Cabinet Secretary at the United States Department of Interior under President Andrew Johnson, and a Federal Judge.

[2] In 1855, Harlan was elected by the Iowa legislature to the United States Senate as a Free Soil Party candidate.

As secretary he announced that he intended to "clean house" and fired "a considerable number of incumbents who were seldom at their respective desks".

all such persons "as disregard in their conduct, habits, and associations, the rules of decorum, [and] propriety proscribed by a christian civilization.

"[6] Twenty-nine years later, Harlan defended his firing of Whitman, saying that the clerk was dismissed solely "on the grounds that his services were not needed".

As part of the new treaties, they had to emancipate their slaves, as was being done by amendment within the United States, and offer them full citizenship in the tribes if they chose to stay in Indian Territory.

During his senate service, Harlan was chairman of the committees of Public Lands; District of Columbia; Education; and Indian Affairs.

[2] On November 5, 1845, Harlan was married to Ann Eliza Peck (1824–1884) by President Matthew Simpson, who later became a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Together, Ann and James were the parents of:[8] Harlan died on October 5, 1899, at his hotel in Mount Pleasant, which become his residence in the early 1890s.