Andrew Jackson Montague | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byHarris & Ewing,c. 1913 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's3rd district | |
| In office March 4, 1913 – January 24, 1937 at-large: March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1935 | |
| Preceded by | John Lamb |
| Succeeded by | Dave E. Satterfield, Jr. |
| 44th Governor of Virginia | |
| In office January 1, 1902 – February 1, 1906 | |
| Lieutenant | Joseph E. Willard |
| Preceded by | James Hoge Tyler |
| Succeeded by | Claude A. Swanson |
| 19thAttorney General of Virginia | |
| In office January 1, 1898 – January 1, 1902 | |
| Governor | James Hoge Tyler |
| Preceded by | Richard C. Scott |
| Succeeded by | William A. Anderson |
| United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia | |
| In office 1893–1898 | |
| Appointed by | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | William E. Craig |
| Succeeded by | Thomas L. Alderson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 3, 1862 |
| Died | January 24, 1937 (aged 74) Urbanna, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Lyne Hoskins (m.1889) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Richmond College University of Virginia |
| Profession | Politician,Lawyer |
Andrew Jackson Montague (October 3, 1862 – January 24, 1937; nickname "Jack") was aVirginia lawyer andAmerican politician. He served as the44th governor of Virginia, from 1902 to 1906, and aCongressman from 1912 until his death in 1937. ADemocrat, Montague was the first Virginia governor since the American Civil War not to have served in theConfederate military. Initially aProgressive, Governor Montague expanded the state capitol building, supported public education and theGood Roads Movement and opposed the Martin Organization. However, later as U.S. Congressman, he became aConservative Democrat and supporter of theByrd Organization.
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The son of prominent Confederate and later state judgeRobert Latane Montague (who had succeeded John Janney as presiding officer of theVirginia Secession Convention in 1861), Andrew Jackson Montague was born in 1862 inCampbell County nearLynchburg, Virginia.[1] He was named after his father's youngest brother, a cadet at theVirginia Military Institute who died during theAmerican Civil War defending Richmond at theBattle of Gaines Mill months earlier. After the war, Montague's family returned to theTidewater area; since their enslaved workers had been freed and many left, Montague worked on the family farm and attended schools inMiddlesex County andWilliamsburg.
After his father died in 1880, Montague moved toRichmond, Virginia.[2] He attended Richmond College (predecessor to theUniversity of Richmond), where he gained a reputation as a skilled orator and debater. After several years as a private tutor, Montague traveled toCharlottesville and began legal studies at theUniversity of Virginia, graduating with a law degree in 1885.[1] In 1905, Montague received an honorary doctorate of laws degree fromBrown University.
After admission to the Virginia bar, Montague began his legal practice inDanville, while becoming increasing involved with the localDemocratic party. In the presidential election campaign of 1892, Montague developed a relationship withGrover Cleveland, who then appointed Montague in 1893 as theUnited States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.[1] Montague held that position five years, until, in 1898, he was elected as theAttorney General of Virginia.[3][4]
While serving as attorney general, Montague became increasingly involved with the VirginiaProgressive movement, which emphasized education reform anddisfranchisement of black voters as a way to stem political corruption.[5] Positioning himself as the independent alternative to SenatorThomas S. Martin'spolitical machine, Montague determined to make a run in the upcoming Virginia gubernatorial election. Running on the independent platform with William A. Anderson as his proposed successor as attorney general (in contrast to Swonson and his proposed attorney general candidate John L. Jeffries of Culpeper (later Norfolk)), and with the support ofCarter Glass of Lynchburg, the anti-machine candidates became the Democratic slate at the convention held in Norfolk.[6] Montague stressed the needs for direct election of senators as well as for better roads as he canvassed the state in a buggy. He surprisingly but solidly defeated Martin's candidate,Claude A. Swanson, for theDemocratic nomination for Governor of Virginia.[7][8]
Montague won 58.19% of the vote in the general election of 1901, easily defeating RepublicanJohn Hampton Hoge, as well asProhibitionist O.C. Rucker, and Socialists Hugh Motter and John J. Quantz.[9] He became the first Virginia governor since the Civil War who had not served with the Confederate Army.[10]
Shortly after Montague's inauguration, and with his support, theVirginia Constitution of 1902 was enacted without a referendum. Itspoll taxes andliteracy tests effectively disenfranchised black and poor white voters.[5] The new Constitution created a smaller and more easily controlled electorate, thus strengthening the Martin machine.[7]
