William Graham | |
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| Confederate States Senator fromNorth Carolina | |
| In office February 18, 1864 – May 10, 1865 | |
| Preceded by | Edwin Godwin Reade |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Member of the ConfederateNorth Carolina State Senate | |
| In office 1861–1866 | |
| Member of theNorth Carolina State Senate | |
| In office 1854–1861 | |
| 20thUnited States Secretary of the Navy | |
| In office August 2, 1850 – July 25, 1852 | |
| President | Millard Fillmore |
| Preceded by | William Ballard Preston |
| Succeeded by | John P. Kennedy |
| 30thGovernor of North Carolina | |
| In office January 1, 1845 – January 1, 1849 | |
| Preceded by | John Motley Morehead |
| Succeeded by | Charles Manly |
| United States Senator fromNorth Carolina | |
| In office November 25, 1840 – March 3, 1843 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Strange |
| Succeeded by | William Henry Haywood Jr. |
| Member of theNorth Carolina House of Representatives fromOrange County | |
| In office 1833–1840 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Alexander Graham (1804-09-05)September 5, 1804 |
| Died | August 11, 1875(1875-08-11) (aged 70) |
| Political party | Whig (before 1860) Constitutional Union (1860–1861) Democratic (1861–1865, 1868–1875) National Union (1865–1868) |
| Spouse | Susannah Washington |
| Children | |
| Education | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA) |
William Alexander Graham (September 5, 1804 – August 11, 1875) was aUnited States senator fromNorth Carolina from 1840 to 1843, a senator later in theConfederate States Senate from 1864 to 1865, the 30thgovernor of North Carolina from 1845 to 1849 andU.S. secretary of the Navy from 1850 to 1852, under PresidentMillard Fillmore. He was theWhig Party nominee forvice-president in1852 on a ticket with GeneralWinfield Scott.
Graham was born atVesuvius Furnace nearLincolnton, North Carolina,[1] the son of Joseph and Isabella (Davidson) Graham. HisScots-Irish grandfather James Graham[2] (1714–1763) was born inDrumbo,County Down,Northern Ireland and settled inChester County in theProvince of Pennsylvania.
Graham attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied law and was an active member of the Dialectic Society. He graduated in 1824, was admitted to the bar in 1825, and began practicing law inHillsborough.[3]
He marriedSusannah Sarah Washington, a descendant ofGeorge Washington's half-brother,Lawrence Washington, in 1836.[4]
From 1833 to 1840, Graham was a member of theNorth Carolina House of Commons fromOrange County. He served twice asspeaker of that house.[5]
In 1840, Graham was elected to theUnited States Senate as aWhig to fill the vacancy created by the resignation ofRobert Strange. He served in the Senate from November 25, 1840, to March 3, 1843. In theTwenty-seventh Congress, he was chairman of theSenate Committee on Claims.[6] His older brother,James Graham, had been representing North Carolina in theHouse since 1833.
From 1845 to 1849, Graham was Governor of North Carolina. Having declined appointments asambassador to Spain andRussia in 1849, he was appointedSecretary of the Navy in the cabinet of PresidentMillard Fillmore in 1850 and served until 1852. In the1852 presidential election, he was the unsuccessful Whig nominee forvice president asWinfield Scott's running mate.[7] The ticket only carried 42 electoral votes from the four states ofKentucky,Massachusetts,Tennessee, andVermont.
Graham was a member of theNorth Carolina Senate from 1854 to 1866.[8] In December 1860,James Alexander Hamilton of New York made an abortive appeal to the Pennsylvania presidential electors that they vote for Graham for president as a possible means of preserving the Republic.
Although Graham was a Unionist who opposed early secessionist efforts, he eventually voted for secession after Fort Sumter. Graham was a senator in theConfederate Senate from 1864 to 1865. In April 1865, with the Confederacy near defeat, Graham personally led a delegation that included another former governor,David Swain, to ask Union GeneralWilliam T. Sherman for a truce so that the state's capital, Raleigh, might be spared violence and destruction. Sherman agreed.[9][10]
In 1866, Graham was once again elected to the United States Senate, but because North Carolina had not yet been readmitted to the Union, he could not present his credentials. From 1867 to 1875, he was a member of the board of trustees of thePeabody Fund, which provided educational assistance to the post-Civil WarSouth. From 1873 to 1875, he was an arbitrator in the boundary line dispute betweenVirginia andMaryland. He died inSaratoga Springs, New York and is buried in the Old Town Cemetery in Hillsborough, adjacent to the Presbyterian Church.[11]
The United States Navy ship,USS Graham (DD-192), the World War IILiberty shipSS William A. Graham, and the city ofGraham, North Carolina were all named for him, as wasGraham County, North Carolina.[12]
Montrose Gardens, located inHillsborough, North Carolina, is one of Graham's former estates and still features some of the structures Graham and his family had built on the property. He lived in theNash-Hooper House at Hillsborough from 1869 until 1875.[13] The house was declared aNational Historic Landmark in 1971.[14][15]
One of Graham's sons, also namedWilliam A. Graham, became a state legislator and state agriculture commissioner. Two others, Augustus and John, also became politicians, while a daughter, Susan, marriedWalter Clark.
In 1842,John H. Hewitt dedicated a song,The Old Family Clock, toSusannah Sarah Washington Graham.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help) andAccompanying two photos, exterior, from 1969 and 1971 (32 KB)
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