George Henry Williams Biography

George Henry Williams served as U.S. attorney general from 1871 to 1875 under President Ulysses S. Grant. Williams served as both a state judge and a U.S. Senator but is best remembered for failing to win Senate confirmation as chief justice of the United States.

Williams was born on March 23, 1823 in New Lebanon, New York. Williams received some formal education but when he decided to become a lawyer he served an apprenticeship with a local law firm. Most lawyers of his day "read the law" as Williams did. He performed clerical duties, researched legal cases and received tutoring from his employer. After several years of apprenticeship he passed the New York bar exam in 1844. However, Williams elected to move west to begin his legal career. He established a practice in Ft. Madison, Iowa but within three years he was elected a trial court judge. Several years later he was recruited to come to the Oregon territory and become the chief justice of the territorial courts. Williams served until 1857 and assisted in drafting the state's constitution.

In 1865 Williams was elected to the U.S. Senate and joined the body as it wrestled with Reconstruction policies. Williams, like his Radical Republican colleagues, sought to impose military rule over the South until new, multiracial state governments could take hold. In addition, he supported numerous federal laws that sought to protect the civil rights of the newly freed African Americans. When President Johnson sought to establish a more benign set of policies toward the southern white establishment, the Senate became combative. In the end the House of Representatives impeached Johnson but the Senate acquitted him by just one vote. Williams voted with his political colleagues to remove Johnson from office.

Williams was briefly out of public office when he lost is 1870 reelection contest. However, President Grant, also a Republican, named him first to a government commission and then in 1871 to the office of attorney general. Williams took office during the third year of the Grant administration, which had been damaged by political scandal. A number of Grant's appointments went to unscrupulous individuals who used their offices to defraud the government and enrich themselves. Though Williams came into office with a good reputation, every cabinet member came under scrutiny. As attorney general, Williams acted differently toward the South than might have been expected. He chose not to enforce the very civil rights laws that he had helped enact. Moreover, he made clear to U.S. attorneys in the southern states that he did not want them to vigorously prosecute the acts of vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Grant respected Williams and nominated him to become chief justice in 1873. The scandals of the Grant administration came back to derail the nomination, as Williams' legal career in Oregon was carefully scrutinized. An allegation of election fraud, which proved untrue, was the supposed reason for the Senate's refusal to confirm him. However, many prominent members of the east coast legal establishment did not want an unsophisticated frontier lawyer heading the High Court.

Williams withdrew his candidacy in the face of this opposition and served as attorney general until 1875. He returned to Oregon and practiced law the remainder of his career. He died on April 4, 1910 in Portland.