dominant figure in 19th-century Zürich politics and legislator of national prominence who, as a railway magnate, became a leading opponent of railway nationalization.

Quickly rising in cantonal political affairs, Escher had by 1848 become president of the Zürich government. Elected the same year to the Nationalrat (national assembly), he was four times its president, notably during the Neuchâtel crisis with Prussia (1856–57). Often a voice for moderation against the advocacy of radical measures by Jakob Stämpfli, he tempered passions in the Neuchâtel affair and urged peaceful accommodation in the controversy arising from the cession of Savoy to France (1860).

Between 1850 and 1870 Escher was probably the most influential of all Swiss legislators. The head of a railway company, he championed private construction of railroads and opposed the nationalization program of Stämpfli (1862). The driving force behind the construction of the Gotthard line, he helped secure the necessary German and Italian cooperation for the project in 1869–71, and in 1871–78 he presided over its direction.