| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| Raleigh, NC | March 20, 2022 |
In 1891, a quarter century after politician George Edmund Badger died, the Raleigh News and Observer reflected of him, “Taking him all in all, we think the consensus of opinion is that he was the greatest man North Carolina has produced.” Badger was highly regarded in his day for his skills as an attorney, for his intellect, and his acuity as a conversationalist. Today he is forgotten, and his box tomb in Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery is weather-worn and — presumably — rarely visited.
A lawyer by trade, Badger had no naval experience when President-elect William Henry Harrison tapped him for its secretary post in 1841. “As to the Atty. Genl-ship, I should have felt rather more at home, should have hoped the diligence would have enabled me to succeed,” Badger wrote of the cabinet position he truly desired. “But it would have been an outrage upon the Whig party & upon the nation had Mr. [John J.] Crittenden been left out & I placed in that office.” Badger, who had been active in Harrison’s campaign, accepted the incoming president’s offer to head the Navy, and his nomination was approved by the Senate. Shortly thereafter, just one month into his term, Harrison died. He was succeeded as president by John Tyler. Badger served in the cabinet for just six months; he resigned on September 11th to protest Tyler’s vetoes of two Whig-supported bills that would have established a new national bank. Joining Badger in a mass resignation were Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing, Secretary of War John Bell, Attorney General Crittenden, and Postmaster General Francis Granger.
A few years after he resigned from the cabinet, Badger was selected to represent North Carolina in the Senate. He served in the upper chamber of Congress from 1846 to 1855, a tumultuous time in the nation’s history, when the fissures caused by slavery widened. Badger nearly left the Senate in 1853, when President Millard Fillmore nominated him to fill a vacant associate justice position on the Supreme Court. By a one-vote margin, the Democrat-majority Senate rejected the appointment of Badger, a Whig. He is the lone sitting U.S. Senator to have been denied a SCOTUS seat by their Senate colleagues. Badger may not have been elevated to the bench, but he still spent plenty of time around Supreme Court justices; between 1848 and 1860, the North Carolinian argued at least 44 cases before the court. Associate Justice John McLean voiced his opinion that Badger was the ableist lawyer arguing before the court in that period. Toward the end of his life, Badger served as a delegate to North Carolina’s Secession Convention of May 1861. Though elected to serve as a Unionist, Badger introduced an unsuccessful measure that emphasized the Tar Heel State’s right to leave the Union on the basis of revolution, avoiding the word “secession.” When that failed, he joined all other delegates in unanimously approving a more straightforward ordinance of secession. The formerly Unionist Badger supported the Confederacy during the duration of the Civil War, and his five sons served in the CSA Army.
Fast Facts
Born: April 17, 1795 in New Bern, North Carolina
Spouses: Rebecca Turner Badger (m. 1818-1824); Mary Brown Polk Badger (m. 1826-1835); Delia Haywood Williams Badger (m. 1836-1866)
Political Affiliation: Whig Party
Served in Cabinet of: William Henry Harrison; John Tyler
Cabinet Position: Secretary of the Navy (1841)
Senate Tenure: 1846-1855
Died: May 11, 1866 in Raleigh, North Carolina
Cause of Death: Stroke
Age: 71
Interment: Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, North Carolina
"I have never been in public life. I have no capacities peculiarly appropriate to it & little of any kind. I could, indeed, honestly and well I trust, advise the President for the good of the Country but how to superintend a department. I love and honor the Navy & have since I knew the meaning of the word. I could willingly lay myself out to advance its honor, but something is requisite to accomplish this better than honest motives & ill assured exertions. I should consider myself happy to add any glory to my native State but I could scarce bear the mortification of having disappointed her expectations and cast a blot on her fair fame."
- George E. Badger
February 16, 1841 in a letter sent to U.S. Senator William A. Graham
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Hunter, Thomas Rogers. “George Edmund Badger 1795-1866: A North Carolinian’s Life in Politics and the Law.” M.A. thesis, University of Virginia, 1990. file:///C:/Users/14018/Downloads/X001772327.pdf.
Naval History and Heritage Command. “George Edmund Badger.” Accessed December 24, 2023. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/research-guides/z-files/zb-files/zb-files-b/badger-george-edmund.html.
