John Abram Godfrey (25 October 1833[1] - 7 March 1877[2]) was a U.S. State Department Consul, politician and attorney.
As a young man, he was a member of the bar in California, serving as assistant to Samuel Williams Inge, U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of California beginning in October 1853.[3] He continued to work for Mr Inge through August 1856, litigating the real estate claims of Mexican land grants to Joseph Yves Limantour.[4]
President Franklin Pierce officially appointed John A Godfrey U.S. Consul in Guaymas, Mexico on June 16, 1856.[5][6] The United States Ambassador to Mexico at that time was James Gadsden, who had negotiated the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. A dinner was given in Gadsden's honor in Mexico City on August 2, 1856 to express Mexican appreciation for his efforts on behalf of both Mexican and American interests. John Godfrey accompanied Samuel Inge as honored guests at the event.[7] Soon thereafter, John wrote to Secretary of State William L. Marcy from Mexico on September 16, 1856 that he was leaving for the East Coast, requesting a five month leave of absence because the interests of the United States were so limited that "his absence would not in any way affect the interests of American citizens".[8] Guaymas, a coastal town, served at the time as a supply route for the small American population of the Southwest. Godfrey was subsequently admitted to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in May 1856[9] and to the New York bar in November of that year[10] on the motion of his brother-in-law, Judge Philip J. Joachimsen.
He spoke in opposition to the political agenda of the nascent Republican party at a large meeting at the Cooper Institute in 1860[11] and was elected Master of the Godfrey Lodge of the Masons in 1861.[12] The name of this lodge was changed to the Dirigo Lodge on June 5, 1862. Godfrey returned to the Southwest in December 1863 as a hired member of a party to assess the Arizona Mining Company, then owned by a Colonel Samuel F. Butterworth. Several members of the group were killed in an attack upon them by Apache Indians[13][14][15]
Godfrey delivered a speech in Philadelphia in 1864 on behalf of General George McClellan during the 1864 presidential campaign.[16] His speech at that time makes it clear that he had become a Copperhead, calling for a negotiated end to the Civil War. John was not an active combatant in the Civil War. He was granted authority on October 17, 1863 by the New York State National Guard to raise a regiment but did not do so. This authority was later officially revoked on August 4, 1867.[17]
One of his greatest pleasures throughout his life was horseback riding. In good health he was in the saddle daily. His hobbies included the assembly of collections of various sorts, the most valuable of which is a surviving book of American autographs. This collection, assembled in the years during and immediately after the Civil War, includes over two hundred original signatures including all members of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, most of senior Union and Confederate Generals of the Civil War, most members of the 39th United States Congress, several prominent renowned writers, poets and philosophers of the mid 19th century and four men who had been or who went on to become Presidents - James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan and Rutherford B. Hayes.
His legal work in New York included large real estate conveyances in mid-town Manhattan, directorship of the Safeguard Insurance Company,[18] NYC Commissioner of Deeds,[19] Secretary of the New York Bar Association[20] and litigation against Mary Todd Lincoln to collect $9,620 for capes and sables purchased from December 1964 to May 1865 from William Moser, a fur merchant located on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan.[21] As an officer of the Bar Association, John Godfrey supported the system of popular election of judges by citizens rather than the legislative appointment of the judiciary.[22]
He was designated a Major in the New York State Inspector General's Department effective 10 May 1867 and a Lieutenant Colonel in the New York State Adjutant General's Department, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division effective January 28, 1870.[23] Godfrey was sued for $5,000 for malicious prosecution in 1871 by John E. Bendix.[24]
Godfrey wrote an extensive amount of prose and poetry, including "An Ode to Charity;" "Cordelia A Poem in Three Cantos";"Poetical Pencillings of Leisure Hours & Selections; "An Address on the Progress of Civilization in the Nineteenth Century", and "An Ode to the Hebrew Benevolent and German Hebrew Benevolent Societies of the City of New York". He provided the legal work required to merge these societies into the Hebrew Benevolent Society of New York in 1859, working closely with his older sister Priscilla, who later became President of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society's Asylum for Children, and with her husband Judge Philip J. Joachimsen, who was President of the Hebrew Benevolent Society (1855), the Hebrew Orphan Asylum (1859) and the organizer of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society for Children in New York in 1879.
John Godfrey married Mary Alice Macaulay on March 26, 1868 in New York City,[25] unofficially changing his middle name around that time from "Abram" to "Augustus". John died of pneumonia at his home in New York City on 7 March 1877[26] He was an associate of The Associated Pioneers, Territorial Days of California, headquartered in New York City, which conducted his funeral arrangements. John A Godfrey is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. He was survived by his wife, his seven year old son Macaulay Sutton Underhill Godfrey and five year old daughter, Lily Alys GODFREY Baker.
References
edit- ^ March 27, 1860 U.S. Passport application
- ^ City of New York Health Department certified death certificate
- ^ California Land Commission Record Accompanying H.R. 547 December 13, 1854. (Serial Set Volume No 808)
- ^ December 8, 1862 Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury in answer to a resolution of the Senate of 12 July 1862, relative to amounts paid on account of legal matters and other services in investigating land titles in California. Serial Set Volume No 1149
- ^ U.S. National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) Series Citation Office of the Chief Clerk; Applications and Recommendations for Appointment to the Consular and Diplomatic Services; Record Group 59 (State Department Records).
- ^ H.R. 240 of the Forty-Fourth Congress of the United States
- ^ Charleston Courier (Charleston, SC) August 19, 1856
- ^ The Western Historical Quarterly Volume 1 Number 3. July 1970. pp. 291–304.
- ^ Daily Union (Washington D.C.) May 29, 1856 page 3
- ^ New York Tribune (New York, NY) November 14, 1856 page 8
- ^ New York Times September 17, 1860 page 5
- ^ Annual Historical Report of the One Hundred and Twenty-Second Annual Communication of the Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York (May 5, 1903)
- ^ Harpers New Monthly Magazine (Volume XXX) December 1864-May 1865) pp 283-295
- ^ December 1, 1863 Manuscript Journal of John A Godfrey titled A Trip to Senora.
- ^ New York Times March 12, 1864
- ^ Transcript of Speech of the Honorable John A Godfrey of New York in Philadelphia in 1864 George B McClellan for President and George H Pendleton for Vice President" (Mammoth Printing Press Philadelphia 1864)
- ^ New York Times August 4, 1867 page 5
- ^ Brooklyn Daily Eagle October 26, 1858 page 1
- ^ New York Herald March 20, 1866 page 10
- ^ New York Times November 3, 1873 page 3
- ^ Original detailed invoice to Mrs Lincoln from William Moser.
- ^ New York Times November 2, 1873 page 3
- ^ March 30, 1949 letter of record from The State of New York Division of Military and Naval Affairs of the Executive Department, Albany, NY
- ^ The New York Times November 5, 1871
- ^ NYC Marriage Records 1829-1940 in NYC Municipal Archives FHL microfilm 1,544,130.
- ^ The Health Department of The City of New York Certificate of Death # 258994