File:Michael C. Kerr - Brady-Handy.jpg

English: Michael Crawford Kerr ( March 15, 1827–August 19, 1876) was an American legislator. He was born at Titusville, Pennsylvania, was educated at the Erie Academy and graduated at the law school of Louisville University in 1851. He removed to New Albany, Indiana, in 1852, and was a member of the State Legislature in 1856 to 1857. He was elected to Congress in 1864 as a "war" Democrat, having vigorously opposed the "Copperhead" element in his district. He served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Indiana from 1865 to 1873. In Congress he was looked upon as one of the leaders of the Democratic party. He strongly opposed the Republican policy of reconstruction in the Southern States. He was not reëlected in 1872. His views on financial questions did not meet with favor in his constituency, where he openly antagonized the inflationists and the "greenback" element and favored the resumption of specie payments. In 1874, however, after a sharp contest he was reëlected, and on his reëntry into Congress was elected to the speakership. He presided as Speaker at only the first session of the Forty-fourth Congress and died of consumption shortly after its adjournment.