Lindley Miller Garrison

Lindley Miller Garrison

Lindley Miller Garrison (born November 28, 1864 in Camden, New Jersey , † October 19, 1932 in Seabright, New Jersey ) was a New Jersey attorney and Secretary of War under US President Woodrow Wilson between 1913 and 1916.

Career

Garrison was born in Camden, New Jersey and attended public school there and the Protestant Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania. He studied law at Phillips Exeter Academy for a year before moving to Harvard University from 1884 to 1885. Garrison studied law at the Redding, "Jones & Carson" law firm in Philadelphia, received a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and was admitted to the bar in 1886. He practiced law in Camden from 1888 to 1898 and became a partner in the Jersey City law firm of Garrison, McManus & Enright in 1899 . Garrison married Margaret Hildeburn in 1900. From 1904 to 1913 Garrison was assistant judge in New Jersey, where Governor Woodrow Wilson noticed him.

From March 5, 1913 to February 10, 1916, Garrison served as Secretary of War in the Wilson administration. Garrison and Wilson never went well together. Garrison was far more willing to intervene overseas militarily than the President was. This became particularly clear with regard to Mexico. Garrison urged American intervention in the Mexican Revolution to restore order. During the 1916 readiness campaign, when Wilson tried to convince Congress to increase military spending, Garrison endorsed a plan for expanding the U.S. military with what he called the Continental Army Plan . Garrison's plan would have meant a standing army of 140,000 men and national, voluntary reservist troops of 400,000 men. Wilson initially gave the plan tepid backing until Garrison switched to the opposition, who believed that his plan was going too far to create such a large standing army, and he was of the opinion that it did not go far enough. Wilson was persuaded by his allies in Congress to support an alternative plan that did not include Garrison's National Volunteer Forces, but an ongoing role for the state National Guards. Garrison resigned in February 1916 because of these differences.

After Garrison left the Wilson administration, he returned to practice as a lawyer with the Hornblower, Miller & Garrison law firm. He was appointed bankruptcy administrator for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in December 1918 and was until June 1923.

Garrison died in Seabright, New Jersey, in 1932.

biography

• Army biography
• Lindley Miller Garrison in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)