James Noble Tyner

James Noble Tyner (January 17, 1826 – December 5, 1904) was a 19th-century American lawyer, U.S. Representative from Indiana and U.S. Postmaster General. Tyner served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1869 to 1875.

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Tyner Second Assistant Postmaster General in 1875, and U.S. Postmaster General in 1876. Tyner served as First Assistant Postmaster General under President Rutherford B. Hayes from 1877 to 1881. In October 1881, President Chester A. Arthur requested his resignation because of his involvement in the Star Route postal frauds and for giving his son, whom he had appointed superintendent of the Chicago Post Office, a $1,000 salary increase.

Tyner served as Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Post Office Department from 1889 to 1893, and from 1897 to 1903. Postmaster General Henry C. Payne requested his resignation in April 1903, after which Tyner was indicted for fraud and bribery. Tyner was acquitted after his family controversially removed pertinent papers from his office safe.

James Noble Tyner was born in Brookville, Indiana, on January 17, 1826, one of twelve children born to Richard Tyner and Martha Sedgwick Willis Swift Noble. Tyner's grandfather, William E. Tyner, was a pioneer Baptist minister who preached in Eastern Indiana for many years. His father was a prominent Indiana businessman, and his maternal uncle was Indiana Governor Noah Noble. Another brother was U.S. Senator James Noble. Tyner graduated from Brookville Academy in 1844 and joined his father's banking and business ventures. Tyner then studied law, attained admission to the bar in 1857, and practiced in Peru, Indiana.

From 1857 to 1861, Tyner was secretary of the Indiana Senate. In 1860, he served as a Republican presidential elector and cast his ballot for Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. From 1861 to 1866, Tyner was a special agent for the United States Post Office Department.

In 1869, Tyner was elected to the United States House of Representatives to fill the vacancy caused when Representative-elect Daniel D. Pratt resigned after winning a seat in the United States Senate. Tyner represented Indiana's 8th District during the 41st, 42nd, and 43rd U.S. Congresses from March 4, 1869, to March 3, 1875. Tyner, considered a reformer in his first two terms, gave few speeches in the House and was noted for his statistical accuracy and "sound reasoning". After Congress passed the unpopular 1873 Salary Grab Act, many members lost their seats, and Tyner was among those who lost his party's nomination for re-election in 1874.

On February 5, 1870, Tyner made his first House speech, in which he advocated for ending the Congressional Franking Privilege. President Grant's Postmaster General John Creswell also advocated the end of franking, but efforts to eliminate it failed, and members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate continued to send franked mail for free.

Tyner spoke against granting large land subsidies to the Northern Pacific Railroad. In his view, the land between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean should be settled gradually over time, giving settlers free land to build houses. Tyner considered America to be an empire and believed U.S. citizens had a right to settle the West. On May 16, 1870, Tyner stated in a speech to the House, "Much as we desire to see the country lying between the Mississippi and the Pacific teeming with an industrious population, it would be far better to reach that end by slow marches than to rush into a policy that will eventually retard its prosperity and check its growth."