Richard Keith Call

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Richard Keith Call

Richard Keith Call (born October 24, 1792 in Petersburg , Virginia , † September 14, 1862 in Tallahassee , Florida ) was an American politician and from 1836 to 1839 and again from 1841 to 1844 governor of the Florida Territory , which he also represented as a delegate to the United States House of Representatives .

Early years

Richard Call attended his homeland schools and the Mount Pleasant Academy . In 1814 he entered the US Army and served as a lieutenant under Andrew Jackson . During the Battle of New Orleans in early 1815 he was on the Jackson General Staff. In the following years Call remained in the army, which promoted him to captain in 1818. In 1821 he accompanied General Jackson to Florida, who had been appointed military governor there. In May 1822, he submitted his departure to settle in Florida and study law there. After his admission to the bar, he opened a practice in Pensacola .

Political career

At the same time he took part in political events in his new home. He was a member of the territorial House of Representatives and rose in the militia to brigadier general . Between 1823 and 1825 he represented his territory in Congress in Washington, DC On March 16, 1836, he was appointed by President Jackson as the new Territorial Governor of Florida. He held this office until December 2, 1839, when he was recalled by President Martin Van Buren . During this time there were armed conflicts with the Indians of the Seminole tribe. This was related to the implementation of the Indian Removal Act . The plan envisaged the relocation of Indians from the eastern parts of the United States to areas across the Mississippi . Governor Call went down in Florida history as the victor of the Battle of the Wahoo Swamp.

In March 1841 Richard Call was reappointed Territorial Governor. In his term of office, which lasted until 1844, he set the course for the accession of Florida as a federal state to the Union, which was then carried out under his successor John Branch . He tried to keep the financial and economic consequences of the economic crisis of 1837 for Florida as small as possible.

Another résumé

In 1845 Richard Call ran for the Whig Party for the office of first governor of the new state of Florida. But he was defeated by the Democrat William Dunn Moseley . In the meantime he had started to build two large plantations in Florida, which he also managed. He died on his Grove plantation near Tallahassee in September 1862.

literature

  • Herbert J. Doherty: Richard Keith Call, Southern Unionist . University of Florida Press, Gainesville 1961.

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personal data
SURNAME Call, Richard Keith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1792
PLACE OF BIRTH Petersburg , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1862
Place of death near Tallahassee , Florida