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Henry Mason Mathews (March 29, 1834April 28, 1884) was the 7th Attorney General and 5th Governor of West Virginia. He was the first ex-Confederate elected to a governorship in the United States, and his election has been regarded as beginning of the era of the Bourbon Democrat.〔 Addkison-Simmons, D. (2010). Henry Mason Mathews. ''e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia''. Retrieved December 11, 2012, from http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1582〕〔Key, Joe (2008). "The Clay Pipe." Xlibris Corporation, 2008, p 149 http://books.google.com/books?id=QQfV04mDUV8C&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=%22first+bourbon+governor%22&source=bl&ots=ciZ53sI1sK&sig=O__5avQU1mKeaT7OrDI8tevsYvc&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22mathews%22&f=false Retrieved December 11, 2012〕 Born in Frankford, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, he received an A.M. from the University of Virginia and B.L. from Lexington Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1857 and practiced law for several years before the outbreak of the American Civil War. He was commissioned major in the Confederate States Army and served throughout the Vicksburg Campaign. He entered politics after the war and was elected to the West Virginia Senate in 1865 but was unable to serve due to state restrictions for ex-Confederates. When these restrictions were overturned in 1871, he was sent to the 1872 State Convention to rewrite the West Virginia State Constitution. The following year he was elected attorney general and, following one successful term, was elected governor of the state in 1877. His election ushered in the quarter-century era of the Bourbon Democrat, the conservative, pro-business faction in the Democratic Party, who sought to oust the Republican coalition of freedmen, carpetbaggers, and scalawags. He was identified as a Redeemer, the southern wing of the Bourbon faction.〔Hans Sperber and Travis Trittschuh. ''American Political Terms: An Historical Dictionary.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1962.〕 As governor, his administration sought resolution to the Long Depression, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, and issues of state debt. He was criticized for his handling of the Great Railroad Strike, which spread from West Virginia to several other states before he called for Federal support—an action his critics believed could have prevented the national strike if taken sooner.〔Bellesiles, Michael A. (2010). "1877: America's Year for Living Violently. The New Press, 2010. p 149. http://books.google.com/books?id=rf4q5LjLbHIC&pg=PA149&dq=%22governor+mathews%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EhSwUNewN9OI0QGVtYGIBA&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22martyr%22&f=false Retrieved November 27, 2012.〕 Mathews retired from politics at the end of his term in 1881. In later life he served as president of the White Sulfur Springs Company (now the Greenbrier Resort).〔 ==Early life== Henry Mason Mathews was born on March 29, 1834 in Frankford, Greenbrier County to Eliza (née Reynolds) and Mason Mathews. His father was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and his family had been politically prominent in colonial Virginia.〔The American Historical Society (1923). "Mathews Family of Greenbrier." The History of West Virginia, Old and New (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, Inc.) 2: 7-9. http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/greenbrier/bios/wvoldnew/m3200001.txt Retrieved 2012-10-19〕 His patrilineal ancestry was Welsh and Anglo-Irish.〔Boots, John R. (1970). The Mat(t)hews family: an anthology of Mathews lineages. The University of Wisconsin - Madison〕 He was educated at the Lewisburg Academy and the University of Virginia, receiving the degrees of A.B. in 1855 and A.M. in 1856 and joining the fraternal organization Beta Theta Pi.〔He entered Lexington Law School and studied under John W. Brockenbrough, graduating in 1857 with a degree of B.L..〔 He was admitted to the Bar in 1857 and opened a law office in Lewisburg with his brother, Alexander F. Mathews.〔Combs, James Thurl (1987). "Greenbrier, C.S.A. Wartime Letters of Mason Mathews to his son Captain Joseph William Mathews, C.S.A." The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society (Parsons, West Virginia: Greenbrier Historical Society) V (1): 5-44.〕Soon afterward he accepted the professorship of Language and Literature at Alleghany College, Blue Sulphur Springs, retaining the privilege to practicing law in the courts.〔White, J.T. (1904)"The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time." New York Public Library. p 431.http://books.google.com/books?id=TnNMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA431&lpg=PA431&dq=henry+mason+mathews+biography&source=bl&ots=18B38J7BLq&sig=n-4H4rqNrtgHyakUR9jIDn0yCHM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MUWTUJvkN9Ss0AGe9oCIAw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=henry%20mason%20mathews%20biography&f=false Retrieved November 1, 2012〕 As a young man he was a proponent of fine arts, which he believed to be waning in the decades before the Civil War as the country progressed towards industrialism. In his 1854 University of Virginia Masters Thesis, "Poetry in America," he expressed resignation about the arts being "sacrificed on the altar of progress," as described by historian Peter S. Carmichael.〔Carmichael, Peter S. (2005). "Last Generation: Young Virginians In Peace, War, And Reunion. Civil War America: UNC Press Books, 2005, p. 29. http://books.google.com/books?id=g2NwaOY-ptQC&pg=PA29&dq=%22mathews%22+%22poetry+in+america%22&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22mathews%22%20%22poetry%20in%20america%22&f=false〕 Carmichael described Mathews as one who had "accepted the decline of fine taste and cultivation as an inevitable casualty in society's advance."〔Mathews, in "Poetry in America," stated, "while we may regret to see the art of poetry declining, .... we know also that this very fact is an evidence of the continual improvement of the mind of man, and of the advancement of the world in the accomplishment of its destiny."〔 This reconciliation of old customs with new would be a defining theme of his political career in the wake of war. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry M. Mathews」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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