Andrew Horatio Reeder

Andrew Horatio Reeder (* July 12, 1807 in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, † July 5, 1864 ) was an American politician and from 1854 to 1855 the first governor of Kansas Territory.

Early years

Andrew Reeder first attended a college in Lawrenceville (New Jersey). After a subsequent law school and his admission to the bar in 1828, he was active in his native city as a lawyer. He early became interested in politics. Since 1824 he was a supporter of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party. In 1854 he was appointed by President Franklin Pierce for the first governor of the Kansas Territory.

Governor of the Kansas Territory

The territory was created with the so-called Kansas-Nebraska Act of 30 May 1854. The boundaries of the new territory did not match exactly the limits of the later state of Kansas; Rather, the territory also included parts of the modern state of Colorado. The capital was Leavenworth. The creation of the territory took place against the backdrop of tensions between the North and the South and the time between these parts of the country the hotly debated issue of slavery.

When Andrew Reeder was appointed governor, the question of slavery was not yet decided. His term began on July 7, 1854, and was extremely bad. Reeder was no clear policy positions, although he tended more to the supporters of the North, and could not prevail in his field. The violence increased, and the governor was controversial. Finally, the followers of the South requested his removal. President Pierce also saw the inability shipowner and dismissed him on 16 August 1855 his office.

More life

Shipowners remained first in the Kansas Territory. When he was accused by the Southerners for treason, he fled in May, 1856 under the spectacular circumstances out of the country. He returned to his home in Pennsylvania, where he was working as a lawyer again. He died in 1864.