George Theodore Werts (March 24, 1846January 17, 1910) was an American attorney, judge, and
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politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...
who served as the 28th
governor of New Jersey
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...
from 1893 to 1896.
His term in Governor coincided with the precipitous decline of the New Jersey Democratic Party amid the
Panic of 1893 and
growing ethnoreligious divisions in the state. Werts created the
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
The Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) was formed in 1900 by Governors Theodore Roosevelt of New York and Foster Voorhees of New Jersey in response to the quarrying operations along the Palisades Cliffs of New Jersey. The Palisades, a Na ...
which saved the
New Jersey Palisades
The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...
from being quarried for their rock.
Early life
George Theodore Werts was born on March 24, 1846, in
Hackettstown, New Jersey
Hackettstown is a town in Warren County, New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 10,248.
Hackettstown was incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 9, 1853, from portions of Inde ...
.
He attended public schools in Bordentown and completed his education at the State Model School in Trenton.
Early legal and political career
In 1863, Werts moved to
Morristown, New Jersey to study law with his uncle, Jacob Vanatta, a former
Attorney General of New Jersey
The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confirmed by the New Jersey Senate, and term limited ...
.
After four years of study, he was admitted to the bar and established a law office in Morristown.
He practiced there for sixteen years, building a lucrative practice and gaining a reputation for integrity and skill at trial.
Although Morristown was largely Republican at the time, Werts was elected recorder in 1883. In 1886, he was elected both mayor and Senator for Morris County.
State Senator
Werts served two terms in the State Senate from 1887 to 1893. He focused his efforts in the Senate on election reform and a local option on liquor regulation. Both were politically motivated and ineffectual, but brought him to the attention of Governor
Leon Abbett
Leon Abbett (October 8, 1836December 4, 1894) was an American Democratic Party politician and lawyer who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 26th Governor of New Jersey from 1884 to 1887 and 1890 to 1893. His official state biography refers t ...
.
In February 1892, Abbett appointed Werts to fill the vacant seat of
Manning M. Knapp on the Hudson County circuit of the New Jersey Supreme Court, in order to prevent Werts from obstructing his campaign for the United States Senate.
Governor of New Jersey
1892 election
Werts was nominated for Governor in 1892 on the first ballot of the Democratic convention with Abbett's support, beating out Edward C. Young and Job Lippincott.
In the general election, he faced U.S. Representative
John Kean, a member of the influential Kean family of Republicans. Kean campaigned against the Abbett administration's record, condemning Democratic election fraud, graft, and subservience to liquor and gambling interests.
Werts did not play an active part in the campaign, instead deferring to party chair Allan L. McDermott. McDermott chose not to answer the charge of corruption and instead focused the race on national issues and opposition to President
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
.
In a state which had only
voted for the Republican nominee for President once before that point, the strategy was successful.
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
easily won the state, and Werts was elected governor, albeit with a margin almost half that of Cleveland's.
Term in office
In his inaugural address, Werts proposed expanding prison facilities, creating a juvenile reformatory, and passing ballot-reform legislation. The focus of his remarks was responding to critics who called for anti-trust legislation in New Jersey. "The distinction appears to be," he observed, "that where the restraint of combination is ... simply the natural consequence and not the intent, the combination is not improper; where the object is to destroy competition and obtain control of ... production ... such combination is unlawful." Werts pledged a continuation of the Democratic policy in the state of encouraging combination through liberal incorporation laws.
The 1893 legislature passed an unpopular bill to legalize racetrack gambling. Though Werts vetoed the bill, opponents blamed Werts's haste for preventing effective mobilization against gambling interests. The legislature passed the bill again, overriding his veto.
1893 election and constitutional crisis
In the fall elections, the Republicans won an overwhelming 30,000 vote majority and gained control of the Assembly and Senate. Republicans, backed mostly by evangelical Protestant opponents of gambling, also won votes in opposition to Catholic efforts to pass public funding for parochial schools and public concern amidst the
Panic of 1893. Republicans carried the urban counties of Hudson, Essex, and Passaic, and seven of the state's ten largest cities.
Instead of accepting the results, the Democratic minority organized a rump session and refused to certify the elections. They advised Werts of their intention, and he acquiesced. The state constitutional crisis, with two functioning Senates, lasted until March 1894 until the Supreme Court ruled the rump session illegal.
The 1894 legislature was dominated by Republican attempts to remove Democratic officeholders from appointed positions and restrict religious teaching in public schools. The unsuccessful Democratic campaign of 1894 attempt to identify Republicans with prohibition and anti-Catholic organizations like the
American Protective Association
The American Protective Association (APA) was an American Anti-Catholicism, anti-Catholic secret society established in 1887 by Protestants. The organization was the largest anti-Catholic movement in the United States during the later part of the ...
; they won only a few seats.
Werts's annual message to the legislature in 1895 reiterated his support for prison expansion and ballot reform, adding a call for water conservation. None of these measures were enacted. Instead, the legislature passed the Storrs Naturalization Act, which prohibited naturalization in the final month before an election, over the governor's veto. The legislature also undertook investigations into corruption among former Demoratic officials, who were revealed to have sold pardons and accepted bribes and kickbacks from construction companies.
Werts left office in 1896 after the election of John W. Griggs, the first Republican governor since 1869.
He left a budget surplus of almost $1 million.
Personal life
In 1872, Werts married Emma Stelle. They had two daughters and she served as an important political and social advisor during his career.
Later life and death
After leaving office in 1896, Werts retired to Jersey City and resumed the practice of law.
He died on January 17, 1910, at age 63.
At that point, he was the most recent Democratic Governor of New Jersey.
He was buried in
Evergreen Cemetery in
Morristown.
References
External links
Biography for George Theodore Werts (PDF) New Jersey State Library
The New Jersey State Library, based in Trenton, New Jersey, was established in 1796 to serve the information needs of New Jersey's Governor, Legislature and Judiciary. The State Library is also responsible to assist in the provision of library and ...
George T. Werts The Political Graveyard
The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...
Dead Governors of New Jersey bio for George T. Werts
1846 births
1910 deaths
Democratic Party governors of New Jersey
Mayors of Morristown, New Jersey
New Jersey lawyers
Democratic Party New Jersey state senators
Politicians from Jersey City, New Jersey
People from Hackettstown, New Jersey
People from Morristown, New Jersey
American Protestants
Presidents of the New Jersey Senate
Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Morristown, New Jersey)
19th-century American politicians
19th-century American lawyers
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