James B. Weaver
James Baird Weaver ( born June 12, 1833 in Dayton, Ohio; † February 6, 1912 in Des Moines, Iowa ) was an American politician. Between 1879 and 1889 he represented twice the state of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives. 1892 and 1896 he applied unsuccessfully to each the U.S. presidency.
Career
In 1835, James Weaver came with his parents to Michigan, where she operated in the near Cassopolis a farm. 1842 the family moved to the Iowa Territory on. There she also operated a farm near Bloomfield. Weaver attended the public schools of his new home. After a subsequent study of law and its made in 1856 admitted to the bar, he began practicing in his new profession in Bloomfield. At that time he joined the movement to abolish slavery and was first a member of the Republican Party.
During the Civil War he served 1861-1864 in the army of the Union. He participated in several battles and eventually reached the rank of brevet brigadier general. In 1866, Weaver district attorney for the second judicial district of Iowa was. Between 1867 and 1873 he was employed by the federal tax authority for Iowa. During this time he alienated himself from his party, because of the policies of the government of President Ulysses S. Grant, the preferred his opinion the big business at the expense of farmers. He left the Republicans and was a member of the short-lived Greenback Party.
In the congressional elections of 1878 Weaver was in the sixth electoral district of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC selected. There he entered on March 4, 1879, the successor of the Republican Ezekiel S. Sampson. Since he resigned in 1880 to run again for Congress, he was able to complete only one legislative period to March 3, 1881.
1880 Weaver was nominated at the national convention of his party as its candidate for the presidential election this year. In the election, he received almost 308 600 votes, while the two candidates of the major parties each came to more than 4.4 million votes. Election winner eventually became the Republican James A. Garfield. 1882 Weaver ran unsuccessfully for his return to the U.S. House of Representatives. Two years later, in 1884, but he managed but then the re-entry into the Congress. There he was able to complete two more 1889 legislative sessions after a re-election in 1886 between March 4, 1885 to March 3. By 1887 he was chairman of the Committee to control expenditure of the Interior Ministry and from 1887 a member of the Patent Committee. In the 1888 elections, he was defeated by Republican John F. Lacey.
Around this time, the greenback party disbanded and most members joined the Democratic Party in. Weaver oppose this movement toward the Democrats and was involved in the founding of the Populist Party. In the presidential elections in 1892, he was their top candidate. In these elections, he won over a million votes and the electors of four states (Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas); overall it accounted for 22 of the 444 electors. That was enough but again not enough to threaten the candidates of the two major parties. The election was won by the Democratic ex-President Grover Cleveland.
In the presidential elections in 1896, James Weaver supported the products resulting from the Populist Party, William Jennings Bryan, who ran for the Democrats. Since Bryan but not nominated the populist candidate desired by his vice-presidential candidates, many populists withdrew his support. That was one of the reasons for its defeat. Was elected Republican William McKinley.
Between 1901 and 1903, was James Weaver mayor of Colfax. After he retired from politics. He died on February 6, 1912 in Des Moines. Weaver was married from 1858 to Clara Vinson ( 1832-1913 ).