HARLAN, James, statesman, born in Clarke county, Illinois, 25 August, 1820. He was graduated at the Indiana Asbury university in 1845, held the office of superintendent of public instruction in Iowa in 1847, and was president of Iowa Wesleyan university in 1853. He was elected to the United States senate in 1855 as a Whig, and served as chairman of the committee on public lands, but his seat was declared vacant on a technicality on 12 January, 1857. On the 17th of the same month he was re-elected for the term ending in 1861, and in the latter year was a delegate to the Peace convention. He was re-elected to the senate for the term ending in 1867, but resigned in 1865, having been appointed by President Lincoln secretary of the interior. He was again elected to the senate in 1866, and was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention of that year. He was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia and Indian affairs, and also served on those on foreign relations, agriculture, and the Pacific railroad. In 1869 he was appointed president of the Iowa university. After leaving the senate in 1873 he became editor of the "Washington Chronicle." From 1882 till 1885 he was presiding judge of the court of commissioners of Alabama claims.