Joseph Roswell Hawley
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Joseph Roswell Hawley (October 31, 1826 – March 17, 1905) was a Governor of Connecticut, a U.S. politician in the Republican and Free Soil parties, a Civil War general, and a journalist and newspaper editor.
Early life and education
Hawley was born in Stewartsville, North Carolina, where his father, a native of Connecticut, was pastor of a Baptist church. The father returned to Connecticut in 1837 and the son graduated from Hamilton College in 1847. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, and practised in Hartford, Connecticut for six years.
Opposition to
An ardent opponent of slavery, Hawley became a Free Soiler, was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated John Parker Hale for the presidency in 1852, and subsequently served as chairman of the party's State Committee and editor of the party's newspaper, the Charter Oak. In 1856 he took a leading part in organizing the Republican Party in Connecticut, and in 1857 became editor of the Hartford Evening Press, a newly established Republican newspaper.
Army service
He served in the Federal army with distinction throughout the Civil War, rising from the rank of captain to that of brevet major-general of volunteers.
Post war
After the war, Hawley served as governor of Connecticut from April 1866 to April 1867. A few months after stepping down from that office, he bought the Hartford Courant newspaper, which he combined with the Press. Under his editorship, this became the most influential newspaper in Connecticut and one of the leading Republican papers in the country.
From 1873 to 1876, Hawley served as president of the United States Centennial Commission, which planned and ran the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
Hawley was the permanent chairman of the Republican National Convention in 1868, was a delegate to the conventions of 1872, 1876 and 1880, was a member of Congress from December 1872 until March 1875 and again in 1879-1881, and was a United States senator from 1901 until March 3, 1905, being one of the Republican leaders both in the House and the Senate.
He died at Washington, DC, two weeks after stepping down from the Senate.
Hawley's Civil War service
- entered the Grand Army of the Republic at the rank of captain (April 22, 1861)
- participated in the Port Royal Expedition (November 1861)
- participated in the capture of Fort Pulaski (April 1862)
- participated in the capture of Fort Wagner (September 1863)
- fought in the Battle of Olustee (February 20, 1864)
- was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers (September 1864)
- participated in the siege of Charleston (1865)
- participated in the siege of Petersburg (1865)
- fought in Sherman's campaign in the Carolinas (1865)
- was promoted to brevet major general of volunteers (September 1865)
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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.