George von Lengerke Meyer (June 24, 1858 – March 9, 1918) was a
businessman and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as United States ambassador to Italy and Russia, as
United States Postmaster General
The United States Postmaster General (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency.
The PMG is selected and appointed by ...
from 1907 to 1909 during the administration of President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
and
United States Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States D ...
from 1909 to 1913 during the administration of President
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
.
Biography
Meyer was a native of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, reared in a patrician society.
His paternal grandfather, George Augustus Meyer (also the name of von Lengerke Meyer's father), had emigrated from
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Meyer graduated from Harvard in 1879, and for twenty years was in business as a merchant and trustee.
In 1885, he married Marian Alice Appleton.
[ He was a director of various trust companies, banks, manufacturing companies, and public utilities concerns.] While managing his business affairs, he also held positions in state and local government, his public service beginning in 1889 with the Boston Common Council
The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no l ...
. Later he served on the Board of Aldermen. Then he joined the Massachusetts Legislature
The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, w ...
, where for some time he served as speaker of the house. In 1898 he was appointed by Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Wolcott as chairman of the Massachusetts Paris Exposition managers.
He was a conservative Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, and in 1899 was appointed a national committeeman. Republican Presidents William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
and Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
appointed Meyer to ambassadorships in Italy (1900–1905) and Russia (1905–1907). His patrician roots facilitated his interactions with the nobility of Europe, then in control of the continent. Roosevelt often used him to deliver messages to Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...
in preference to the official ambassador, Charlemagne Tower
Charlemagne Tower (April 18, 1809 – July 25, 1889''New York Times,'' July 26, 1889, page 4.) was an American lawyer and businessman active in acquiring land in the Schuylkill Valley in Pennsylvania and serving as an officer for coal and railr ...
.[ As ambassador to Russia, he presented Roosevelt's proposals with regard to the ]Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
directly to the Czar.[
Meyer also served as Roosevelt's ]Postmaster General
A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...
, from 1907–1909, where he directed the introduction of the first stamp vending machine
A stamp vending machine (SVM) is a mechanical, electrical or electro-mechanical device which can be used to automatically vend postage stamps to users in exchange for a pre-determined amount of money, normally in coin. Most SVMs were positioned ...
s of the country and the first coil stamp
A coil stamp is a type of postage stamp sold in strips one stamp wide. The name derives from the usual handling of long strips, which is to coil them into rolls, in a manner reminiscent of adhesive tape rolls. A large percentage of modern stamp ...
s.
Upon taking office in March 1909, President Taft appointed Meyer to the position of Secretary of the Navy, a post which Meyer held throughout Taft's term. During this period, the Navy made its first experiments with aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
, although Meyer initially opposed the project. In separate tests in 1910 and 1911, civilian pilot Eugene Ely
Eugene Burton Ely (October 21, 1886 – October 19, 1911) was an American aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft take off and landing.
Background
Ely was born in Williamsburg, Iowa, and raised in Davenport, Iowa. Having c ...
proved the feasibility of carrier-based aviation, by taking off from and landing on a Navy warship.
After 1911, Meyer was an overseer of Harvard University. He retired from national politics and returned to Massachusetts after Taft left office in 1913. He joined the effort to reelect Theodore Roosevelt in 1916. The foremost critic of Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
's naval policies, on the outbreak of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he urged preparedness and criticised America's naval administration. He was actively associated with the National Security League
The National Security League (NSL) was an American patriotic, nationalistic, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supported a greatly-expanded military based upon universal service, the naturalization and Americanization of immigrants, Amer ...
and the Navy League. Among the organizations for which he was a director were the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., Old Colony Trust Co., Puget Sound Light & Power Co., Walter Baker Co., and Ames Plow Co.
In December 1916 Meyer, Roosevelt and other philanthropists including Scottish-born industrialist John C. Moffat, William A. Chanler
William Astor "Willie" Chanler (June 11, 1867 – March 4, 1934) was an American soldier, explorer, and politician who served as U.S. Representative from New York. He was a son of John Winthrop Chanler. After spending several years exploring Eas ...
, Joseph Choate
Joseph Hodges Choate (January 24, 1832 – May 14, 1917) was an American lawyer and diplomat. Choate was associated with many of the most famous litigations in American legal history, including the Kansas prohibition cases, the Chinese exclusi ...
, Clarence Mackay
Clarence Hungerford Mackay (; April 17, 1874 – November 12, 1938) was an American financier. He was chairman of the board of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Corporation and president of the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company.
Early life
He ...
, John Grier Hibben, and Nicholas Murray Butler
Nicholas Murray Butler () was an American philosopher, diplomat, and educator. Butler was president of Columbia University, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the deceased Ja ...
purchased the Château de Chavaniac
The Château de Chavaniac aka Chateau Lafayette is a fortified manor house of eighteen rooms furnished in the Louis XIII style located in Chavaniac-Lafayette, Haute-Loire, in Auvergne, France.
Flanked by two towers of black stone, it was built ...
, birthplace of the Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revoluti ...
in Auvergne
Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...
to serve as a headquarters for th
French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund
which was managed by Chanler's ex-wife Beatrice Ashley Chanler.["Americans Aid War Refugees in Paris Mrs. William Astor Chanler Tells of Work Done Through Lafayette Fund;" ''The Philadelphia Inquirer;'' 8-04-1918; Vol. 179, Issue: 35; p. 11, Philadelphia, PA.]
He died in Boston on March 9, 1918.
Legacy
The Navy destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
USS ''Meyer'' (DD-279), named in his honor, was commissioned December 17, 1919 and was in service until May 15, 1929.
George von Lengerke Meyer was a brother in the Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen ...
fraternity (Alpha chapter).
See also
* 115th Massachusetts General Court (1894)
* 116th Massachusetts General Court (1895)
The 116th Massachusetts General Court, consisting of the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives, met in 1895 during the Governor of Massachusetts, governorship of Frederic T. Greenhalge. William M. Butler served as Pre ...
* 117th Massachusetts General Court (1896)
Notes
References
*
* ''Boston Transcript'', March 11, 1918
*
*''Who's who in State Politics, 1912'' Practical Politics (1912) p. 9.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, George Von Lengerke
1858 births
1918 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to Italy
Ambassadors of the United States to Russia
American people of German descent
Harvard University alumni
Politicians from Boston
Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
United States Postmasters General
Boston City Council members
United States Secretaries of the Navy
Taft administration cabinet members
Theodore Roosevelt administration cabinet members
20th-century American politicians
Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Businesspeople from Boston
Conservatism in the United States
20th-century American diplomats
19th-century American politicians