Levin Winder was an American soldier and governor of Maryland.
Background
Levin Winder was born on September 4, 1757, in Somerset County, Province of Maryland (present-day Maryland), the son of William Thomas Winder and Esther Gillis, and the great-grandson of John Winder, who emigrated from Cumberland, England, to Virginia in or before the year 1665, soon removed to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, became an influential landholder, held minor civil offices in Somerset County, and rose to the military rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Education
With limited educational equipment young Winder was preparing for the practice of law when the outbreak of the Revolutionary War interfered with his plans.
Career
The Maryland Convention made him, January 2, 1776, a first lieutenant under Nathaniel Ramsay. Before the year was out he was a captain in the 4th Regiment of the Maryland line. He was promoted to the rank of major, April 17, 1777, and to that of lieutenant-colonel, June 3, 1781.
Retiring from the service, November 15, 1783, he became engaged in agricultural pursuits near Princess Anne in his native county.
He returned to public life as a representative of Somerset County in the Maryland House of Delegates in November 1806, and served three successive terms of one year each. For the last term he was chosen speaker of the Federalist majority while the governor and the Senate were democratic. As a Federalist, he was opposed to the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, and when the violence of the democratic mob in Baltimore against the Federal Republican and Commercial Gazette, a vitriolic Federalist newspaper, published by Alexander Contee Hanson and Jacob Wagner, had reacted in favor of the Federalists, he was elected governor by the General Assembly, in November 1812, by a majority of fifty-two to twenty-nine. He was reelected in 1813 and 1814. As an anti-war governor Winder was concerned chiefly with the protection of the shores of Chesapeake Bay from the enemy. The prizes taken by the fast sailing "clipper" ships of Baltimore, serving as privateers, caused that city to be a particular object for attack. The federal government was more disposed to use its scant resources for the protection of Virginia and other Democratic states than for that of Federalist Maryland.
On the approach of a British fleet in March 1813, Winder appealed to the secretary of war for aid. The response was evasive. The following month, while the enemy was plundering citizens of the state, he appealed directly to President Madison, but the response was no more favorable. Convinced that the state must rely almost wholly on its own resources, he called a special session of the General Assembly in May, laid before it his correspondence with the federal authorities, and asked for such action as the exigencies of the situation demanded. The Assembly responded with an appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars for the payment of militia, an appropriation of $180, 000 for the purchase of arms, ordnance, and military stores, and a resolution authorizing a loan of $450, 000. With these resources Winder rallied the patriotic fervor of the citizens of Baltimore and so directed military operations that the attacks of the British at North Point and Fort McHenry were frustrated. Until the close of the war only small losses of life and property were sustained elsewhere in the state.
The year following the expiration of his third term as governor, he was elected to a seat in the state Senate. He served until his death on July 1, 1819, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Achievements
Politics
In 1806, Levin Winder was elected as a federalist to the House of Delegates, serving three successive terms as an avid opponent of the national policies of the Republican Party and the war declaration.
Membership
Governor Levin Winder was a devoted Mason, and was twice elected Grand Master of Masons in his native State.
Connections
On May 13, 1790, Levin Winder married Mary Stoughton Sloss, by whom he had three children.