Secretary of War
Which position did Alexander Ramsey hold from Dec 1879 to Mar 1881?
Alexander Ramsey Alexander Ramsey ( September 8 , 1815 April 22 , 1903 ) was an American politician . He served as a Whig and Republican over a variety of offices between the 1840s and the 1880s . He was the first Minnesota Territorial Governor . Early years and family . Born in Hummelstown , Pennsylvania , on September 8 , 1815 , Alexander was the eldest of five children born to Thomas Ramsey and Elizabeth Kelker ( also Kölliker or Köllker ) . His father was a blacksmith who committed suicide at age 42 when he went bankrupt in 1826 , after signing for a note of a friend . Alexander lived with his uncle in Harrisburg , after his family split up to live with relatives . His brother was Justus Cornelius Ramsey , who served in the Minnesota Territorial Legislature . Ramsey first studied carpentry at Lafayette College but left during his third year . He read law with Hamilton Alricks , and attended Judge John Reeds law school in Carlisle ( now Penn State-Dickinson Law ) in 1839 . He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1839 . In 1844 Ramsey married Anna Earl Jenks , daughter of Michael Hutchinson Jenks , and they had three children . Only one daughter , Marion , survived past childhood . Biography . Alexander Ramsey was elected from Pennsylvania as a Whig to the U.S . House of Representatives and served in the 28th and 29th congresses from March 4 , 1843 , to March 3 , 1847 . He served as the first Territorial Governor of Minnesota from June 1 , 1849 , to May 15 , 1853 , as a member of the Whig Party . Ramsey was of Scottish and German ancestry . In 1855 , he became the mayor of St . Paul , Minnesota . Ramsey was elected the second Governor of Minnesota after statehood and served from January 2 , 1860 , to July 10 , 1863 . Ramsey is credited with being the first Union governor to commit troops during the American Civil War . He happened to be in Washington , D.C. , when fighting broke out . When he heard about the firing on Fort Sumter he went straight to the White House and offered Minnesotas services to Abraham Lincoln . He resigned the governorship to become a U.S . Senator , having been elected to that post in 1863 as a Republican . He was re-elected in 1869 and held the office until March 3 , 1875 , serving in the 38th , 39th , 40th , 41st , 42nd , and 43rd congresses . He supported the Radical Republicans , who called for vigorous prosecution of the Civil War , and a military reconstruction of the South . He voted for the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson . Ramsey is also noted for his statements calling for the killing or removal of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota from the state of Minnesota during the Dakota War of 1862 . He had pressed for the Dakota to sell their land , and then he and other officials stole their money , resulting in hunger and despair for the Dakota . In response , attacks by the Dakota on American settlements resulted in the death of not less than 800 civilian men , women and children and the displacement of thousands more . Ramsey declared on September 9 , 1862 : The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state . In 1863 , in response to continued raids on civilian settlers , he authorized bounty payments on Dakota scalps . Ramsey served as Secretary of War from 1879 to 1881 , under President Rutherford B . Hayes . He was one of the commissioners to govern Utah from 1882 to 1886 under the Edmunds Act . The act made it illegal for polygamists to vote or hold office . Ramsey and four others were defendants in the Supreme Court case Murphy v . Ramsey , 114 U.S . 15 ( 1885 ) . The Supreme Court upheld the federal law that denied polygamists the right to vote . Legacy . - The Minnesota Historical Society preserves his home , the Alexander Ramsey House as a museum . It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 . A number of counties , towns , parks , and schools are named after Ramsey , including : - Ramsey County , Minnesota , - Ramsey County , North Dakota - The city of Ramsey , Minnesota - The city of Ramsey , Illinois , - Alexander Ramsey Park , located in Redwood Falls , Minnesota , is the largest municipal park in Minnesota . - Ramsey Park in Stillwater , Minnesota - Ramsey Middle School in Saint Paul , Minnesota , St . Paul School Board to consider name change in 2021 , with school name no longer supported by either the schools staff or students . - Alexander Ramsey Elementary School in Montevideo , Minnesota . - Justice Page Middle School in Minneapolis , Minnesota was formerly named after him when it was first founded in 1932 ( Ramsey International Fine Arts Center and formerly Alexander Ramsey Junior High School ) . In the 2016–17 school year , a student-initiated effort to rename Ramsey Middle School resulted in renaming the school after Alan Page , the first African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justice . He was the namesake of the Liberty Ship SS Alexander Ramsey launched in 1942 . References . Retrieved on 2009-03-22 - Alexander Ramsey U.S . Army biography - The Political Graveyard External links . - Biographical information , gubernatorial records , and Ramseys personal papers are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society .