Joseph Ripley Chandler (August 22, 1792 – July 10, 1880) was a Whig member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Biography

Joseph R. Chandler was born in

Kingston, Massachusetts Kingston is a coastal town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,708 at the 2020 census. History Before European settlers arrived, Kingston was within the tribal homeland of the Wampanoag people. Several years ...

. He was engaged in commercial work in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and moved to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, in 1815. He founded a young ladies' seminary and worked as editor of the ''United States Gazette'' from 1822 to 1847. He was a member of the

Philadelphia City Council The Philadelphia City Council is the legislative body of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is composed of 17 councilmembers: ten members elected by district and seven members elected at-large from throughou ...

from 1832 to 1848, and a member of the State constitutional convention in 1837. For a short time, he was an editorial assistant at ''

Graham's Magazine ''Graham's Magazine'' was a nineteenth-century periodical based in Philadelphia established by George Rex Graham and published from 1840 to 1858. It was alternatively referred to as ''Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine'' (1841–1842, and J ...

'' in 1848. Chandler was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-first, Thirty-second, and Thirty-third Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in

1854 Events January–March * January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the ''Samarang''. * January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born. * January 9 – The Te ...

. He was appointed by President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

as Minister to the

Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land are ...

and served from June 15, 1858, to November 15, 1860."Joseph Ripley Chandler", Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute
/ref> He served as president of the board of directors of

Girard College Girard College is an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school located on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was founded and permanently endowed from the shipping and banking fortune of Stephen Girard upon ...

. He became interested in

prison reform Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, reduce recidivism or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are ...

and was a delegate to the

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held at

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in 1872. He died in 1880 in Philadelphia, where he was interred in

New Cathedral Cemetery The New Cathedral Cemetery, formerly Bonnie Brae Cemetery, is a Roman Catholic cemetery, with 125 acres, located on the westside of Baltimore, Maryland, at 4300 Old Frederick Road. It is the final resting place of 110,000 people, including numero ...

References

Bibliography

*Gerrity, Frank. "The Disruption of the Philadelphia Whigocracy: Joseph R. Chandler, Anti-Catholicism, and the Congressional Election of 1854." ''Pennsylvania Magazine'', 111 (April 1987): 161–94.

Sources

The Political Graveyard

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chandler, Joseph R. Philadelphia City Council members Ambassadors of the United States to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 19th-century American newspaper editors 1792 births 1880 deaths Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania 19th-century people from Pennsylvania 19th-century American diplomats 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives