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Robert Walker; Kansas 1857
Of the seven governors who at one time lived, worked and learned in Bellefonte, the one who attained the highest positions on the national level and was able to exert influence and his image on the history of the United States was Robert J. Walker.
He was a tiny man, scarcely a hundred pounds, stooped and small, with wheezy voice and a
deadpan face. But his energy was boundless, his ambitions enormous and, according to colleagues, his memory and knowledge were comparable to an encyclopedia.
Born July 19, 1801 in Northumberland, he came to Bellefonte at the age of 5 when his father, Judge Jonathan H. Walker, returned to the town where his legal career had started. In April, 1806, his father was appointed Judge of the Fourth District, which included Centre County. When the family came to Bellefonte it lived in a small housejust below Wolf's warehouse (State Theatre) on High Street. After receiving a tempting offer from Gov. Simon Snyder to transfer to the Northumberland district, the judge decided to remain in Bellefonte -- the grand jury in a body had asked him to refuse the offer and in 1810 Philip Benner, Rock ironmaster, built for him the Linn House on N. Allegheny Street as a further inducement to remain. As the judge's wife, Lucy Duncan, Carlisle, found the new home very much to her liking, the family remained in Bellefonte until 1814 when he was transferred to Bedford.
His son, Robert, was tutored by local teachers and attended the Bellefonte Academy where for some years his carved initials remained on a doorjamb.
Robert attended the University of Pennsylvania, on money borrowed from his landlord, graduating first in his class in 1819. Two years later he was admitted to the bar in Pittsburgh.
He immediately plunged in politics, calling for the nomination of Andrew Jackson. After a speech at the Harrisburg Convention of 1824, a biographer named him "the acknowledged leader of the democracy of ... Pennsylvania."
In 1826 he moved to Natchez, Miss., and joined his brother, Duncan, in his law pratice. His activities there involved him in slaves, plantations and wild lands speculations.
Using a personal letter of reference from Andy Jackson, he was elected U.S. Senator from Miss. in 1836. During his term as senator, he was influential in the annexation of Texas to the Union. In 1845 he drafted the compromise resolution which finally broke the deadlock in the Senate over annexation. President James Polk rewarded him with the cabinet post of Secretary of the Treasury.
During his four years as secretary, Walker established the constitutional treasury system, wrote the tariff bill of 1846, created the Department of the Interior and had charge of the financing of the Mexican War. He suggested the sum of $100,000 for the purchase of Cuba.
In 1849 he stepped out of political life and resumed his private law pratice and business interests. His appointment by President James Buchanan in March of 1857 as governor of Kansas Territory was not relished by Walker, since the Territory was known as the grave of governors. His ambition drove him to accept it as a stepping-stone to the Senate and the presidency.
He blundered badly during his term as governor with his policy of a "free" state of Kansas and his theories on slavery. He became an embarrassment to the administration and resigned.
During the Civil War years, he published the Continental Monthly in Washington, a Union paper and sold $250 million of federal bonds in England and France, when he was on a financial mission in Europe. He also acted as lobbyist to the Russian minister and William Seward in the purchase of Alaska in 1867.
He married Mary Blechynden Bache, a great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin on April 4, 1825. Five of his eight children survived him when he died in Washington on Nov. 11, 1869.
His picture appeared on a 25 cent paper currency at the time he was secretary of treasury and his picture still appears on a special $10 Internal Revenue stamp in use today.
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