Background
Godlove Stein Orth was born on April 22, 1817, near Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a descendant of Balthazel Orth who is said to have emigrated to Pennsylvania with the Moravian leader Zinzendorf in 1742.
Godlove Stein Orth was born on April 22, 1817, near Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a descendant of Balthazel Orth who is said to have emigrated to Pennsylvania with the Moravian leader Zinzendorf in 1742.
Godlove Orth attended the local schools and Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg.
Godlove Orth entered the law office of James Cooper. In 1839 he moved to Lafayette, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar. The following year, in October, he married Sarah Elizabeth Miller of Gettysburg. In the campaign of 1840 he made his début as a political speaker, stumping Indiana for Harrison. This activity brought him prominence, and in 1843 the Whigs elected him to the state Senate, where he served until 1848. In 1845, as a result of discord in the Loco Foco ranks, he was elected president of the Senate. His name was presented as a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination in 1846, but he withdrew in favor of Joseph Marshall. Although he thought the nomination of Taylor on the Whig ticket a mistaken political move, he served as a presidential elector for Taylor and stumped northern Indiana. After the enactment of the Compromise Measures of 1850, like many anti-slavery Whigs, he joined the Know-Nothings, but in 1852 campaigned for Scott. He was president of the Indiana Know-Nothing Council for 1854-55, subsequently joined the People's party of Indiana, and out of this helped organize the Republican party in the state.
In 1861, Gov. O. P. Morton appointed him one of the five Indiana representatives to the Peace Conference in Washington. Prejudiced before going, he returned convinced that conflict was inevitable and advised preparation for war. When Governor Morton called for volunteers in July 1862, Orth reported in Indianapolis twenty-four hours later as elected captain of some two hundred men. The danger of invasion over, the company was mustered out, August 20, 1862. In this year Orth was elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress. He served continuously through the Forty-first, but was not a candidate for reelection in 1870. In Congress he urged vigorous prosecution of the war and later, stringent reconstruction measures. He voted for the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, opposing the later anti-Chinese legislation as contrary to the latter. Holding at first a position halfway between the Radicals and Johnson, he slowly gravitated toward the extreme Radicals when he became convinced that Johnson was as unwilling to compromise as they.
Following the war, his interest turned to foreign affairs. In 1866 he began a fight for recognition of the right of expatriation. Two years later he undertook the management of the House legislation looking toward the annexation of Santo Domingo, but opposed the recognition of Cuban belligerency as unprofitable. In 1868, also, he framed the Orth Bill which made certain changes in the diplomatic and consular services. In the Forty-first Congress he was one of the small group who brought about the election of James G. Blaine to the speakership. He was recommended in 1871 for appointment as United States minister at Berlin, but it was decided to continue George Bancroft in that post, and Orth was offered, but refused, the commissionership of internal revenue. He was returned to the Forty-third Congress but was not a candidate in 1874. In March 1875, after declining the mission to Brazil, he was appointed minister to Austria-Hungary, but resigned in May 1876 to accept the Republican nomination for the governorship of Indiana. Party discord, however, caused him to withdraw in favor of Benjamin Harrison. In 1878 he reentered politics and was elected to the Forty-sixth Congress. Reelected two years later, he died, at Lafayette, Indiana, before the expiration of his term. Orth recognized the necessity of machinery in politics, and never hesitated to sacrifice principle for party solidarity. No unpopular legislation ever received his vote.
Godlove Orth was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Indiana (1863-1869; 1869-1871; 1873-1875; 1879-1882) and the Indiana Senate (1843-1849).
Godlove S. Orth was a fat, fluffy, pudgy-cheeked, good-humored old boy, with a volubility co-equal with the necessities of a politician, and a smile that was broad, bewitching, childlike, and bland.
Orth was married twice, and had a daughter and two sons.