B. Gratz Brown

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B. Gratz Brown
Governor of Missouri
In office
January 4, 1871 – January 3, 1873
LieutenantJoseph J. Gravely
Preceded byJoseph W. McClurg
Succeeded bySilas Woodson
United States Senator
from Missouri
In office
November 13, 1863 – March 3, 1867
Preceded byRobert Wilson
Succeeded byCharles D. Drake
Member of the
Missouri House of Representatives
from St. Louis
In office
1852–1858
Personal details
Born
Benjamin Gratz Brown

(1826-05-28)May 28, 1826
Radical Republican
Spouse
Mary Gunn
​
(m. 1858)​
RelativesMason Brown (father)
Montgomery Blair (cousin)
Margaret Wise Brown (granddaughter)
EducationTransylvania University
Yale University (BA)
University of Louisville (LLB)
Military service
Allegiance United States (Union)
Branch/serviceUnion Army
Years of service1861–1863
Rank Colonel
Commands4th Regiment U.S. Reserve Corps
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Benjamin Gratz Brown (May 28, 1826 – December 13, 1885) was an American politician. He was a

presidential election of 1872
.

Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, Brown established a legal practice in St. Louis, Missouri. Both of his grandfathers, John Brown and Jesse Bledsoe, represented Kentucky in the Senate. After settling in St. Louis, Brown won election to the Missouri House of Representatives. He became an ally of Thomas Hart Benton and Francis Preston Blair Jr. in the struggle for control of the state Democratic Party against pro-slavery forces. As the 1850s progressed, Brown continued to speak against slavery, and he helped found the Missouri Republican Party.

During the

Reconstruction policies and supported the Freedmen's Bureau bills
.

Brown resigned from the Senate in 1867 but helped found the

electoral vote
. Greeley died after the election but before the electors officially cast their votes, and Brown received some of Greeley's electoral votes. After the election, Gratz returned to his law practice and affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Early life

Brown was born in 1826 in Frankfort, Kentucky, the son of Judith Ann (Bledsoe) and Mason Brown. He was the grandson of Senators John Brown and Jesse Bledsoe of Kentucky. He graduated from Transylvania University in Lexington in 1845 where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and from Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1847.

He studied law, and later settled in

slavery faction for control of Missouri's Democratic Party. He was a correspondent for the Missouri Republican at the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) and served as the secretary at the treaty negotiations.[1][2]
He married Mary Gunn (1842–1888) in 1858, and together they had six children.

Political career

Speech of the Hon. B. Gratz Brown, of St. Louis, on the subject of gradual emancipation in Missouri - delivered in the House of Representatives (Missouri) Feb 12, 1857

Brown became a member of the

Missouri Democrat
between 1854 and 1859. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Missouri in 1857.

On August 26, 1856, he fought a

Thomas C. Reynolds (then the St. Louis District Attorney) over the slavery issue. Reynolds was not hurt but Brown was shot in the leg and limped for the rest of his life.[3]

Brown became a founding member of the

German-Americans
, a key constituency that Brown courted for his political advantage.

Brown resigned from the Army after he was elected in late 1863 as an

Reconstruction
. He also supported the Radical-sponsored Civil Rights Bill and Freedmen's Bureau Bill. Brown left the Senate in 1867 because of ill health.

In 1870, dissatisfied with the Missouri Republicans, he joined the new Liberal Republican Party. The party nominated Brown for governor, and he defeated Republican incumbent Joseph W. McClurg. Brown served as the Governor between 1871 and 1873.

Presidential election of 1872

Greeley/Brown campaign poster

Brown was one of the contenders for the Liberal Republican presidential nomination, but lost to newspaper editor Horace Greeley. Brown was the vice presidential candidate under Greeley in the presidential election of 1872 for the Liberal Republican and Democratic parties. Greeley died on November 29 of illness, before the electoral college could vote, and the electoral votes (63 of 66) that were to have been for Greeley were split among four others, including Brown, who received eighteen of those electoral votes. The Republicans, incumbent president Ulysses S. Grant and the vice presidential candidate, U.S. Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, won the election anyway.

Brown returned to his law practice, quit the Republican Party and resumed his ties to the Democrats. He died in Kirkwood, Missouri and is interred there at Oak Hill Cemetery.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-598-28424-2
    .
  2. ^ Charles Kappler (1904) Treaty of Fort Laramie with Sioux, Etc. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. II. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, pp. 594–596. Accessed May 4, 2013 at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/sio0594.htm Archived 2014-08-12 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Crack of the Pistol Political Duels". www.sos.mo.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-13.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benjamin Gratz Brown.
U.S. Senate
Preceded by
U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Missouri
1863–1867
Served alongside: John B. Henderson
 Succeeded by
Preceded by Chair of the Senate Public Grounds Committee
1866–1867 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by
Governor of Missouri
1870
 Succeeded by
Preceded by
None
Governor of Missouri
1870
 Succeeded by
None
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States
1872 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
None
 Liberal Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States
1872 		Succeeded by
None
Political offices
Preceded by
Governor of Missouri

1871–1873 		Succeeded by
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