George Wolf was an American politician and congressman, who held the post of Governor of Pennsylvania from 1829 to 1835. He was also known as the "father of the public-school system".
Background
Ethnicity:
George's parents immigrated to the United States from Alsace, a former province of the Holy Roman Empire (present-day a cultural and historical region in eastern France).
George Wolf was born on August 12, 1777, in Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of George Wolf and Mary Wolf.
Education
George obtained his education in a classical school near home in Allen Township. After completing his course, he worked for a time on his father's farm and later acted as principal of the local academy. Some time later, he studied law.
Career
At the beginning of his career, Wolf was a Clerk in the prothonotary's office in Easton, and, with his regular duties, he read law in the office of John Ross, a lawyer of that county and later a judge of the state supreme court. At the age of twenty-one, he was admitted to the bar, and, opening an office in Easton, he soon built up a lucrative legal practice.
In 1799, Wolf entered politics as an adherent of the Republican-Democratic party in the state of Pennsylvania and was appointed Postmaster of Easton in 1802 and 1803. Later, from 1803 to 1809, he served for a time as a clerk of the Orphans' Court of Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Then, in 1814, George was made a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
After his defeat for the state Senate in the next election, George devoted his time to his legal practice. Elected to the federal House of Representatives and re-elected three times, he served from December 9, 1824 until he resigned in 1829, before the Twenty-first Congress convened. In Congress, George was an ardent supporter of the protective tariff and other measures, designed to foster the American industry.
In 1829, Wolf was elected Governor on the Democratic ticket and resigned his seat in Congress. He was re-elected to this position in 1832. However, Wolf lost the governor's seat to the Anti-Mason candidate Ritner in 1835, owing to the defection of a part of the Democrats, who voted for Henry A. Muhlenberg.
The period of Wolf's governorship of six years was one of great activity and intensity of feeling in Pennsylvania, as in the nation as a whole. At the outset, party organizations were being disrupted by the anti-masonic movement, and the state was in the midst of its elaborate and expensive program of internal improvements, which through mismanagement had brought it to the verge of bankruptcy. Wolf soon re-established the credit of the state through the practice of economy, the reorganization of the financial system of the state and the institution of new taxes. Acting on George's recommendation, the legislature, in 1830, appointed a commission to revise the statute law of the state, a revision, that was badly needed, since no revision of any consequence had been made for more than a century.
The most enduring achievement of Wolf's administration was the passage of the free public school act in 1834. This, the main objective of his policy, he advocated in public addresses and in messages to the legislature with such fervor and logic, that the public gradually came to its support. Although an admirer of President Jackson and a staunch upholder of his policy with reference to the nullification proceedings of South Carolina in 1832, he disapproved of the President's attitude toward the Second United States Bank and he signed a resolution of the legislature, instructing the congressmen from Pennsylvania to labor for the renewal of the bank charter. This action was partly responsible for the disruption of the Democratic party in the state and Wolf's defeat for a third term in 1835.
In 1836, President Jackson appointed Wolf to the newly created post of the first Comptroller of the Treasury. Two years later, he resigned from this office to accept the position of Collector of Customs for the District of Philadelphia, and continued to hold it until his death.
Achievements
Politics
As a member of the United States House of Representatives, George was a supporter of the protective tariff. As governor, he advocated the construction of canals and imposition of new taxes for the liquidation of debts. Besides, George argued for the establishment of a general system of common schools.
Connections
Wolf married Mary (Erb) Wolf on June 5, 1798. Their marriage produced nine children.