Hugh Smith Thompson

Hugh Smith Thompson (around 1886)

Hugh Smith Thompson (born January 24, 1836 in Charleston , South Carolina , † November 20, 1904 in New York City ) was an American politician and Governor of South Carolina from 1882 to 1886.

Early years

Hugh Thompson graduated from the Citadel Military Academy. There he graduated in 1856. Between 1858 and 1860 he taught at Arsenal Academy, another military school in South Carolina. Then he was a teacher at the Citadel Academy. With a cadet unit he fired the first shot in the civil war , which was not yet officially declared on January 9, 1861 , when he had a supply ship for Fort Sumter shot at. He was an instructor at the Citadel Academy throughout the war. After the war he was a teacher at Columbia Male Academy in Columbia until 1876 .

Political rise

In the gubernatorial elections of 1876 he supported Wade Hampton III. and was appointed by this minister of education. He held this office until 1882. His Democratic Party was divided over the question of the top candidacy for the gubernatorial elections of 1882. A part voted for John Bratton and another faction within the party for John Doby Kennedy. Since they could not agree, Hugh Thompson was nominated as a compromise candidate. Thompson then won the actual election with 79.5% of the vote against J. McLane, who only got 20.5%. Governor Thompson's term began on December 1, 1882. He ensured economic stability in his country and initiated tax reform. Given his background, it is not surprising that he also promoted education. He also succeeded in bridging the rifts within his party that had been raised in the election campaign in 1882 and in restoring internal peace in the Democratic Party. In 1884 he was confirmed in office without opposition. His second term would have run until December 1886, but he resigned in July of that year to become US Secretary of the Treasury under President Grover Cleveland .

Further career

Until 1889 he stayed in the US Treasury Department. Under President Benjamin Harrison , he was until 1892 a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission (Civil service Commission) for the public service. Thompson then worked for ten years in the administration of a life insurance company in New York. Hugh Tompson died in New York City in November 1904. He was married to Elizabeth Anderson, with whom he had seven children.

literature

• Robert Sobel and John Raimo (Eds.): Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978. Volume 4. Meckler Books, Westport, CT, 1978. 4 volumes.
• The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 12. James T. White & Company, New York

Web links

• Hugh Thompson at the National Governors Association (English)
• South Carolina Information Highway (English)
• Hugh Smith Thompson in the database of Find a Grave (English)