appointments and integration of both male and female African Americans to prominent positions in the U.S. Postal system, viewing him as "a man of the future". Early life John A. J. Creswell was born in Port Deposit, Maryland, then known as Creswells Ferry, on November 18, 1828. His father was John G. Creswell, from Maryland of English ancestry. His mother was Rebecca E. Webb, from Pennsylvania, of German and English ancestry. One of Rebecca's forebears was Quaker missionary, Elizabeth Webb. Creswell attended a local academy before moving on to Dickinson College where he graduated with honors in 1848. He studied law for two years and was admitted to the bar in Baltimore in 1850, commencing practice in Elkton, Maryland. Marriage During Creswell's early career as a Maryland lawyer, he married Hannah J. Richardson of Maryland. Hannah was considerably wealthy. Political career During the early 1850s, Creswell was a strongly partisan Whig. In 1850, Creswell was an unsuccessful candidate to the Maryland Reform State Convention. When the Whig party ceased to exist in the mid-1850s, Creswell became a Democrat and he attended the 1856 Democratic convention in Cincinnati, Ohio that nominated James Buchanan for President. American Civil War At the outbreak of the Civil War, Creswell became a devoted and strongly influential Radical Republican. In 1861 Creswell was elected for the first time to public office, as a loyalist Union member of the Maryland House of Delegates. He served until 1862 and worked to prevent Maryland from leaving the Union and joining the Confederate States. In 1863, Creswell was appointed the state's adjutant general, where he was in charge of raising Maryland's quota of troops for the Union war effort. U.S. Representative Creswell was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862, serving from 1863 to 1865. A staunch supporter of President Abraham Lincoln, Creswell was the first man in Congress to propose a constitutional amendment banning slavery. U.S. Senator Having lost reelection to the House in 1864, Creswell was elected to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas H. Hicks, serving from 1865 until the end of that term in 1867. During his time in the Senate, he served as chairman of the Committee on the Library in the 39th Congress. At the Republican National Convention in 1868, Creswell's name was put forward for either the presidential or vice presidential nominations. Postmaster General