James Lawson Kemper was an American soldier and statesman. He served as the 37th Governor of Virginia from 1874 to 1878.
Background
James Lawson Kemper was born on June 11, 1823, in Madison County, Virginia, United States. He came of good colonial stock, his father, William, descended from John Kemper of Spotswood's Germania settlement and his mother, Maria Elizabeth Allison Kemper, from Colonel J. J. Stadler of Washington's staff.
Education
Kemper received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1842 from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) and also took civil engineering classes at Virginia Military Institute. Later he studied law under George W. Summers of Kanawha County, after which Washington College awarded him a Master's degree in June 1845. He was admitted to the Virginia bar on October 2, 1846.
In 1846 Kemper was commissioned captain of volunteers in the Mexican War, but he reached Taylor's army too late for active service. In 1848 he returned to practice law in Madison County. Interested in politics he went to the House of Delegates for the first of five terms. He was chairman of the committee on military affairs, president of the board of visitors of the Virginia Military Institute, and speaker of the House from December 1861 to March 1862. Though not an "original secessionist," he volunteered promptly for the war and was commissioned colonel on May 2, 1861. Having fought with the 7th Virginia Regiment from Bull Run to Williamsburg, where he led a charge under the eye of A. P. Hill, he was made brigadier-general; in this capacity, he served faithfully and creditably until Gettysburg. Here he led in person the right-wing of Pickett's charge, was desperately wounded, captured, and imprisoned. Exchanged but incapacitated for active service, he was made a major-general and put in command of the Conscript Bureau. Soldiers loved him for his fine bearing, fearlessness, dash, and impassioned eloquence; officers prized his good sense and high conception of duty.
After the war, returning to the law in Madison, Kemper met much success, particularly as an advocate. In politics, he favored a conciliatory course (though he did not recant as to secession or apply for pardon) with a view, particularly to the state's economic rehabilitation. Accordingly, he vigorously supported with tongue and pen the Conservative party in 1869 and in 1872 canvassed the state as an elector on the Greeley ticket. Living in the center of the state's white population and acceptable to them because of his record as a soldier, his striking appearance, and his stirring eloquence, Kemper also enjoyed the confidence of General William Mahone, the powerful president of the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad. Consequently, in 1873 he won the party nomination for governor over Colonel R. E. Withers, who was anti-Mahone and deemed Bourbonish; and he was elected over R. W. Hughes, whose liberalism had led him into the Republican party. Governor Kemper's administration (1874-1877) was marked by his independence. An offer of a federal senatorship (which could probably have been made good) he declined, saying that Virginia had already given him her highest honor.
Constantly in pain from his old wound, he sometimes appeared unduly irascible and arbitrary. None, however, doubted his integrity; and the cultured highly prized the literary quality of his papers and addresses. Returning again to the practice of law, he died in Orange County.
Achievements
Politics
Kemper was a member of Virginia's Conservative Party. During his governorship, he urged full recognition of civil rights for the Negroes, a sympathetic encouragement of them, and their protection against the unscrupulous. A bill putting the government of Petersburg under a commission he vetoed as contrary to the principles of local self-government, though he professed sympathy with the city's desire to escape Negro rule. Against federal interference in elections, he protested formally and vigorously. He asked that Congress share the burden of state education of the Negroes and assume the state's debt, both as incidents of the war. To the disgust of the financial world, he insisted on a conference with the state's creditors, designed to secure equality of creditors and reduction of the debt burden; when the conference failed, he joined the "Debt-payers" to the indignation of "Readjusters."
Views
Kemper was a strong advocate of state military preparedness.
Personality
James garnered a reputation for honesty and attention to duty.
Connections
James Lawson Kemper had five children by his marriage to Cremora Conway Cave in 1853.