James B. Weaver

James B. Weaver

James Baird Weaver (born June 12, 1833 in Dayton , Ohio , †  February 6, 1912 in Des Moines , Iowa ) was an American politician . Between 1879 and 1889 he represented the state of Iowa in the US House of Representatives twice . In 1892 and 1896 he ran unsuccessfully for the US presidency .

Career

In 1835, James Weaver and his parents came to Michigan , where they ran a farm near Cassopolis . In 1842 the family moved to the Iowa Territory . There they also ran a farm near Bloomfield . Weaver attended public schools in his new home. After a subsequent law degree and his admission to the bar in 1856, he began to practice in Bloomfield in his new profession. At that time he joined the movement to abolish slavery and initially became a member of the Republican Party .

During the Civil War , he served in the Union Army between 1861 and 1864 . He participated in several battles and eventually reached the rank of Brevet Brigadier General. In 1866, Weaver became a district attorney for the Iowa Second Judicial District. Between 1867 and 1873 he was employed by the Iowa Federal Tax Department. During this time he alienated himself from his party, also because of the policies of the government of President Ulysses S. Grant , which in his opinion favored the big business at the expense of the farmers. He left the Republicans and joined the short-lived Greenback Party .

In the 1878 congressional election, Weaver was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the sixth constituency of Iowa . There he took over on March 4, 1879, succeeding the Republican Ezekiel S. Sampson . Since he refused to run for Congress again in 1880 , he was only able to complete one legislative period until March 3, 1881.

In 1880, Weaver was nominated at his party's federal convention as its candidate for that year's presidential election. In the election he received just under 308,600 votes, while the two candidates from the major parties each received over 4.4 million votes. The Republican James A. Garfield won the election . In 1882, Weaver ran unsuccessfully for his return to the US House of Representatives. Two years later, in 1884, he managed to get back into Congress. After being re-elected in 1886, he was able to complete two further legislative terms between March 4, 1885 and March 3, 1889. Until 1887 he was chairman of the committee to control the expenditure of the Ministry of the Interior and from 1887 a member of the patent committee. In the elections of 1888 he was defeated by Republican John F. Lacey .

Around this time the Greenback Party disbanded and most of its members joined the Democratic Party . Weaver opposed this movement towards the Democrats and was involved in the founding of the Populist Party . In the presidential elections in 1892 , he was the top candidate. In these elections, he won over a million votes and the electorate of four states ( Nevada , Idaho , Colorado , Kansas ); he accounted for 22 of the 444 electors. But that was again not enough to endanger the candidates of the two major parties. The election was won by the Democratic ex-President Grover Cleveland .

In the presidential election in 1896 , James Weaver supported William Jennings Bryan , who emerged from the Populist Party and ran for the Democrats. Since Bryan did not nominate the candidate desired by the populists as his vice-presidential candidate, many populists withdrew their support. That was one of the reasons for his defeat. Republican William McKinley was elected .

Between 1901 and 1903, James Weaver was Mayor of Colfax . Then he withdrew from politics. He died in Des Moines on February 6, 1912. Weaver was married to Clara Vinson (1832-1913) from 1858.

Web links

Commons : James B. Weaver  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• James B. Weaver in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• James B. Weaver in the database of Find a Grave (English)