RARE! “Massachusetts Governor" William B. Washburn Cut Signature

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"Massachusetts Governor" William B. Washburn Clipped Signature.
ES-7384E
William
Barrett Washburn
(January
31, 1820 – October 5, 1887) was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. Washburn served several terms in the United
States House of Representatives (1863–71) and as the 28th Governor of Massachusetts from 1872 to 1874, when he won
election to the United States Senate in
a special election to succeed the recently deceased Charles Sumner. A moderate Republican, Washburn only
partially supported the Radical
Republican agenda during the American Civil War and
the Reconstruction Era that
followed. A Yale graduate,
Washburn parlayed early business success in furniture manufacture into banking
and railroads, based in the Connecticut River valley town of Greenfield. He was a major
proponent of railroads in northern and western Massachusetts, sitting on the
board of the Connecticut River Railroad for
many years, and playing an oversight role in the construction of the Hoosac
Tunnel. He has been described as a latter-day "Connecticut
River God" because of his role as a leading regional businessman and
politician. William Barrett Washburn was born on January 31, 1820 in Winchendon, Massachusetts,
to Asa and Phoebe (Whitney) Washburn. His father was a hat maker from a family
with deep colonial roots; Emory Washburn, who was Governor of Massachusetts in
1854, was a distant cousin. Asa Washburn died in 1823. Washburn
was educated in the academies at Hancock and Westminster, and then
attended Yale College, graduating
in 1844. He was a member of the Skull and Bones Society. He was employed as a store clerk
from 1844 to 1847 in the business of his uncle in Orange. He established a
chair factory in Erving, operating it from 1847 to 1857 and parlaying a ,000
(0,000 in 2019 dollars) investment into a wood products business whose
annual production exceeded 0,000 (,120,000). In 1849 he cofounded the
Franklin County Trust Company, on whose board he sat until 1858. He moved
to Greenfield in 1857,
where he was elected president of the Greenfield Bank (later the First National
Bank), a post he would hold for the rest of his life.
In 1847, Washburn married Hannah Sweetser of Athol; the couple had six
children, with four surviving to adulthood. Washburn won election to
the Massachusetts Senate in
1850 and served two years in the Massachusetts
House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855. His elections
to the state legislature were supported by proponents of the Hoosac
Tunnel. In 1862 Washburn ran for Congress as a Republican, winning
election to the 38th Congress against no opposition. He was reelected four
times, winning each time by wide margins. He was viewed as relatively
moderate, in comparison to the mostly Radical Republican Massachusetts
delegation. He served as chairman of the Committee on
Claims during the 41st Congress. In 1871, Washburn ran
for Governor of Massachusetts.
The Republican Party was then dominant in state politics, and a number of well-known politicians vied
for the party nomination to replace outgoing Governor William Claflin. Most prominent was the former Congressman
and American Civil War general Benjamin F. Butler,
who was disliked by the fiscally conservative state Republican establishment
over his support for the continued issuance of greenbacks (currency not backed by silver or gold), and
who frequently used populist tactics to upset convention proceedings. Butler's
opponents eventually united behind Washburn to give him the nomination, and he
won the general election by a 13,000 vote margin over John Quincy Adams II and
a labor candidate. He was reelected to further terms in 1872 and 1873, the
former despite dissension in Republican ranks that had resulted in the
splitting off of the Liberal
Republican Party, who fielded Francis W. Bird. The 1873
convention was particularly affected by the actions of Butler supporters, but Washburn
prevailed and was again comfortably reelected Washburn's three victories
over Butler in these conventions marked a low point in the latter's career. The
major event of 1872 during Washburn's tenure as governor was the Great Boston Fire of 1872,
which destroyed 65 acres (26 ha) of prime commercial real estate in the
city on November 9. The legislature was called into a special session to enable
the provision of state assistance. Measures it passed included a bill
simplifying the establishment of insurance companies, since several were
bankrupted by the blaze, and a bill authorizing the city to issue bonds to
speed the rebuilding effort. 1873 brought a new round of state funding in the
amount of 0,000 to fund the final completion of the Hoosac Tunnel, a
tightening of the state's alcohol prohibition laws, and the establishments of a
new prison in Concord (now MCI Concord)
and a mental hospital in Salem. In 1874,
Washburn signed legislation establishing a women's reformatory. Although
Washburn was a supporter of women's
suffrage, the matter was not seriously considered by the legislature
during his term. He also supported legislation reforming the state's child
labor and education laws, which were widely flouted. He opposed enactment
of a labor bill limiting work to ten hours per day, a subject of regular labor
agitation during his tenure. When United States Senator Charles Sumner died in March 1874, the state senate,
which then chose the state's US senators, met to choose his replacement. After
a long and contentious debate involving thirty-three ballots, Washburn was chosen to succeed Sumner as a
compromise candidate acceptable to supporters of Henry L. Dawes and George F. Hoar. Washburn then resigned the governorship,
leaving Lieutenant Governor Thomas
Talbot as Acting Governor Washburn served from April 17,
1874 until the term ended on March 3, 1875, and refused to run for reelection.