John White Geary

John White Geary

John White Geary (born December 30, 1819 in Westmoreland County , Pennsylvania , †  February 8, 1873 in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania) was an American politician . He was the 16th Governor of the State of Pennsylvania from 1867 to 1873  and Governor of the Kansas Territory from 1856 to 1857 .

Early years and advancement in California

John Geary attended Jefferson College and then studied construction and law. But he could not finish this course because he had to pay his father's debts after the death of his father. In order to earn money, he worked in various positions in the following years. Among other things, he was a teacher and then a surveyor in Kentucky . After earning enough money, he was able to finish his studies in 1841. Then he worked as an architect for the railroad. On January 4, 1847, John Geary became a member of the Federation of Freemasons ( Philanthropy Lodge # 255 in Pennsylvania) before fighting with his troops in the Mexican War. During the Mexican-American War he was a colonel in the US Army.

After the war he was appointed head of the San Francisco post office by US President James K. Polk . All US post offices along the Pacific coast were subordinate to him. From May 1, 1850, he was the first mayor of San Francisco for one year . In 1852 he returned to Pennsylvania. President Franklin Pierce offered him the post of governor of the Utah Territory , but Geary declined.

Kansas Territorial Governor

In 1856, however, he accepted the president's offer, who made him governor of the Kansas Territory. In this territory , which had only existed since 1854, two governors had already failed. The territory had sunk in terrible violence in the run-up to the civil war . Supporters on both sides fought bloody battles and his predecessors Andrew Horatio Reeder and Wilson Shannon were powerless to face these events. Geary soon realized that he too was no match for the violence. He sympathized with the position of the northern states and thus met the opposition of the south. After a physical attack on his private secretary, the governor feared for his life. He submitted his resignation to the new President James Buchanan . But the President had anticipated him and had fired him shortly before.

In the civil war

John White Geary as an army officer

After leaving Kansas, Geary returned to Pennsylvania. When the Civil War broke out, he became the commander of a regiment made up of soldiers from Pennsylvania. During the war he took part in many battles, including those of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville . He was also part of the army that conquered parts of the south in 1864 under the command of General William T. Sherman . In late 1864 he became the commanding officer of the occupation forces of Savannah , Georgia . By the year 1865, he was the Brevet risen -Generalmajor of volunteers.

Governor of Pennsylvania

In 1866 he was elected as a candidate for the Republican Party for the new governor of Pennsylvania, where he prevailed against the Democrat Hiester Clymer , an advocate of White Supremacy . He was the first in a series of several former Civil War generals to assume the post of governor. After being re-elected, he could remain in this office for a total of six years. His term of office began on January 15, 1867. During his reign, the country's economy took a tremendous boom. The national debt was reduced. He also set up a commission to review and settle claims claims made by citizens affected by Confederate war activity in Pennsylvania. The governor was also known as an opponent of the lobbyists. Above all, he was against a privileged treatment of the railways and rejected laws in this regard with his veto.

Geary died of a heart attack in Harrisburg just three weeks after his tenure ended. He was married twice.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Freemasonry in the Civil War ( Memento of March 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).

Web links

• John Geary in the National Governors Association (English)
• John White Geary in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Governors of Pennsylvania ( April 17, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive )