William Pinkney Whyte

William Pinkney Whyte (born August 8, 1824 in Baltimore , Maryland , † March 17, 1908 ibid) was an American politician and governor of the state of Maryland from 1872 to 1874 . Between 1868 and 1908 he represented his state several times in the US Senate .

Early years and political advancement

William Whyte was born as William White. Because of a family dispute, he later changed the spelling of his surname to Whyte. He attended Baltimore City College and then Harvard University , where he studied law at their law school. Between 1842 and 1844 he worked in Baltimore in the banking industry. After his admission to the bar in 1846, he worked in Baltimore in this profession.

Whyte was a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1847 and 1849 he was a member of the Maryland House of Representatives . In 1850 he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the US House of Representatives . From 1854 to 1856 he was head of the Comptroller of Maryland. In 1857 another attempt to be elected to Congress failed .

Senator and Governor

After the resignation of US Senator Reverdy Johnson , Whyte was appointed as his successor. There he only had to end the term of office of his predecessor. This included the period from July 13, 1868 to March 3, 1869. During this time he supported the beleaguered President Andrew Johnson and his reconstruction policy. He refused to be re-elected at the time. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention . On November 7, 1871, he was elected the new governor of his state.

Whyte took up his new office on January 10, 1872. During his tenure, a health committee was established in Maryland. A black elementary school was proposed and Garrett County was established. On March 4, 1874, Whyte resigned from office after being elected to the US Senate. Between his resignation as governor and taking office in Congress in March 1875, Whyte represented his state legally in a border dispute with Virginia .

On March 4, 1875, Whyte replaced William Thomas Hamilton as Class 1 Senator from Maryland , who had succeeded him in this office in 1869. In the Senate he became chairman of the Committee on Printing . At the end of his six-year legislature, he was defeated in the congressional elections of 1880 against Arthur Pue Gorman . He remained a senator until 1899 and returned in 1903 as a class 3 senator . Gorman died on June 4, 1906 and William Whyte moved up for him again in the Senate. He retained this mandate until his death on March 17, 1908.

Other offices

After his resignation from the Senate in 1881, Whyte became mayor of Baltimore . He held this office from 1881 to 1883. Then he worked as a lawyer again. Between 1897 and 1891 he was Attorney General of Maryland. In the years 1897 to 1898 he was chairman of a commission to revise the city charter of Baltimore. He was then a lawyer in this city from 1900 to 1903 before he returned to the Senate. William Whyte was married twice with a total of five children.

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personal data
SURNAME	Whyte, William Pinkney
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician, governor of Maryland
DATE OF BIRTH	August 8, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH	Baltimore , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH	March 17, 1908
Place of death	Baltimore , Maryland