James G. Berrett, Mayor of Washington and family members [unframed photograph]
Washington DC: Mathew Brady, c1861. Presumed one of multiple copies issued, few are presumed to have survived. Photograph. Format is approximately 10 inches by 8 inches for the backing. The image is approximately 8 inches by 6.75 inches. This is a photo of Mayor James Gabriel Berret and family members. The edges are chipped/pieces missing and there are tears and creases extending into the image. Small corner tape repair noted. On the back top left corner is a statement that this was photographed by M. B. Brady (part of photographed is missing). At the lower left corner is the address of Brady's establishment, 627 Penn. Avenue, Washington, D. C. Written on the back is the text " James G. Berrett--Mayor of Washington --D. C. My mothers uncle." Mathew Benjamin Brady (c. 1822–1824 – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history. Best known for his scenes of the Civil War, he studied under inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York in 1844, and photographed Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Abraham Lincoln, among other public figures. When the Civil War started, his use of a mobile studio and darkroom enabled vivid battlefield photographs that brought home the reality of war to the public. James Gabriel Berret (February 12, 1815 – April 14, 1901) was an American politician who served as a Maryland state legislator from 1837 to 1839 and again in 1891 and as the eighteenth Mayor of Washington, District of Columbia, from 1858 to 1861, when he was forced to resign from office after being jailed by the Lincoln administration for sedition. He was also President of the Electoral College in 1888. Berret was born in what was then Baltimore County, Maryland on February 12, 1815. At the age of 21, he was elected to the Maryland state legislature to represent the newly formed Carroll County. Upon leaving the legislature he was appointed to an office in the U.S. Treasury by President Martin Van Buren and moved to Washington, DC. He served in the Treasury until 1850, at which time he started his own business. In 1853 when President Franklin Pierce appointed him Postmaster of the District of Columbia. He served on the inaugural committee for Presidents James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. In 1858, Berret was nominated as the mayoral candidate for the Anti-Know-Nothing Party, a coalition of political parties that formed in 1854 as an opposition to the Know-Nothings' electoral successes in the city. However, by 1858, the Know-Nothings were a spent force, and the U.S. political landscape was such that the Republicans, who had once been a part of the Anti-Know-Nothing coalition, now stood independently from it as an opposition to President Buchanan and the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Thus Berret was pitted against Richard Wallach, the U.S. Marshal for the District; both men were of equal popularity, means, and political reputation, but on election day Berret won by 680 votes in an election that was marked by rioting and the deaths of four citizens. The election sparked a fierce rivalry between Wallach and Berret, enough so that when Berret defeated Wallach again in the 1860 contest by only 24 votes, Wallach published editorials charging Berret with fraud in both elections. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Republicans in the U.S. Congress pushed through legislation that required all public officers in Union territory to take oaths of allegiance to the United States. When Berret refused, insisting that his oath as mayor of the nation's capital should suffice, Secretary of State William H. Seward had him arrested, jailed in the Old Capitol Prison, then sent to Fort Lafayette, New York. When no evidence of collaboration with the enemy surfaced, Seward had Berret released and returned to Washington—on the condition that he immediately resign as mayor. Berret telegraphed his resignation to the Washington City Council, who had already elected Wallach to replace him. Later he accepted Ulysses S. Grant's nomination to the board of police commissioners in 1872, where he served until 1877. He moved back to Maryland and was an Elector for Maryland in 1888, and as such was named President of the Electoral College that year. He was returned to the Maryland legislature representing Carroll County in 1891, serving on the Ways and Means committee. He later served on the inaugural committee for President Grover Cleveland. Berret died April 14, 1901, and was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. Condition: Poor.
Keywords: Mathew Brady, Photograph, James Berrett, Mayor, Washington, District of Columbia, Politician, Civil War
[Book #83182]
Price: $250.00