Judson Harmon
Judson Harmon ( born February 3, 1846 in Newtown, Ohio, † February 22, 1927 in Cincinnati, Ohio) was an American lawyer and politician, He served as Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ) under U.S. President Grover Cleveland, and as governor of Ohio.
Study and career
Harmon served during the civil war in the home Guard of Ohio. Then he first completed a general education studies at Denison University in Granville, which he finished in 1866 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then studied law at the Cincinnati Law School and graduated in 1869 with a Bachelor of Laws ( LL.B. ) from. After several years as a lawyer, he became in 1876 judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which, however, he gave up this position after a few months.
In 1878 he was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio ( Superior Court ) and remained so until 1887. Afterwards he again worked as a lawyer. In addition to his duties as Governor, he was also a professor at the Cincinnati Law School.
Political career
Minister of Justice under President Cleveland
1876 Harmon ran unsuccessfully for the Senate from Ohio.
On 8 June 1895 he was appointed by President Cleveland to United States Attorney General, after the previous justice minister Richard Olney was appointed as Foreign Minister. As Minister of Justice he belonged to the Cabinet by the end of Cleveland's second term of office on 4 March 1897. During this time he implemented the anti-trust law, particularly in the form of the indictment in the process of United States v. Trans - Missouri Freight Association. In water law proceedings in United States v. Texas, 1896, he advocated a theory of absolute territorial sovereignty, which later became known as the Harmon Doctrine. According to this doctrine Nations shall have exclusive jurisdiction and control over the use of water resources within their borders.
Governor of Ohio
In 1908 he was first elected as a Democratic Party candidate for Governor of Ohio. The Office of the Governor, he held from 1909 to 1913 for two terms from. In his re-election in 1910 he won against the later U.S. President Warren G. Harding, who was a candidate for the Republican Party. In 1913, he retired from political life. Harmon was the first politician who was a Cabinet Minister governor of a state for a job.
Special investigator and defeat as a presidential candidate
1905 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to head a commission to investigate the business practices of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He found that bribes in the amount of one million dollars, were flown to the president of the railway company, Paul Morton. The results of the Commission attached particular President Roosevelt embarrassed because he had Morton appointed recently to the Minister of Marine. Although Harmon suggested bringing an action against Morton and other directors of the railway company, but it was not this, after the intervention of the President. However, had to resign from his post Naval Minister Morton on July 1, 1905.
In 1912 he was defeated at the Democratic National Convention as a presidential candidate who later became President Woodrow Wilson, after he had called because of its opposition to national initiatives and referendums as a reactionary previously the former Democratic presidential candidate and later Secretary of State in the Cabinet Wilson, William Jennings Bryan.
In his honor, was named to the Oklahoma Harmon County.