George Henry Williams (March 26, 1823April 4, 1910) was an American judge and politician. He served as chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was the 32nd attorney general of the United States, and was elected Oregon's U.S. senator, and served one term. Williams, as U.S. senator, authored and supported legislation that allowed the U.S. military to be deployed in Reconstruction of the southern states to allow for an orderly process of re-admittance into the United States. Williams was the first presidential Cabinet member to be appointed from the Pacific Coast. As attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant, Williams continued the prosecutions that shut down the Ku Klux Klan. He had to contend with controversial election disputes in Reconstructed southern states. President Grant and Williams legally recognized P. B. S. Pinchback as the first African American state governor. Williams ruled that the Virginius, a gun-running ship delivering men and munitions to Cuban revolutionaries, which was captured by Spain during the Virginius Affair, did not have the right to bear the U.S. flag. However, he also argued that Spain did not have the right to execute American crew members. Nominated for Supreme Court Chief Justice by President Grant, Williams failed to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate primarily due to Williams's opposition to U.S. Attorney A. C. Gibbs, his former law partner, who refused to stop investigating Republican fraud in the special congressional election that resulted in a victory for Democrat James Nesmith.
In 1875, Williams resigned as U.S. Attorney General after his wife was accused of taking bribes from the custom house firm Pratt & Boyd, which attempted to persuade the U.S. Justice Department to drop litigation against the company. After his resignation, Williams took part in the effort to count Florida ballots for Rutherford B. Hayes during the controversial presidential election of 1876. Williams returned to Oregon, resumed private law practice, and was elected Portland's mayor, serving two terms from 1902 to 1905. Williams, at the age of 83, was indicted for not enforcing restrictions on gambling; he was acquitted and served out the rest of his term as mayor.
Early life and law career George Henry Williams was born in upstate New York, New Lebanon, Columbia County, on March 26, 1823.Yamhill County Circuit Court, Oregon Judicial Department (2009) When he was very young his family moved to Onondaga County, where was educated in public and private schools, including Pompey Academy. Williams studied law under Daniel Gott, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. Williams then moved to Iowa Territory, where he practiced law in Fort Madison.
Judicial Career
After Iowa was admitted to statehood, Williams was elected district judge in 1847 in Oregon, serving until 1852. In 1853, Williams was appointed Chief Justice of Oregon Territory by President Franklin Pierce. At the 1857 Oregon Constitutional Convention, Williams urged that slavery be made illegal in Oregon as a requirement for statehood. Williams advocated unsuccessfully that a woman's property not be subject to her husband's debts.
In the early years of the Oregon Supreme Court, the three justices also rode circuit and acted as trial level judges. As a presiding judge while riding circuit, Williams presided over the Holmes v. Ford case that freed a slave family since slavery was illegal in the territory. In 1857, he was a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention held before the establishment of Oregon as a U.S. state. Williams remained on the court until 1858 when he resigned from the bench. He then moved to Portland, Oregon, where he resumed the practice of law.Corning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956.
Williams, a Democrat, supported Stephen Douglas during the presidential election of 1860. Williams attended the Oregon Union convention of 1862, having opposed slavery, and was the chairman of the Election Committee.
U.S. Senator
In 1864 Williams, having changed over to the Republican Party, was elected to the United States Senate; he served one term, from 1865 to 1871. In 1865, Sen. Williams, a Radical Republican, was appointed to the Committee on Finance and Public Lands and the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. In 1866 Williams authored the Tenure of Office Act, passed by Congress in 1867 over President Andrew Johnson's veto, that limited the President in removing Cabinet officers. This act was vital to the Republican Party, having saved the offices of appointed Republicans throughout the United States. In 1867, he authored and supported the Military Reconstruction Act, passed by Congress over President Johnson's veto, that authorized U.S. military control of the South. This act permanently restored and Reconstructed the formerly Confederate states in rebellion back into the United States in an orderly and peaceful manner using the strength of the U.S. military. In 1868, Williams and his senatorial colleague Henry W. Corbett voted guilty in President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial; Johnson was acquitted by one vote. Williams was defeated in the election of 1870.
