George Henry Hoyt
George Henry Hoyt | |
---|---|
6th Kansas Attorney General | |
In office January 14, 1867 – January 11, 1869 | |
Governor | Jerome D. Brumbaugh Addison Danford |
Preceded by | Jerome D. Brumbaugh |
Succeeded by | Addison Danford |
Personal details | |
Born | Athol, Massachusetts | November 25, 1837
Died | February 2, 1877 Athol, Massachusetts | (aged 39)
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Mary Anzonette Cheney |
Profession | Attorney, Union soldier |
George Henry Hoyt (November 25, 1837 – February 2, 1877) was an American anti-slavery abolitionist who was attorney for
Early life
George Henry Hoyt was born in Athol, Massachusetts, on November 25, 1837, the only surviving son of Athol physician and abolitionist George Hoyt and his wife Avelina Witt Hoyt.[1] In 1851, the Hoyts removed to Boston where George studied law. Lysander Spooner, abolitionist anarchist and good friend of Dr. Hoyt, deeply influenced young George's uncompromising approach to abolition, as did radical orator Wendell Phillips.[2]
Virginia v. John Brown
Following John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid, Hoyt was recruited by Boston abolitionists to volunteer as a counsel to Brown, then on trial in Charles Town, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). He arrived at the trial on October 28, 1859, with orders to spy on the proceedings, pass messages to and from Brown, and, most controversially, to arrange a prison break that would free the prisoner and as many of his associates as possible. Because of the large number of soldiers and militia in Charles Town, and because Brown did not want to be rescued and refused to cooperate, Hoyt called off the plot.[3]
When John Brown denounced his court-appointed lawyers on the second day of his trial, both resigned, leaving 21-year-old Hoyt, who had no experience in criminal or Virginia law, as his sole counsel. Two experienced attorneys, Samuel Chilton of Washington, D.C., and Hiram Griswold of Cleveland, Ohio, arrived the next day to take the defense out of Hoyt's inexperienced hands. Following Brown's conviction, Hoyt traveled to Ohio to collect affidavits the defense team hoped would prove Brown insane and thereby avoid his execution. While in Ohio, Hoyt befriended the eldest son of "Old Brown", John Brown Jr., and a large number of "fighting abolitionists" with whom he would later enlist in the Union Army.[citation needed]
Civil War
In late 1861, Hoyt joined
On March 30, 1862, Hoyt married Mary Anzonette Cheney, an Athol girl who traveled to Leavenworth, Kansas, for the wedding. She remained in Kansas for a number of months, but returned to Athol where the couple's first child, George DeWitt Hoyt, was born on Aug 8, 1863.[1] The couple also had a daughter, Mary Clare Hoyt, born May 16, 1868.[6]
On May 27, 1862, Hoyt was elected captain of Company K, replacing Brown, who resigned because of rheumatoid arthritis.[7] After brief service in the Army of the Tennessee, Hoyt resigned his command in July 1863 (effective September 3) due to persistent lung problems. He immediately returned to Kansas.[8]
From late 1862 through August 1863, Hoyt served as "Chief" of an irregular company of scouts and spies known as the Red Leg Scouts.
In September 1863, Hoyt received a commission as
Other than occasional scouts into Missouri in search of guerrillas, Hoyt saw little action until Major General
Postwar
Following the war, Hoyt served a two-year term as Attorney General of Kansas from January 14, 1867, to January 11, 1869. After brief stints as a United States Postal Agent and editor of two newspapers in Leavenworth, Hoyt ran for Congress as the Representative from Kansas.[16] After his unsuccessful campaign, Hoyt returned to Athol and edited the Athol Transcript. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1871, where he led to legislature to censure long-time Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner for introducing a resolution that Civil War battle names should not appear as "battle honors" on the regimental flags of the U.S. Army.[17] The censure was rescinded in 1874. Hoyt died in Athol on February 2, 1877, aged 39.[18]
See also
References
- Caswell, Lilley B. Athol Massachusetts, Past and Present. Athol: Lilley B. Caswell, 1899.
- Goodrich, Thomas. Black Flag: Guerrilla Warfare on the Western Border, 1861–1865. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
- Hinton, Richard J. John Brown and His Men. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1894.
- Hoyt, Bill. Good Hater: George Henry Hoyt's War on Slavery. Kindle Direct Publishing, 2012.
- Lubet, Steven. Nothing but the Truth. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
- Matthews, Matt and Kip Lindberg. "Better off Dead: The Evolution of the Kansas Red Legs." North and South 5, no. 4 (May 2002): 20–31.
- McGinty, Brian. John Brown's Trial. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
- Starr, Stephen Z. Jennison's Jayhawkers. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
Notes
- ^ a b Hoyt, David W (1871). A Genealogical History of the Hoyt, Haight, and Hight Families. Boston: Henry Hoyt. pp. 600.
- ^ George H. Hoyt to Wendell Phillips, Feb. 5, 1861, Wendell Phillips Correspondence, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
- ^ Richard J. Hinton, John Brown and His Men, New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1889, page 365.
- ^ "Capt. John Brown, Jr.'s Men – A Speech of Col. Jennison," New York Times, November 24, 1861.
- ^ Starr, Stephen Z. Jennison's Jayhawkers. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973, page 78.
- ^ Pope, Charles Henry. The Cheney Genealogy. Boston: Charles H. Pope, 1897, page 141.
- ^ Wilder, Daniel Webster, Annals of Kansas. Topeka: Geo W. Martin, 1875, page 296.
- ^ Matthews, Matt and Kip Lindberg. "Better off Dead: The Evolution of the Kansas Red Legs." North and South 5, no. 4 (May 2002): 26.
- ^ Roy P. Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Supplement 1832–1865 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1974), page 199.
- ^ Weekly Champion and Press (Atchison, Kansas), Apr. 18, 1863.
- ^ "Capt. Hoyt," Western Journal of Commerce (Kansas City, MO), Jul. 25, 1863.
- ^ Blackmar, Frank Wilson, Kansas, Vol II. Chicago: Standard, 1912, page 27.
- ^ Richard J. Hinton, Rebel Invasion of Kansas and Missouri (Chicago: Church and Goodman, 1865), page 105.
- ^ George S. Grover, "Price Campaign of 1864," Missouri Historical Review 6 (Oct. 1911 – Jul. 1912), page 174.
- ^ Wilder, Daniel Webster, Annals of Kansas. Topeka: Geo W. Martin, 1875, page 359.
- ^ Wilder, Daniel Webster, Annals of Kansas. Topeka: Geo W. Martin, 1875, page 532.
- ^ Shotwell, Walter Gaston, Life of Charles Sumner. New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell, 1910, page 701.
- ^ "General George H. Hoyt," New York Herald, February 4, 1877.