Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Macveagh, Isaac Wayne

Isaac Wayne MacVeagh served as U.S. attorney general from March to October 1881. His appointment was short because of the assassination of President JAMES GARFIELD early in the president's term of office. MacVeagh resigned soon after Garfield's death so that President CHESTER A. ARTHUR could select his own attorney general.

MacVeagh was born on April 19, 1833, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He attended school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, before entering Yale College, where he graduated in 1853. He studied law in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. In 1859 he became district attorney of Chester County, Pennsylvania.

During the Civil War, MacVeagh served as an infantry captain and as a major in the cavalry. He was forced to resign from the military because of ill health. He resumed his position as district attorney, but he also became...