MSA SC 3520-1478
Governor of Maryland 1912-1916
The following essay is taken from Frank F. White, Jr.,The Governorsof Maryland 1777-1970 (Annapolis: The Hall of Records Commission,1970), 245-248.
"Phillips Lee Goldsborough, Maryland's second Republican governor sincethe Civil War and the only member of his party to hold the comptrollership,the governorship and a seat in the United States Senate, was born in Cambridgeon August 6, 1865, the son of a Navy paymaster, Captain M. Worthingtonand Nettie M. (Jones) Goldsborough. He was educated in public andprivate schools of Dorchester County following which he was employed asa clerk for the United States Navy. While he held this job, he studiedin his spare time in the office of Daniel M. Henry, Jr., of Cambridge,a former Delegate, State Senator and member of the U.S. Congress. Goldsborough was admitted to the bar in 1886.
"In 1891, when he was twenty-six, he was elected State's Attorney forDorchester County, and was re-elected in 1895. In 1893, Goldsboroughmarried Ellen Showell, daughter of William Showell of Worcester County. They had two sons, Phillips Lee Goldsborough Jr., and Brice Goldsborough.
"In 1896, he was nearly elected to a seat in the United States Senateby the Legislature during the brief period when the Republicans controlledthat body. After a strong fight on his part and a close vote, GeorgeL. Wellington was chosen.
"The year 1897 proved to be a turning point in his career which advancedhim to a position of leadership in the Maryland Republican Party. In that year, Lloyd Lowndes, the first Republican to be elected Governorof Maryland since the Civil War, induced Goldsborough to run for Comptrollerof the Treasury. To his party's delight, he was elected, the onlyRepublican to occupy that office since 1867. Goldsborough servedonly one term, being defeated for re-election in 1899 by Dr. Joshua W.Hering. His friends related that Goldsborough was so inspired bythis experience that he kept alive his ambition to serve his country inthe U.S. Senate until he was elected in the Republican landslide of 1928.
"In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Goldsborough Collectorof Internal Revenue for Maryland. He was reappointed to that positionby President Taft, serving until 1911, when a Goldsborough-for-Governorboom got underway and he received his party's nomination. He wenton to defeat the Democratic nominee Arthur Pue Gorman, Jr., son [p. 246]of the Democratic boss in the late nineteenth century, to become Maryland'ssecond Republican governor. Political historians attribute his victoryto the bitter Democratic primary fight which occurred between Gorman andthe Montgomery County leader, Blair Lee, as well as to 'a reaction againstthe rapid change in government furthered by Crothers.'1
"Goldsborough was inaugurated as Governor on January 10, 1912, servinguntil he was succeeded by Emerson G. Harrington on July 12, 1916. The most important accomplishment of his administration was educationalbetterment. In 1914, the Rockefeller Foundation provided sufficientfunds for an educational survey to include an examination of all collegeswithin the state, the public, the normal, the elementary and the secondaryschools, the academies, and the professional and the agricultural colleges,all of which received State funds. In a lengthy study directed byAbraham Flexner of the General Education Board under the guidance of theMaryland Educational Survey Commission, the Foundation reported upon theadministration of all State institutions together with their appropriations,and an investigation of their funds. The result, a study of the entireeducational system and the submission of a plan for the State to get thebest results from the money it expended, has remained an important landmarkin Maryland education. One of its outstanding features was a newschool law which provided for compulsory school attendance, stabilizationof the length of the school term, adequate school supervision, the certificationof teachers, and the appointment of county boards of education by the Governor.
"During the same year, the State purchased the Maryland AgriculturalCollege at College Park. Originally founded in 1856, this schoolhad been in financial difficulties for many years. By purchasingit, the State assumed a stronger degree of control and laid the groundworkfor its later merger with the Baltimore professional schools which formedthe University of Maryland in 1920.
"In 1912, at Governor Goldsborough's request, the legislature createdthe People's Court System for Baltimore City. This new court cameinto existence to hear cases in which justices of the peace had formerlyheld jurisdiction. The new law now made all civil writs returnablethe this court, and abolished the fee system which 'discouraged that scramblefor business which was so unbecoming in the dispenser of justice.'2
"Other additional far-reaching items of Legislation were passed duringGovernor Goldsborough's administration. Probably one of the moreimportant of these was the creation of the Industrial Accident Commission,subsequently renamed the Workmen's Compensation Commission, which receivedreports of accidents and settled claims arising from them. Goldsboroughmade a special effort to improve Maryland's roads, especially during theperiod when the automobile was just coming into general use. TheGeneral Assembly passed the Home Rule and the Referendum Amendments, bothof which were adopted at the election of november 2, 1915. The oneprovided for the adoption of a charter form of government for any of thecounties or for Baltimore City, while the other outlined procedures forthe submission of any act to the voters of the State for approval or rejection.
"Goldsborough's term expired in 1916. Lambert asserted that hisadministration was conservative and on the whole beneficial. in thesame year, for the second time he sought the Republican nomination forthe United States Senate, but he was unsuccessful. He was defeatedin the primary election by Dr. Joseph I. France who in turn defeated theDemocratic candidate David J. Lewis in the general election. Followinghis defeat in the Senatorial primary, Goldsborough resumed his law practiceand became a banker. Between 1917 and 1928, he served as the presidentof the National Union Bank and as chairman of the Baltimore Trust Company. During World War I, he gave much of his time to bond selling, recruitingand Red Cross campaigns. All during this period, he kept an eye onparty affairs and was prominent in his party strategy.
"When the national campaign of 1928 got underway and a trend to HerbertHoover as the Republican party presidential nominee developed, Goldsboroughdecided again to seek his party's nomination for the United States Senate,an ambition he had nourished for so long and an office he had so narrowlymissed twice previously. This time, he was an easy winner in theprimary election and in the general election, he defeated the Democraticnominee, William Cabell Bruce, by a plurality of over 41,000 votes.
"In 1934, when his term in the Senate was about to expire, Goldsboroughreversed the procedure of 1916. He turned away from the Governorshipto make an unsuccessful bid for the Senate. He attempted to securehis party's nomination for the governorship, rather than attempt re-electionto his Senate seat, but he was defeated in primary election, losing toHarry W. Nice, who won both the nomination and the general election.
"In 1936, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Goldsboroughone of the directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He was reappointed for a second term in 1941 and was still serving in thatcapacity at the time of his death.
"Goldsborough made his home in Baltimore and commuted regularly to hisoffice in Washington. After a short illness, he died at Union MemorialHospital in Baltimore on October 22, 1946, at the age of eighty-one. Following funeral services in Baltimore, he was taken to Cambridge wherehe was buried in the Churchyard of the Christ Protestant Episcopal Church.
"The Sun paid tribute to his memory in a lengthy editorial whichstated that 'the death of Phillips Lee Goldsborough will cause sorrow inMaryland. Long ago the acerbities that attend a long and ambitiouspolitical career passed out of his life. They passed from Mr. Goldsborough'sown spirit and they passed from the spirits of those who contended againsthim. The passing was not difficult. For, even in the heightof Mr. Goldsborough's career, he seldom was able to sustain enduring animosityand he seldom was able to compel it in others. . . . In the politics ofMaryland, his career was extraordinary in duration and in achievement.. . . His strength was in being a Maryland Gentleman. . . . Goldsboroughhad a pulling power outside his party that no Republican of his time couldequal.'"4
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