the Civil War looked upon as the organ of the Lincoln administration. In 1861, he became Secretary of the United States Senate. Among the events of his secretariat may be remembered that he was the first to read aloud, in a joint session of Congress, George Washington's Farewell Address, a reading that became traditional after 1888. 'In January 1862, with the Constitution endangered by civil war, a thousand citizens of Philadelphia petitioned Congress to commemorate the forthcoming 130th anniversary of George Washington’s birth by providing that “the Farewell Address of Washington be read aloud on the morning of that day in one or the other of the Houses of Congress.” Both houses agreed and assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber on February 22, 1862, where Secretary of the Senate John W. Forney “rendered ‘The Farewell Address’ very effectively,” as one observer recalled.' On the death of Lincoln, Forney supported Andrew Johnson for a short time, but afterward became one of the foremost in the struggle which resulted in the president's impeachment. In 1868, no longer Secretary of the Senate, he disposed of his interest in the Chronicle and returned to Philadelphia where in 1871 he was made collector of the port by President Ulysses S. Grant. He held the office for one year, and during that time perfected the system of direct transportation of imports in bond without appraisement and examination at the port of original entry. He was an earnest promoter of the Centennial Exposition and visited Europe in its interest in 1875. In 1877 he sold the Press and established a weekly, the Progress, which he edited until his death. Progress continued to be published by the Forney Publishing Company after his death. In 1880 he left the Republican Party and supported Winfield Scott Hancock for the presidency. He is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Forney's daughter Tillie achieved some renown as a journalist. The town of Forney, Texas is named in his honor. Authored Letters from Europe (1869) What I Saw in Texas (1872) Anecdotes of Public Men (two volumes, 1873) A Centennial Commissioner in Europe (Philadelphia, 1876) Forty Years of American Journalism (1877) Life & Military Career of Winfield Scott Hancock (1880) The New Nobility (1881) References Sources McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania (1905) This source reports his middle name as Wien. Attribution External links Senate biography Biography-West Laurel Hill