Foster Blodgett Explained

Party:Republican
Birth Date:15 January 1826
Birth Place:Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Office:Mayor of Augusta
Term Start:May 1867
Term End:December 1868
Termstart2:1859
Termend2:1860
Predecessor:John Foster
Successor:Henry F. Russell
Predecessor2:Benjamin F. Conley
Successor2:Robert H. May
Spouse:Louisa Maria Foster
Children:11
Serviceyears:1861–1862
Appointer:John Pope
Death Place:Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Resting Place:Magnolia Cemetery

Foster Blodgett Jr. (15 January 1826 – 3 December 1877)[1] was an American politician elected mayor of Augusta, Georgia, from 1859 to 1860, and returned to the mayoralty via military appointment between 1867 and 1868. Blodgett was elected to the United States Senate by the Georgia General Assembly in 1871, but not seated.

Life

Blodgett was born in Augusta, Georgia. He was mayor of Augusta from 1859 to 1860.[2] His administration was noted for the introduction of Augusta's waterworks system. In December 1860, Blodgett presided over a meeting of Unionists in Augusta. Faced with threats of property damage and death, he served in the Confederate Army until April 1862. Between 1865 and 1868, he was postmaster of Augusta.[3] [4] He was suspended from duties as postmaster in January 1868, due to charges of perjury, for which he had been arrested in 1867.[5] He was reinstated as postmaster in April 1869.[6] Overlapping his tenure as postmaster, Blodgett was appointed as mayor of Augusta by General John Pope in May 1867, a post he held until December 1868.

He as also superintendent of the state railroad.[7] [8]

He was elected chair of the Georgia Republican Party's Central Committee on July 4, 1867.[9] Blodgett was called by the prosecution as a witness and testified at the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson on April 9, 1868.[10]

Before the December 1870 United States Senate elections in Georgia, Blodget wrote, "It is the duty of the white citizens of the state to see that the colored citizens are protected in their exercise of their constitutional rights."[11] Though others were elected to Georgia's seats on the United States Senate, Blodgett was selected by the Georgia legislature for a term beginning in 1871. The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate refused to seat him.[12] [13]

The University of Georgia Libraries have a collection of papers related to him.[14]

He died on December 3, 1877, in Atlanta, Georgia, due to typhoid fever. He is buried at the Magnolia Cemetery.

Personal life

He was married to his wife, Louisa Maria Foster. They had eleven children.[15]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Foster Blodgett, b.1826 d.1877 - Ancestry® . 2024-08-05 . www.ancestry.com . en-US.
  2. Book: Jones, Charles Colcock Jr.. Memorial History of Augusta, Georgia: From Its Settlement in 1735 to the Close of the Eighteenth Century. 1890. D. Mason. 176, 187, 191. 9780598902238 . Google Books.
  3. News: Statement of Foster Blodgett and evidence in reply to the charges of Joshua Hill. August 8, 2021 . April 10, 1871.
  4. News: The President's Trial . August 8, 2021 . Boston Daily Evening Transcript . April 20, 1868.
  5. News: 1867-12-03. Arrest of Hon. Foster Blodgett of Augusta, Ga.. The New York Times. 2021-08-06. 0362-4331.
  6. Book: Senate Documents . 1870 . Government Printing Office . That he was suspended without just cause, from the [third] day of January 1868, until the [third] day of April 1869, when he resumed the duties of postmaster at Augusta, Georgia, by order of the Hon. J. A. J Creswell, Postmaster General, dated March 30, 1869.. Google Books.
  7. Book: Herbst, Josephine. Pity is Not Enough. 1998. University of Illinois Press. 978-0-252-06652-8. xxviii . Google Books.
  8. Book: Garrett, Franklin M.. Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1820s-1870s. 2011. University of Georgia Press. 978-0-8203-3902-3. 832. first published 1969. Google Books.
  9. Matthews . John M. . Negro Republicans in the Reconstruction of Georgia . The Georgia Historical Quarterly . 1976 . 60 . 2 . 145–164 . 40580272 . On May 20, 1867, an executive committee of the Union Republican Party of Georgia, whose white leaders were the same as those of the Union League, issued a call for a convention to assemble in Atlanta on July 4. At the gathering, control of the new party passed from the officers of the Union League, who were Atlantans, to a group of ambitious politicians, also white, from Augusta. The Republican postmaster there, Foster Blodgett, was elected president of the convention and chairman of the party's state central committee, while John Emory Bryant, also of Augusta, was chosen secretary. Thereafter, the Augusta Ring controlled the party's organization..
  10. Book: Extracts from the Journal of the United States Senate In All Cases of Impeachment Presented By The United States House of Representatives (1798-1904) . Congressional serial set . 250 . 1912 . Washington Government Printing Office . Babel.
  11. Rogers Jr. . William Warren . "Not Reconstructed By A Long Ways Yet": Southwest Georgia's Disputed Congressional Election of 1870 . The Georgia Historical Quarterly . 1998 . 82 . 2 . 257–282 . 40584054.
  12. Book: Butler. Anne M.. United States Senate Election, Expulsion and Censure Cases, 1793-1990. Wolff. Wendy. 1995. United States Government Publishing Office. Prepared under the direction of Sheila P. Burke, Secretary of the Senate.. 160–163. Case 57: Thomas M. Norwood v. Foster Blodgett, Jr.. 1077410671.
  13. Web site: The Election Case of George Goldthwaite of Alabama (1872). 2021-08-06. United States Senate.
  14. Web site: Foster Blodgett papers. 2021-08-06. University of Georgia Special Collections.
  15. Web site: Kirby . Bill . Monday Mystery: A rising political career comes to a rough ending for Foster Blodgett Jr. . 2024-08-05 . The Augusta Chronicle . en-US.

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