James Albert Gary

James Albert Gary

James Albert Gary (born October 22, 1833 in Montville , Connecticut , †  October 31, 1920 in Baltimore , Maryland ) was an American businessman and politician ( Republican Party ), who belonged to the cabinet of President William McKinley as US Postal Secretary .

Career

Gary was a successful businessman in the cotton processing industry. At the same time, he always tried to gain a foothold in politics as a lifelong member of the Republican Party, but most of his attempts at public office failed. So he ran for the first time unsuccessfully for the Senate of Maryland in 1858 . In 1870 he suffered another defeat in the election to the US House of Representatives , just as two years later. The candidacy for governor of Maryland also failed in 1879, although this state was clearly dominated by the Democratic Party at that time . Gary got 42.3 percent of the vote and was defeated by the Democrat William Thomas Hamilton (56.9 percent).

Gary was a respected figure within his party. He represented Maryland between 1872 and 1896 at all Republican National Conventions ; he was also a member of the Republican National Committee from 1880 to 1896 . In 1883 he was President of the Republicans in Maryland.

After William McKinley was elected US President, he appointed James Gary as Postmaster General in his cabinet . He took up his post on March 5, 1897, but resigned a good year later on April 18, 1898. The reason for this was, on the one hand, his poor health; Moreover, he did not support the growing hostilities against Spain , which culminated in the Spanish-American War that began just a week after his departure . So his term of office went without any notable achievements; He remembered his proposal to set up a Postal Savings System (Postsparkasse), which his successor Frank H. Hitchcock put into practice a few years later .

After the end of his political career, Gary focused again on his business activities. He was Vice President of the Consolidated Gas Company and President of Citizens National Bank in Baltimore, where he died and was buried in October 1920.

Web links

• James Albert Gary in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

• James Albert Gary in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard