George von Lengerke Meyer

Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder George von Lengerke Meyer (June 24, 1858 – March 9, 1918) was a Massachusetts businessman and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as United States ambassador to Italy and Russia, as United States Postmaster General from 1907 to 1909 during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and United States Secretary of the Navy from 1909 to 1913 during the administration of President William Howard Taft.

Early life

Meyer was a native of Boston, reared in a patrician society.<ref name=anb>Template:Cite ANB</ref>

His paternal grandfather, George Augustus Meyer (also the name of von Lengerke Meyer's father), had emigrated from Germany to New York City.<ref name=dab>Template:Cite DAB</ref>

Meyer graduated from Harvard in 1879, and for twenty years was in business as a merchant and trustee.<ref name=colliers>Template:Cite Collier's</ref>

Career

He was a director of various trust companies, banks, manufacturing companies, and public utilities concerns.<ref name=amer>Template:Americana</ref> While managing his business affairs, he also held positions in state and local government, his public service beginning with his election as a member of the Boston Common Council, on which he represented ward 9 in 1889 and 1890. Later he served on the Boston Board of Aldermen in 1891.<ref name=colliers/><ref name=eb/><ref name="Catalogue1">Template:Cite web</ref> He then joined the Massachusetts Legislature, where for some time he served as speaker of the house.<ref name=colliers/><ref name=eb>Template:EB1922</ref> In 1898 he was appointed by Governor Wolcott as chairman of the Massachusetts Paris Exposition managers.<ref name="eb"/>

He was a conservative Republican, and in 1899 was appointed a national committeeman.<ref name="dab"/> Republican Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt appointed Meyer to ambassadorships in Italy (1900–1905) and Russia (1905–1907). His patrician roots facilitated his interactions with the nobility of Europe, then in control of the continent. Roosevelt often used him to deliver messages to Kaiser Wilhelm II in preference to the official ambassador, Charlemagne Tower.<ref name=anb/> As ambassador to Russia, he presented Roosevelt's proposals with regard to the Russo-Japanese War directly to the Czar.<ref name=dab/> Meyer also served as Roosevelt's Postmaster General, from 1907 to 1909, where he directed the introduction of the first stamp vending machines of the country and the first coil stamps.<ref name="SSM 062008">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Upon taking office in March 1909, President Taft appointed Meyer to the position of Secretary of the Navy, a post which Meyer held throughout Taft's term. During this period, the Navy made its first experiments with aviation, although Meyer initially opposed the project.Template:Citation needed In separate tests in 1910 and 1911, civilian pilot Eugene Ely proved the feasibility of carrier-based aviation, by taking off from and landing on a Navy warship.

File:William H Taft - A W Butt - Geoge v. L. Meyer.jpg

At naval review in New York Harbor with President Taft and Capt. A. W. Butt

After 1911, Meyer was an overseer of Harvard University.<ref name="amer" /> He retired from national politics and returned to Massachusetts after Taft left office in 1913. He joined the effort to reelect Theodore Roosevelt in 1916.<ref name="anb" /> The foremost critic of Woodrow Wilson's naval policies,<ref name="anb" /> on the outbreak of World War I he urged preparedness and criticised America's naval administration. He was actively associated with the National Security League and the Navy League. Among the organizations for which he was a director were the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., Old Colony Trust Co., Puget Sound Light & Power Co., Walter Baker Co., and Ames Plow Co.<ref name="eb" />

In December 1916 Meyer, Roosevelt and other philanthropists including Scottish-born industrialist John C. Moffat, William A. Chanler, Joseph Choate, Clarence Mackay, John Grier Hibben, and Nicholas Murray Butler purchased the Château de Chavaniac, birthplace of the Marquis de Lafayette in Auvergne to serve as a headquarters for the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund,<ref>"Americans buy Lafayette's Home," The Sacred Heart Review, Volume 57, Number 4, 6 January 1917, p. 3.</ref> which was managed by Chanler's ex-wife Beatrice Ashley Chanler.<ref>Albert Bushnell Hart, Harper's Pictorial Library of the World War, Volume 7, Harper, 1920; p. 110.</ref><ref>"Americans Aid War Refugees in Paris Mrs. William Astor Chanler Tells of Work Done Through Lafayette Fund;" The Philadelphia Inquirer; 8-04-1918; Vol. 179, Issue: 35; p. 11, Philadelphia, PA.</ref>

Personal life

In 1885, he married Marian Alice Appleton.<ref name=dab/>

He died in Boston on March 9, 1918.

Legacy

The Navy destroyer USS Meyer (DD-279), named in his honor, was commissioned December 17, 1919 and was in service until May 15, 1929.

George von Lengerke Meyer was a brother in the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Alpha chapter).

See also

• 115th Massachusetts General Court (1894)
• 116th Massachusetts General Court (1895)
• 117th Massachusetts General Court (1896)

References

• Template:Cite book
• Boston Transcript, March 11, 1918
• Template:Cite book
• Who's who in State Politics, 1912 Practical Politics (1912) p. 9.

External links

• Template:Find a Grave