Jacob Sechler Coxey Sr. , sometimes known as General Coxey, of Massillon, Ohio, was an American politician, reformer and businessman.
Background
Jacob Sechler Coxey was born on April 16, 1854 in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, the son of the former Mary Ann Sechler and Thomas Coxey. His father worked in a sawmill at the time Jacob was born, but the family pulled up stakes to move to industrially thriving Danville, Pennsylvania in 1860, with Jacob's father taking a job working in an iron mill.
Education
Coxey excelled in school, attending local public schools and at least one additional year in a private academy before leaving to take his first job at the age of 16.
Career
He worked in the rolling mills of Danville. Ten years later he was an operator of a stationary engine. He briefly ran a scrap iron business, then moved to Massillon, Ohio, and in 1881 purchased a sandstone quarry supplying steel and glass factories. Business prospered and Coxey expanded his interests into agricultural holdings.
By 1894 he was the wealthiest man in Massillon, his reputed fortune $200, 000. Like many men of his time, Coxey was interested in reform, especially in currency questions. He had been a Greenback Democrat and a member of the Greenback party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Ohio Senate in 1885. By the 1890 he was a Populist.
1890 - time of the "tramp problem" - tens of thousands of unemployed men on the road in search of work. Along with a colleague, Carl Browne, Coxey conceived the idea of a march on Washington by a "Commonweal of Christ" to dramatize the plight of the country's unemployed. The object was to pressure Congress to adopt Coxey's two pet schemes, designed to relieve the distress of the unemployed while waging war on the interest-based wealth he despised.
His Good Roads Bill called for the issuance of $500, 000, 000 to be expended on the construction of rural roads for wages of $1. 50 for an 8-hour day. His Bond Bill authorized the Federal government to purchase bonds from local governments with fiat money, which the latter would use to employ men in constructing various public works, again paying Coxey's minimum wage. The marchers left Massillon in late March 1894, traveled on foot about 15 miles a day through bad weather, and arrived in Washington on May 1. Coxey had predicted he would arrive with 100, 000 men, but his band never numbered more than 300 on the road and his following in Washington was about 1000. (Other "armies" patterned after Coxey's sometimes numbered 2000. ) The expedition ended in fiasco with Coxey and Browne arrested and sentenced to 20 days in jail for walking on the grass.
Coxey stuck to his ideas. He testified in Washington several times (including as late as 1946) and ran for innumerable offices for almost every political party. He was Republican mayor of Massillon (1931 - 1934). In 1932 he received 7, 000 votes as the presidential nominee of his Farmer-Labor party. In 1944 he delivered the speech on the Capitol steps in Washington that he had begun exactly 50 years earlier.
Much of the substance of his 1894 proposals was subsequently adopted in government measures. The ideas which he propagandized were in the air during the 1890. Coxey's contribution was to synthesize and promote them in a coherent program.
Achievements
Politics
He was a member of Greenback party(1874–89), later - People's (1891–1908), he was a Socialist (1910–1912), Independent (1908–26), Republican (1926–32), a member of Farmer–Labor party (1932–36) and finally a member of Democratic party (1936–42).
Personality
Coxey was 40 years old, of medium height, had a neatly trimmed mustache, and presented the general appearance of a prosperous, conservative citizen of the middle class. He was no outstanding orator but impressed people with his simple earnestness and sincerity. Coxey was an eccentric.
Quotes from others about the person
One reporter wrote, "He seems to be profoundly impressed with the suffering of mankind and with a belief that there is a deep-laid plan of monopolist to crush the poor to the earth. "
Interests
Coxey was a passionate equestrian, who bred blooded horses and raced or sold them across the nation.
Connections
In 1874 he married Caroline Ammerman and divorced in 1888. They had four children. Coxey would remarry (Henrietta Jones), siring two more children, including a son named "Legal Tender" in honor of his father's quirky monetary obsessions.