Alexander Ramsey

Born in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1815,^[1] Alexander was the eldest of five children born to Thomas Ramsey and Elizabeth Kelker (also Kölliker or Köllker).^[2] His father was a blacksmith who committed suicide^[3] at age 42^[4] when he went bankrupt in 1826,^[1] after signing for a note of a friend.^[2] Alexander lived with his uncle in Harrisburg, after his family split up to live with relatives.^[2] His brother was Justus Cornelius Ramsey, who served in the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.^[5]

Ramsey first studied carpentry at Lafayette College but left during his third year. He read law with Hamilton Alricks, and attended Judge John Reed's law school in Carlisle (now Penn State-Dickinson Law) in 1839. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1839.^[2]

In 1844 Ramsey married Anna Earl Jenks, daughter of Michael Hutchinson Jenks, and they had three children. Only one daughter, Marion, survived past childhood.^[2]

 

 

Alexander Ramsey was elected from Pennsylvania as a Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the 28th and 29th congresses from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847. He served as the first Territorial Governor of Minnesota from June 1, 1849, to May 15, 1853, as a member of the Whig Party.

Ramsey was of Scottish and German ancestry.^[6] In 1855, he became the mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. Ramsey was elected the second Governor of Minnesota after statehood and served from January 2, 1860, to July 10, 1863. Ramsey is credited with being the first Union governor to commit troops during the American Civil War. He happened to be in Washington, D.C., when fighting broke out. When he heard about the firing on Fort Sumter he went straight to the White House and offered Minnesota's services to Abraham Lincoln.

He resigned the governorship to become a U.S. Senator, having been elected to that post in 1863 as a Republican. He was re-elected in 1869 and held the office until March 3, 1875, serving in the 38th, 39th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, and 43rd congresses. He supported the Radical Republicans,^[7] who called for vigorous prosecution of the Civil War, and a military reconstruction of the South.^[8] He voted for the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.^[8]

Ramsey called for the killing or removal of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota from the state of Minnesota during the Dakota War of 1862. After pressing the Dakota to sell their land, he and other officials stole from the Dakota's annuities.^[9] In response, some of the Dakota attacked American settlements, resulting in the death of at least 800 civilian men, women and children, and the displacement of thousands more.^[10] When the Fond du Lac band of Chippewa learned of the uprising they sent a letter to Ramsey to forward to President Lincoln offering to fight the Sioux dated September 6, 1862.^[11] A few days later on September 9 Ramsey addressed the state legislature proclaiming: "The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State," which he justified by citing various outrages against the settlers and violations of their treaties.^[12] In the north the Chippewa/Ojibwa were having problems with their Indian agent stealing from them. Gov. Ramsey lead a legislative commission to the Crow Wing agency to address their issues.^[13] There 10 chiefs of the Leech lake and Mississippi bands laid out their concerns and offered to fight the Sioux for the government.^[14][15] The commission liked their offer and Gov. Ramsey invited the leaders of 22 bands of Ojibwa to St. Paul. They came on September 23 waving the America flag thinking their offers had been accepted.^[16] Ramsey had to instruct them that Major General Pope would not accept their service on the grounds that it would not be good public policy. However, they would be contacted if they were needed.^[17] In 1863, in response to continued raids on settlers, he authorized a bounty for the scalps of Dakota males.^[18]

On April 15, 1865, President Lincoln died. There were very few senior officials in D.C. that morning. However, Ramsey was and took part in initiating the transfer of the Presidency to Vice President Johnson.^[19]

Ramsey served as Secretary of War from 1879 to 1881, under President Rutherford B. Hayes.^[20] He was one of the commissioners to govern Utah from 1882 to 1886 under the Edmunds Act.^[20] The act made it illegal for polygamists to vote or hold office. Ramsey and four others were defendants in the Supreme Court case Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. 15 (1885). The Supreme Court upheld the federal law that denied polygamists the right to vote.

Late in the fall of 1885 ex-governor Ramsey escorted the son of Chippewa Chief Hole in the Day to Washington D.C. as Minnesota's candidate to West Point.^[21]

• The Minnesota Historical Society preserves his home, the Alexander Ramsey House as a museum. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

A number of counties, towns, parks, and schools are named after Ramsey, including:

• Ramsey County, Minnesota,^[22]
• Ramsey County, North Dakota
• The city of Ramsey, Minnesota
• The city of Ramsey, Illinois,^[23]
• Alexander Ramsey Park, located in Redwood Falls, Minnesota, is the largest municipal park in Minnesota.
• Ramsey Park in Stillwater, Minnesota
• Hidden River Middle School in Saint Paul, Minnesota was formerly named after him. During the 2021–2022 school year, the school was renamed after approval from the St Paul School Board;^[24] staff and students had previously called for a name change in the spring of 2021.^[25][26]
• Alexander Ramsey Elementary School in Montevideo, Minnesota.
• Justice Page Middle School in Minneapolis, Minnesota was formerly named after him when it was first founded in 1932 (Ramsey International Fine Arts Center and formerly Alexander Ramsey Junior High School).^[27] In the 2016–17 school year, a student-initiated effort to rename Ramsey Middle School resulted in renaming the school after Alan Page, the first African-American Minnesota Supreme Court justice.^[28]

He was the namesake of the Liberty Ship SS Alexander Ramsey launched in 1942.

• United States Congress. "Alexander Ramsey (id: R000026)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-03-22

• Alexander Ramsey U.S. Army biography
• The Political Graveyard

•   Media related to Alexander Ramsey at Wikimedia Commons
• Biographical information, gubernatorial records, and Ramsey's personal papers are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.
• "Alexander Ramsey". Find a Grave. Retrieved March 22, 2009.