As governor, Montague enunciated a progressive agenda, and made speeches throughout the state calling for progress toward "good schools" and "good roads". His efforts on behalf of schools resulted in some tangible progress, particularly in terms of increased local funding, longer terms and school consolidation. For roads, he pressed for the creation of a statehighway commission, which officially came into being two months after he left office.[11] Montague also corresponded with progressives as varied as PresidentTheodore Roosevelt,Clara Barton of theAmerican Red Cross andBooker T. Washington of theTuskegee Institute.[12] He championed theprimary process as a more open way to select political party candidates, which helped lead to the primary system being adopted for the first time in 1905.[13] However, these accomplishments fell far short of Montague's legislative ambitions, for which he blamed a hostile legislature and the political machine run by his long-time foe, Senator Martin.[14]
In 1905, while still governor, Montague determined to make a run for theUnited States Senate against the incumbent Martin. Martin and Montague represented the two main factions within the Virginia Democratic party, and their contest would effectively determine which would control Virginia politics.[15] Martin responded to the challenge by publicly embracing Montague's main issues: good schools, good roads and the primary election process. Having minimized the differences between their positions and with a larger political organization,[16] Senator Martin handily[clarification needed] won re-election, leaving an embittered Montague to finish out his term as governor.[17]
After leaving office as governor, Montague served as the dean ofRichmond College Law School for three years, before returning to the private practice of law in 1909.[3]
In July, 1906 Montague was among the American delegates at theConference of American States meeting in Rio de Janeiro. He later was a delegate to the Third International Conference on Maritime Law at Brussels in 1909 and 1910, as well as a trustee ofCarnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., and theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace. He would become president of the American Society for Judicial Settlement of International Disputes in 1917, and serve as president of theAmerican Peace Society (1920–1924). Montague was an "outspoken Anglophile" who was among a group of six Virginia congressmen consisting of himself as well asPatrick H. Drewry,S. Otis Bland,Joseph T. Deal,George C. Peery andHenry St. George Tucker III who spent much of the 1920s advocating closer relations between theUnited States and theUnited Kingdom.[18]
In 1912, Montague ran for the Richmond District seat in theUnited States House of Representatives. He defeated the Republican incumbent, and would retain for almost a quarter of a century.[19] He served on the Judiciary Committee and helped pass the act creating theFederal Trade Commission as well as the Trading with the Enemy Act, the Adamson Eight Hour Day Act and another allowing retirement of injured and superannuated members of the Coast Guard.[20]
A supporter of PresidentWoodrow Wilson's internationalist agenda, Montague lost influence when the Republicans took control of Congress in the 1920s. Despite this, and a failed bid to gain appointment to theSupreme Court, Montague was respected by his colleagues, even acquiring the nickname "Judge".[19] In 1926, he was selected by the House as one of theimpeachment managers that served as the prosecution theimpeachment trial of JudgeGeorge W. English.[3]
He married Elizabeth Lyne Hoskins (1868 - 1951), daughter of a Middlesex county doctor, on December 11, 1889. They had two sons (one died young; the other served heroically inWorld War I and became Brig. Gen.Robert Latane Montague Jr. (1897–1972)), as well as two daughters, Matilda Gay Montague Moore (1891–1988) and Janet Roy Montague Nunnally (1895–1977). Betsy Montague was very active in historic preservation in Alexandria, Virginia and in Williamsburg, and Gov. Montague corresponded with philanthropistJohn D. Rockefeller Jr., who establishedColonial Williamsburg. In 1934, the Montagues purchasedSandwich atUrbanna, Virginia.[21]
Congressman Montague had been in poor health for some time, and died at home but still in office on January 24, 1937, after winning a narrow election against his first significant (primary) opposition in twenty-five years.[22][23] He is interred in the family's section at the graveyard ofChrist Church inSaluda, Virginia.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Virginia 1901 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Virginia 1898–1902 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Virginia 1902–1906 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 3rd congressional district 1913–1933 | Succeeded by District abolished Himself after district re-established in 1935 |
| Preceded by District re-established John S. Wise before district abolished in 1885 | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's at-large congressional district 1933–1935 | Succeeded by District abolished |
| Preceded by District re-established Himself before district abolished in 1933 | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 3rd congressional district 1933–1937 | Succeeded by |
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