Secretary of the Navy
What position did William Alexander Graham take from Aug 1850 to Jul 1852?
William Alexander Graham William Alexander Graham ( September 5 , 1804August 11 , 1875 ) was a United States Senator from North Carolina from 1840 to 1843 , a Senator later in the Confederate States Senate from 1864 to 1865 , the 30th Governor of North Carolina from 1845 to 1849 and U.S . Secretary of the Navy from 1850 to 1852 , under President Millard Fillmore . He was the Whig Party nominee for vice-president in 1852 on a ticket with General Winfield Scott . Early life and education . Graham was born at Vesuvius Furnace near Lincolnton , North Carolina . His Scots-Irish grandfather James Graham ( 1714–1763 ) was born in Drumbo , County Down , Northern Ireland and settled in Chester County in the Province of Pennsylvania . William A . Graham graduated from Pleasant Retreat Academy and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he was a member of the Dialectic Society . He studied law , was admitted to the bar in 1825 , and commenced practice in Hillsborough . Political career . From 1833 to 1840 Graham was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from Orange County , serving twice as speaker . In 1840 Graham was elected as a Whig to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert Strange , and served from November 25 , 1840 , to March 3 , 1843 . In the Twenty-seventh Congress he was chairman of the Senate Committee on Claims . His older brother , James Graham , had been representing North Carolina in the House since 1833 . From 1845 to 1849 Graham was Governor of North Carolina . Having declined appointments as ambassador to Spain and Russia in 1849 , he was appointed Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of President Millard Fillmore in 1850 , and served until 1852 . In the 1852 presidential election he was the unsuccessful Whig nominee for vice president , as Winfield Scotts running mate . The ticket only carried 42 electoral votes from the four states of Kentucky , Massachusetts , Tennessee , and Vermont . After returning from Washington to North Carolina , he was a member of the state senate from 1854 to 1866 , and senator in the Confederate Senate from 1864 to 1865 . In April 1865 , with the Confederacy near defeat , Graham personally led a delegation that included another former governor , David Swain , to ask Union General William T . Sherman for a truce so that the states capital , Raleigh , might be spared violence and destruction . Sherman agreed . Later life . In 1866 Graham was once again elected to the United States Senate , but because North Carolina had not yet been readmitted to the Union , he could not present his credentials . From 1867 to 1875 he was a member of the board of trustees of the Peabody Fund , which provided educational assistance to the post-Civil War South . From 1873 to 1875 he was an arbitrator in the boundary line dispute between Virginia and Maryland . He died in Saratoga Springs , New York , and is buried in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Hillsborough . Legacy . The United States Navy ship , USS Graham ( DD-192 ) , the World War II Liberty ship SS William A . Graham , and the city of Graham , North Carolina were all named for him , as was Graham County , North Carolina . Montrose Gardens , located in Hillsborough , North Carolina , is one of Grahams former estates and still features some of the structures Graham and his family had built on the property . He lived in the Nash-Hooper House at Hillsborough from 1869 until 1875 . The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971 . One of Grahams sons , also named William A . Graham , became a state legislator and state agriculture commissioner . Two others , Augustus and John , also became politicians , while a daughter , Susan , married Walter Clark . In 1842 , John H . Hewitt dedicated a song , The Old Family Clock , to Mrs . W . A . Graham .