William L. Sharkey

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William L. Sharkey - Wikipedia

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William L. Sharkey


25th Governor of Mississippi
In office June 13, 1865 – October 16, 1865
Preceded by	Charles Clark
Succeeded by	Benjamin G. Humphreys

Personal details
Born	July 12, 1798 Sumner County, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	March 30, 1873 (aged 74) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Whig
Signature

William Lewis Sharkey (July 12, 1798 – March 30, 1873) was an American judge and politician from Mississippi. A staunch Unionist during the American Civil War, he opposed the 1861 declared secession of Mississippi from the United States. After the end of the war, President Andrew Johnson appointed Sharkey as provisional governor of Mississippi in 1865.

Biography

Early life

William Lewis Sharkey was born on July 12, 1798, in Sumner County, Tennessee. When he was six, he moved with his family in 1804 to Warren County, Mississippi. He was likely privately educated and read the law as an apprentice with an established firm. In 1822, he was admitted to the bar in Natchez, Mississippi.

Career

In 1825, Sharkey moved to Vicksburg. He was later elected for a single term in the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served from 1828 to 1829.

He served briefly in 1832 as a circuit court judge before being elected to the High Court of Errors and Appeals of Mississippi (today the Supreme Court of Mississippi), where he sat as a justice for 18 years until his resignation in 1851.

Sharkey was appointed Secretary of War by then-President Millard Fillmore; however, he declined the position. He did accept a diplomatic appointment, and from 1851 to 1854, he served as US Consul in Havana, Cuba.^[1] While he was serving as Consul, he swore in William R. King as Vice President of the United States on March 24, 1853. This, which was permitted by a special Act of Congress passed on March 2, was, to date, the only occasion that an American vice presidential oath of office or presidential oath of office has been administered on foreign soil. King, who was suffering from tuberculosis, would die on April 18 two days after he arrived at his home in Alabama.^[2]

A member of the Whig Party, Sharkey was vehemently opposed to the secession of Mississippi in 1861. Throughout the Civil War, he remained a staunch Southern Unionist and, according to one source, was "tolerated by his Confederate neighbors only because of his towering reputation as a jurist."

Governor Charles Clark appointed him in 1865 as a commissioner (along with William Yerger) to confer on behalf of the state with President Andrew Johnson. On June 13, 1865, Johnson appointed Sharkey the state's provisional governor.^[3] Sharkey left office with the election of Benjamin G. Humphreys in October.

He was elected Senator in 1865 but was denied his seat by Congress.

Death

Sharkey died in Washington, D.C., in 1873. He is interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.

Legacy

Sharkey County, Mississippi, located in the Mississippi Delta region, is named in his honor.

References

^ National Governors Association-William Lewis Sharkey
^ William de Vane Rufus King
^ Presidential Proclamation No. 39, 13 June 1865, 13 Stat. 761, 762

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Sharkey.

William L. Sharkey at Find a Grave
Accompanying Document No. 25 and Accompanying Document No. 42 to “Report of Carl Schurz on the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana,” 1865.

Political offices
Preceded by Charles Clark	Governor of Mississippi 1865	Succeeded by Benjamin G. Humphreys
Preceded by Edward Turner	Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi 1832–1851	Succeeded by Collin S. Tarpley (appointed) William Yerger (elected)

v t e Governors of Mississippi
Territory (1798–1817)	Sargent Claiborne R. Williams Holmes
State (since 1817)	Holmes Poindexter Leake Brandon Holmes Brandon Scott Lynch Runnels Quitman Lynch McNutt Tucker Brown Matthews Quitman Guion J. Whitfield Foote Pettus McRae McWillie Pettus Clark Sharkey Humphreys Ames Alcorn Powers Ames Stone Lowry Stone McLaurin Longino Vardaman Noel Brewer Bilbo Russell H. Whitfield Murphree Bilbo Conner White Johnson Sr. Murphree Bailey Wright White Coleman Barnett Johnson Jr. J. Williams Waller Finch Winter Allain Mabus Fordice Musgrove Barbour Bryant Reeves

v t e Chief justices of Mississippi
Supreme Judges of Mississippi (1818–1832)	Hampton Turner	Seal of the Judiciary of Mississippi
High Court of Errors and Appeals of Mississippi (1832-1870)	Sharkey C. Smith Handy
Supreme Court of Mississippi (since 1870)	Peyton Simrall George Campbell Cooper Arnold Woods Campbell Cooper Woods Whitfield Mayes S. Smith Griffith McGehee P. Lee Ethridge Gillespie Patterson Walker R. Lee Hawkins D. Lee Prather Pittman J. Smith Waller Randolph

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