Ramsey, Alexander

Born: 1815-09-08 Dauphin County, Pennsylvania

Died: 1903-04-22 Saint Paul, Minnesota

Alexander Ramsey was an attorney, U.S. representative, territorial and state governor, U.S. senator, and secretary of war. Born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Ramsey spent his early years in Hummelstown. In 1826, his father died, and his mother sent him to Harrisburg to live with Frederick Kelker, her uncle. Ramsey attended school and worked in a hardware store, and Kelker apprenticed him to Jacob Colestock to learn carpentry. In 1834, Ramsey left Harrisburg and enrolled in the Manual Labor Academy of Lafayette College. Leaving Lafayette College in May 1835, he took a job as a teacher in Kutztown, where he also got involved in local politics, gravitating to the Whig Party. In 1837, Ramsey represented Kutztown at the Whig State Convention, and he decided to abandon teaching for the law. Returning to Harrisburg, he read law and campaigned for Whig candidates. He matriculated to Dickinson College of Law, receiving his law degree in 1839. Ramsey earned admission to the Pennsylvania bar in November 1839 and, hearing that there were opportunities for lawyers in Texas, traveled to the Lone Star Republic in early 1840. Disappointed in what he saw in Texas, Ramsey returned to Harrisburg, where he opened a law practice and campaigned for William Henry Harrison for president. He served as secretary of the Pennsylvania Electoral College, and in January 1841, became chief clerk of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. In 1842, Ramsey won election, as a Whig, to the U.S. House of Representatives, taking his seat in March 1843. He secured reelection in 1844. In 1846, he served on the joint congressional committee tasked with working with Secretary of War William L. Marcy in developing military plans in the event of war with Mexico. Ramsey did not seek reelection in 1846, and he retired from the House in March 1847. He returned to practicing law in Harrisburg. During the presidential election of 1848, Ramsey campaigned for Zachary Taylor, and he received credit for securing Pennsylvania for the Whigs. President Taylor rewarded Ramsey by appointing him the first governor of the Minnesota Territory. Ramsey remained territorial governor until 1853, and in 1855, he became mayor of Saint Paul. After the demise of the Whig Party, Ramsey became a Republican, and in 1857, he was the Republican candidate to be the first governor of Minnesota, losing to Democratic candidate Henry H. Sibley. In 1859, Ramsey defeated Sibley to become governor, and he won reelection in 1861. Ramsey's second term coincided with the outbreak of the Civil War, and his good record of sound fiscal management was marred by the Dakota Uprising in 1862. In January 1863, the Minnesota Senate elected Ramsey to the U.S. Senate, and he won reelection in 1869, serving in the Senate from March 1863 to March 1875. He supported most of the Radical Republican measures during Reconstruction, and voted to convict President Andrew Johnson in Johnson's impeachment trial. From 1879 to 1881, Ramsey served as secretary of war in the cabinet of President Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1845, Ramsey married Anna E. Jenks, with whom he would have three children. In addition to his political offices, Ramsey was president of the Minnesota Historical Society from 1849 to 1863.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1703; Helen McCann White, "Guide to a Microfilm Edition of The Alexander Ramsey Papers and Records," (Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1974), retrieved 1 April 2021, http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/m0203.pdf; Gravestone, Oakland Cemetery, Saint Paul, MN.