John J. Hardin
John J. Hardin was a Whig politician and congressman.
Contents
History
Hardin served in the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War. He later led the militia in the Illinois Mormon War as a brigadier general.
In 1842, he ran for and won the IL-7 seat. Notably he had beat out Lincoln for the Whig nomination that year, but he was not even a candidate for the subsequent election in 1844.
He served in the Mexican-American War as a colonel, and was killed in 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista.
Policies
Hardin supported expansionism, which (at the time) was largely a platform for the Democrats and Polk in particular, despite being a lifelong Whig.