George Henry Williams

George Henry Williams 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 Oregons 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 southern states to allow for an orderly process of readmittance 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 gunrunning ship captured by Spain during the Virginius Affair, did not have the right to bear the U.S. fl

George Henry Willams was born in upstate New York, New Lebanon, Columbia County, on March 26, 1823. At an early age his family moved to Onondaga County, where was educated in public and private schools, including Pompey Academy he did not attend college. Williams studied law under Honorable Daniel Scott having passed the bar in 1844 at the age of 21. In the same year Williams moved west, and practiced law in the Iowa Territory. After Iowa was admitted to statehood, Williams was appointed district judge in 1847, serving until 1852. In 1853, Williams was appointed Chief Justice of the Oregon Territory by President Franklin Pierce. In 1857, at the Oregon Constitutional Convention, Williams urged that slavery be made illegal in Oregon as a requirement for statehood. Williams advocated unsuccessfully that womens property not be subject to their husbands debts.

Source: Wikipedia