﻿ William Schley

William Schley

William Schley ( born December 10, 1786 in Frederick, Maryland, † November 20, 1858 in Richmond County, Georgia ) was an American politician and Governor of the State of Georgia, which he also represented in Congress.

Early years and political rise

The German -born Schley came as a child with his parents in the Jefferson County, Georgia. He went to Louisville and Augusta to school, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1812. In the next few years he led an office in Augusta. In 1825 he became a judge at the Middle District Court.

His political career began in 1830, when he was elected to the House of Representatives from Georgia. In 1832 he moved for the Democrats, a House of Representatives of the United States. In 1835 he resigned this mandate, after he was elected governor of Georgia.

Governor of Georgia

His tenure was overshadowed among other things, the conflict over the Cherokee. This conflict had previously been his predecessor Wilson Lumpkin and George Gilmer busy. In close cooperation with General Winfield Scott, the governor was reflected scattered Indian uprisings and the Indian Removal Act to perform. The Cherokee were relocated on the Trail of Tears in the direction of Oklahoma. Schley was a strong advocate of slavery in the southern states. From the state of Maine, he demanded, in vain, the delivery men, the slaves had helped to escape from Georgia to the north. Schley offered a reward of $ 5000 for the arrest of the publisher William Lloyd Garrison, who vehemently campaigned in the north for the end of slavery. Garrison was never arrested.

Otherwise, the governor sat for various domestic projects. These included state care for the mentally handicapped, the establishment of a Supreme Court of Georgia, the revision of the laws of the state, the improvement of river navigation and the support of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which was built as the only railway company in Georgia with public money.

Evening of life and death

In the 1837 election he lacked only 700 votes for re-election. Election winner was ex- Governor Gilmer. Schley then withdrew into the Richmond County, where he took care of in the next 20 years to his private interests. Together with his brothers he operated a cotton mill and a textile factory, which produced among other things, clothes for slaves. The farms were an economic success. Schley died on 20 November 1858 and was buried in the family cemetery.

Schley was married three times. With his first wife Charlotte Kirkley he had three children. In 1822 he married Elizabeth Sara Hargrove, with whom he had a child. After her death in 1845 he married Sophia Kerr. He was a member of a Masonic Lodge. The Schley County, Georgia is named after him.