Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
Wisconsin Governor Jeremiah Rusk (1830-1893)
A Granger Governor [Jeremiah Rusk] / A Wisconsin Man Ought to Be and May Be Grover Cleveland's Successor
The first of these two long articles about Jeremiah Rusk appeared just 3 days before he would call out the militia to suppress demonstrations at the Bay View Rolling Mills in Milwaukee.
Rusk (1830-1893) had been a Civil War hero and a congressman, and served as governor from 1882-1889. On May 4, 1886, when Milwaukee officials and manufacturers appealed for help, he called out the militia and permitted them to fire on the strikers. He later defended this action with the remark, "I seen my duty and I done it."
At the time, Rusk was being floated by national Republican leaders as a potential presidential candidate, as discussed in the first article. A second article (dated 1888, and beginning on page 9 of the scrapbook given here) considers the effect of his actions at Bay View on his political prospects. Although he didn't run for President, Rusk served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1889-1893) before returning home to Viroqua, where he died.
| Related Topics: |
Wisconsin in the Civil War Era Industrialization and Urbanization Wisconsin and the Republican Party The Iron Brigade, Old Abe and Military Affairs The Birth of the Labor Movement |
| Creator: | varies |
| Pub Data: | Two articles pasted in a set of scrapbooks at the Wisconsin Historical Society (see below) |
| Citation: | "A Granger Governor." Chicago Times, May 1, 1886; "A Wisconsin Man Ought to Be and May Be Grover Cleveland's Successor" (1888; bibliographic data illegible); Online facsimile at: http://wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1605; Visited on: 4/26/2024 |