Samuel Lewis Southard (June 9, 1787June 26, 1842) was a prominent American statesman of the early 19th century, serving as a U.S. Senator,

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

, and the tenth

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 ...

. He also served as

President pro tempore of the Senate A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...

, and was briefly first in the presidential line of succession.

History

The son of Henry Southard and Sarah (Lewis) Southard, was born in the

Basking Ridge Basking Ridge is an Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community located within Bernards Township, New Jersey, Bernards Township in the Somerset Hills region of Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset Count ...

section of

Bernards Township, New Jersey Bernards Township () is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the much larger New York metropolitan area, located within the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 Uni ...

, on June 9, 1787. Southard's ancestors included Anthony Janszoon van Salee, one of the earliest settlers of New Amsterdam, and his siblings included Isaac Southard. Southard attended the Brick Academy classical school and graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1804.

Early career

After teaching school in New Jersey, he worked for several years as a tutor in the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

home of John Taliaferro, his father's Congressional colleague. While living in Virginia, Southard studied law with Francis T. Brooke and Judge Williams, both of Fredericksburg. Upon being admitted to the bar, he returned to New Jersey, where he was appointed law reporter by the New Jersey Legislature in 1814. Elected to the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

in 1815, Southard was appointed to the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...

to succeed

Mahlon Dickerson Mahlon Dickerson (April 17, 1770 – October 5, 1853) was a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, the seventh governor of New Jersey, United States Senator from New Jersey, the 10th United States Secretary of the Navy and a United States ...

shortly thereafter, and in 1820 served as a presidential elector. He was elected to a seat in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

over James J. Wilson, and was appointed to the remainder of Wilson's term After Wilson resigned. Southard served in office from January 26, 1821, to March 3, 1823, when he resigned. During this time, he was a member of the committee that produced the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...

Navy career

President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

selected Senator Southard to be Secretary of the Navy in September 1823, and he remained in office under President

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...

. During these years, he also served briefly as ''ad interim''

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

(1825) and

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

(1828). Southard proved to be one of the most effective of the Navy's early Secretaries. He endeavored to enlarge the Navy and improve its administration, purchased land for the first Naval Hospitals, began construction of the first Navy dry docks, undertook surveys of U.S. coastal waters and promoted exploration in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. Responding to actions by influential officers, including David Porter, he reinforced the American tradition of

civilian control over the military Civilian control of the military is a doctrine in military and political science that places ultimate responsibility for a country's strategic decision-making in the hands of the civilian political leadership, rather than professional military ...

establishment. Also on Southard's watch, the Navy grew by some 50% in personnel and expenditures and expanded its reach into waters that had not previously seen an American man-of-war.

Political life

In 1829 Southard became

New Jersey Attorney General 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 limite ...

, succeeding

Theodore Frelinghuysen Theodore Frelinghuysen (March 28, 1787April 12, 1862) was an American politician who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate. He was the Whig vice presidential nominee in the election of 1844, running on a ticket with Henry Clay. Bo ...

. In 1832, the state legislature elected him

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 ...

over Peter D. Vroom by a vote of 40 to 24. In 1833, he was again elected to the U.S. Senate. During the next decade, he was a leader of the Whig Party and attained national prominence as chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. As

, he was first in the presidential line of succession after the death of

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...

and the accession of Vice President

John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig tick ...

to the presidency. Failing health forced Southard to resign from the Senate in 1842. He died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on June 26, 1842. Southard was buried in Washington's

Congressional Cemetery The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national m ...

Societies

During the 1820s, Southard was a member of the prestigious society,

Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences (1816–1838) was a literary and science institution in Washington, D.C., founded by Dr. Edward Cutbush (1772–1843), a naval surgeon. Thomas Law had earlier suggested of such a soc ...

, who counted among their members former presidents

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

and

and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions. In 1839, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

Legacy

The destroyer , (later DMS-10), 1919–1946, was named in his honor. There is also a public park in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, named after him.

References

Sources

* *''Dictionary of American Biography''. *Birkner, Michael. ''Samuel L. Southard: Jeffersonian Whig.'' Rutherford, N.J.:

Fairleigh Dickinson University Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...

Press, 1984. *Ershkowitz, Herbert. ''Samuel L. Southard: A Case Study of Whig Leadership in the Age of Jackson.'' ''New Jersey History'' 88 (Spring 1970): 5-24.
''Samuel L. Southard Papers (1783-1893),(bulk 1802-1846), Finding Aid C0250''
consisting of 170 boxes and 73.6 lineal feet of original documents of financial and personal affairs, including correspondence from Charles Muir Campbell of Princeton, NJ. Most boxes are organized by year and subject. Access to these documents is

Princeton University Library Princeton University Library is the main library system of Princeton University. With holdings of more than 7 million books, 6 million microforms, and 48,000 linear feet of manuscripts, it is among the largest libraries in the world by number of ...

, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Manuscripts Division.

External links

New Jersey Governor Samuel Lewis Southard

National Governors Association The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come to the association from across the politica ...

Samuel Lewis Southard
at

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 ...

* , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Southard, Samuel L. 1787 births 1842 deaths People from Bernards Township, New Jersey American people of Dutch descent American Presbyterians United States Secretaries of the Navy Monroe administration cabinet members John Quincy Adams administration cabinet members Democratic-Republican Party United States senators from New Jersey National Republican Party United States senators from New Jersey Whig Party United States senators from New Jersey New Jersey Democratic-Republicans New Jersey National Republicans New Jersey Whigs Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate Governors of New Jersey National Republican Party state governors of the United States New Jersey Attorneys General Members of the New Jersey General Assembly Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey Politicians from Fredericksburg, Virginia Politicians from Somerset County, New Jersey Princeton University alumni Burials at the Congressional Cemetery 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American politicians