers running through it . It is not hard to believe Thompson was on a steamboat at some point and saw the inside of it . When he assumed the role of Secretary of the Navy he was replacing Grant ' s Secretary for nearly eight years , George Robeson . Whatever was the situation caused or allowed by Robeson ' s handling of the Navy , Thompson offered little additional guidance . His most notable involvement in any naval activity was actually on the sidelines : when Lt . George Washington De Long and James Gordon Bennett Jr . set up the USS " Jeannette " Expedition to the North Pole in 1879 , Thompson gave some advice to the preparations , but seemed determined to watch the extent of Government involvement in the project . His waffling ( about escort vessels and later rescue vessels ) were somewhat irritating . While not responsible for that tragedy , Thompson certainly did not help matters by his hair - splitting legalisms . In 1880 a new matter arose that had a bearing with Thompson leaving his post . The French were in the process of funding the new Panama Canal Company under Comte Ferdinand de Lesseps . The Hayes administration , while willing to keep good relations with the French , were fully suspicious about a French owned Canal across the Isthmus of Panama as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine . Thompson was aware of this . But Thompson was also approached by the American based section of the Panama Company with a job offer . The American section was headed and funded by J . & W . Seligman & Co . , then headed by Jessie Seligman . The Seligmans were old friends of former President Ulysses S . Grant , and had offered Grant the position of the Presidency of the Canal Company . But Grant refused it . Looking around for a replacement they turned to Thompson . He accepted , and then resigned from the Cabinet . Later on this whole matter became an issue before Congressional Committee that questioned both Seligman and Thompson . Eventually Thompson would leave the Panama Company , but his reputation was somewhat tarnished by the situation . He was not connected with it at the time of the great scandalous collapse of the enterprise in 1889 . Retiring to Indiana , Thompson lived out the remainder of his days in his adopted state . He died in 1900 at Terre Haute , Indiana . The United States Navy destroyer USS " Thompson " ( DD - 305 ) was named in his honor . He was also a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Alabama ( Psi chapter ) .