Background
Walker was born in South Gibson, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
https://www.amazon.com/Address-Gov-Gilbert-C-Walker/dp/B004I6DA5E?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B004I6DA5E
Walker was born in South Gibson, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
Self-confident and well prepared in a Binghamton school, he entered Williams College in 1851 but soon withdrew and entered Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y. , where he graduated in 1854.
After studying law privately he settled to its practice in 1855, in Owego, Tioga County, N. Y. From 1859 to 1864 he practised in Chicago. He participated actively in politics but failed of election as district attorney in Tioga County and as corporation counsel in Chicago, for both of which offices the Democrats had nominated him. Like many others, during the Civil War he changed from Douglas Democrat to Unionist. Early in 1865 he moved to Norfolk, Va. , hoping that the climate of that region would be helpful in his fight against tuberculosis, the disease which eventually caused his death. In Norfolk business enterprises engaged him, notably the Exchange National Bank of which he was organizer and president. Soon, however, natural inclination and the advantage of being a Carpet-bagger took him into Reconstruction politics. Though defeated for the Virginia constitutional convention of 1867, he was of great service to the state - through influential friendships in Washington - in having the new constitution adopted without its most radical and most objectionable provision, that disfranchising all who having held office under the United States had aided the "rebellion. " Important native businessmen and politicians, including William Mahone, arranged for his nomination for the governorship by the "True Republican" faction and for the retirement of the "Bourbon, " or Democratic, candidate in favor of him as a "Conservative. " In 1869, accordingly, he canvassed the state against Gen. H. H. Wells, the candidate of the "Radicals, " or Republicans, and of certain important railroad interests. The immediate outcome was the restoration of Virginia to the Union under "Conservative" auspices, for which he was long acclaimed "savior of the state. " As governor for somewhat over four years (1869 - 74), Walker advocated strict enforcement of law and order and scrupulous compliance with the spirit of the new national enactments with respect to the civil and political equality of the freedmen. This stand brought him further credit and applause. He proposed also the funding of the state's huge debt upon terms very hard for the state and the transfer of the state's very large interests in transportation companies to private hands for what they would bring; and both policies became law through his management of the Negro vote in the legislature. It was currently believed that in both these transactions he profited personally, and his fiscal schemes almost immediately proved unworkable. Moreover, Capitol gossip long had it that he was given to reckless dissipation. Nevertheless, he was representative in Congress from the Richmond district for two terms (1875 - 79). He then returned to his native state, where he was once more lawyer, politician, and promoter, first in Binghamton, and after 1881 in New York City, where he died. He was buried in the lot owned by his father-in-law in Spring Forest Cemetery, Binghamton.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
Men noted that Walker was handsome, dignified in public, affable in private, a ready and pleasing speaker though not an orator, and "not a Yanky; he don't look like one".
In 1857 he married Olive Evans of Binghamton.