U.S. Joint High Commissioner
In 1871, President Grant appointed Williams one of six U.S. Joint High Commissioners to negotiate a settlement treaty between Britain and the U.S. in Washington, D.C., over the Alabama Claims and America's Northwest boundary between the U.S. and Canada. Six representatives had been chosen to represent British and Canadian interests making a total of twelve High Commissioners. Williams was chosen to be on the U.S. treaty commission due to his experience and career in the Pacific Northwest. Williams proved to be a valuable member of the U.S. Commission and served in this position with dignity. In addition to settling the Alabama claims against Britain for allowing Confederate ships to be armed in British ports, at stake was the U.S. Northwest border running through the Rosario Strait. The U.S. desired that the boundary run through the Haro Strait, however, this became a highly contentious issue between the U.S., Britain, and Canada. The Washington, D.C., treaty Commissioners finally decided that the Emperor of Germany, William I, would settle the boundary matter. Williams was able to convince the Committee that the German Emperor needed to strictly interpret the Treaty of 1846 and that the boundary be determined by the most used channel, the Haro Strait. Through Williams's efforts, the German Emperor finally chose the Haro Strait as the Northwest boundary between the U.S. and Canada; the U.S. received the San Juan Islands.
U.S. Attorney General In December 1871, during later Reconstruction, President Grant appointed Williams as Attorney General of the United States; he served three years until 1875. His appointment was made to satisfy demands by Pacific Coast politicians that the region be represented in the cabinet. Williams was also the legal counsel for the Alaska Improvement Company in which Grant was a shareholder.Willam B. Hesseltine, *Grant the Politician*, 262 President Grant's southern Reconstruction policy worked primarily through Williams's Justice Department supported by Grant's Secretary of War, William W. Belknap.
Prosecution of Klan Attorney General Williams continued to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan until December 1872 when he issued a clemency policy toward the South.Williams (1996), The Great South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials, 1871–1872, p. 123 The Justice Department had been inundated by multiple caseloads against the Klan and did not have the manpower to effectively prosecute all of them. Williams finished his prosecution of the remaining Klan cases in the Spring of 1873. Williams believed continued prosecutions of the Klan was unnecessary and was concerned over negative public reaction to the Klan prosecutions. The suppression of the Klan led to African American turnout at the polls throughout the South, and Grant was re-elected in part due to blacks voting for Grant.
Toured the South (1872) During the presidential election of 1872, Attorney General Williams toured the Southern states advocating President Grant's Southern Reconstruction policy through public speeches. Prominent Southern cities that Williams visited and spoke at included Richmond, Virginia; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina. Through Williams’ efforts, Southern states went over to the Republican ticket, including Virginia, South Carolina, and Arkansas. This was the last time that Republicans had a majority victory in the South after the Democratic Party took control of all of the Southern Reconstructed states in 1877, known as the “Solid South”. No Republican presidential candidate would win any former Confederate state until Warren G. Harding carried Tennessee in 1920, and the Democratic Party would carry a majority of former Confederate states in every presidential election until the party's support for black civil rights caused the defection of almost all the region's white voters in the 1968 election.
Alabama election (1872) When election disputes occurred during the Alabama state elections in 1872; both state Democrats and Republicans appealed to U.S. Attorney General Williams for settlement. Both President Grant and Williams thoroughly consulted each other in considering a settlement for the contentious Alabama political crisis. On December 12, 1872, President Grant and George Henry Williams peacefully settled the disputed Alabama state elections between the Democrats and Republicans by issuing five resolutions to Governor David P. Lewis. Gov. Lewis and the Republican legislature agreed to the five resolutions that included a Democratic and Republican representative to make a coordinated count of a disputed election result in Marengo County. Williams had required that the current House resign and the House building be vacated before settling the disputed election returns. Williams also vacated the Alabama Senate while disputed senatorial elections were resolved. In addition to elections, Williams settled per diem compensation disputes for office holders.
Louisiana election (1872) During the election of 1872, Louisiana was in political turmoil, having two rival factions contending for control of the state legislature.Norris-Milligin-Faulk, pp. 270–271 Democrat John D. McEnery and Republican William P. Kellogg both claimed to have won the governorship; both parties mired in charges of voting fraud. Federal troops led by William H. Emory, in charge of the Department of the Gulf, kept the peace during and immediately after the election. On December 3, Attorney General Williams, at the request of Kellogg, ruled that President Grant would enforce any decision by the United States District Courts.Norris-Milligin-Faulk, p. 271 After multiple state Returning Boards failed to resolve the election, U.S. District Court Judge Edmund H. Darrell ordered that Kellogg was the winner of the Louisiana election.