Samuel Beach Axtell

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Samuel Beach Axtell (1876)

Samuel Beach Axtell (born October 14, 1819 in Franklin County , Ohio , † August 7, 1891 in Morristown , New Jersey ) was an American politician . He served as governor of the Utah Territory in 1874 and as governor of the New Mexico Territory from 1875 to 1878 .

Early years

Axtell attended local schools in his homeland in Ohio and then Oberlin College and Western Reserve College. After a subsequent law degree, he was admitted to the bar in 1843, whereupon he worked in Mount Clemens , Michigan in this profession. In 1851 he took part in the California gold rush. However, he had little success in prospecting for gold. Instead, he became interested in politics.

Political rise

Between 1854 and 1860, Axtell was a district attorney in Amador County , California . In 1860 he moved to San Francisco where he worked as a lawyer. Between 1867 and 1871 he represented California in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC In 1874 he was named Territory Governor of Utah by President Ulysses S. Grant . A year later he also moved to the New Mexico Territory as governor.

Territorial Governor of New Mexico

Samuel Axtell served as governor of the area between 1875 and 1878. His tenure was pretty inglorious. In the country, where violence and lawlessness were already widespread, the governor also participated in illegal activities. A later investigation into his tenure by Frank Angel, a federal government inspector, concluded that "corruption, fraud, mismanagement, conspiracies, intrigues, and murders were worse during Axtell's tenure than anything in US history have". The governor's behavior fueled a further rise in crime and overt violence in the area. This ultimately led to his dismissal by Interior Minister Carl Schurz and President Rutherford B. Hayes .

Another résumé

Despite what happened in New Mexico, Axtell was never called to legal responsibility. On the contrary: in 1882 he was appointed chief judge in that territory . When President Grover Cleveland took office, Axtell's term as judge ended. The new president had no intention of leaving Axtell in office. Therefore, to forestall his release, he resigned voluntarily in May 1885. In 1890 he became chairman of the Republican Party in the New Mexico Territory. Samuel Axtell died a year later while visiting New Jersey.

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