Arthur MacArthur Sr.

Arthur MacArthur

Arthur MacArthur senior (born January 26, 1815 in Glasgow , Scotland , †  August 26, 1896 in Atlantic City , New Jersey ) was an American politician and in 1856 for a short time the fourth governor of the state of Wisconsin .

Early years

After his father's death, MacArthur came to Massachusetts with his mother . He attended schools in Uxbridge and Amherst . He then graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown ( Connecticut ). After studying law in New York City , he practiced as a lawyer from 1841, first in Springfield and later from 1849 in Milwaukee . In Wisconsin, the Democrat MacArthur soon made important political contacts. In 1851 he became an attorney for the City of Milwaukee and in 1855 he was elected lieutenant governor of Wisconsin as his party's candidate . So he was deputy to the scandalous Governor William A. Barstow .

Controversial elections and governor for four days

Despite allegations of corruption against him, William Barstow ran for re-election as governor in 1855. The first election result saw Barstow with a margin of 157 votes as the election winner against the Republican Coles Bashford . It soon became clear that this result was the result of electoral fraud. The Republicans protested this practice to the Supreme Court , while Barstow has meanwhile been inducted into his second term. Now there were protests against the governor, who mobilized his supporters. There was almost a civil war in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court upheld the lawsuit. But since Barstow was unwilling to give up, the conflict escalated. However, under general pressure he had to resign on March 21, 1856. Until the official inauguration of Bashford on March 24, Lieutenant Governor MacArthur had to serve as governor for four days. During those four days, he had the weapons removed from the Capitol to prevent further violence in the capital. Initially MacArthur did not want to give up his new office either, but he bowed to the pressure and became lieutenant governor again.

Another résumé

MacArthur remained lieutenant governor until 1858. Between 1857 and 1869 he was a judge in the Wisconsin Second Judicial District. In 1870 he was appointed to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia by President Ulysses S. Grant . He held this office until his retirement in 1887. In those years he campaigned for the protection of children and animals. Arthur MacArthur died in 1896. He was married twice. His son Arthur MacArthur Jr. later made it up to the three-star general in the US Army and became military governor of the Philippines . His son, in turn, was the later five-star general Douglas MacArthur , who became the commanding general in the First and Second World Wars , was in command of the occupation forces in Japan after the end of the war and commanded the UN troops in the Korean War .

Web links

• Arthur MacArthur in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• Wisconsin Historical Society (English)
• Arthur MacArthur senior in the database of Find a Grave (English)