Marcellus Stearns

Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns ( born April 29, 1839 in Lovell, Oxford County, Maine, † December 8, 1891 in Palatine Bridge, New York ) was an American politician and from 1874 to 1877 the 11th Governor of the State of Florida.

Life

Stearns visited two years today Colby College. He broke off his studies to enter at the outbreak of the Civil War in the Union forces. There he became Major. In the battle of Winchester he lost an arm. Subsequently, he was unable to work for the fighting troops. The Army approved his law studies. Then he was transferred to Quincy in Florida in the military administration. Stearns remained even after his military service in Florida and was in 1868 a member of the commission to draft a new state constitution. Between 1868 and 1872 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Florida, from 1869 he was its president.

In 1872, the Republicans Stearns was elected Lieutenant Governor of Florida. As the incumbent Governor Ossian Hart died on 18 March 1873 of pneumonia, Stearns ended his term in office. In his elected term of office, which went up from January 2, 1877, it declined significantly, the budget deficit and stabilizing the country's budget. He succeeded presumably to lure the first tourists in the country. Decisive he tried Jonathan Gibbs, by the late Governor Hart was appointed as the first African American to the Secretary of State to force out of office. Due to the popularity of Gibbs attempt failed. In 1876, Stearns tried unsuccessfully to re-election. He remained until the year 1967, the last Republican who became governor in Florida.

After the end of his tenure, he was 1877-1880 U.S. representative in the State of Arkansas. In 1887 he became president of the Iowa Atlantic National Bank. Stearns was buried in his hometown in Maine.