Alvin Peterson Hovey

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Alvin Peterson Hovey : biography

September 6, 1821 – November 23, 1891

Alvin Peterson Hovey (September 6, 1821 – November 23, 1891) was a Union general during the American Civil War, an Indiana Supreme Court justice, congressman, and the 21st Governor of Indiana from 1889 to 1891. During the war he played an important role in several battles and uncovered a secret plot for an uprising in Indiana. As governor, he launched several legal challenges to the Indiana General Assembly’s removal of his powers, but was mostly unsuccessful. He successfully advocated election reform before he died in office.

Electoral history

Death

In 1891, Hovey fell ill and died on November 23, 1891 and was succeeded by his Lieutenant Governor Ira Joy Chase. Hovey’s body lay in state in Indianapolis before his remains were removed to his hometown for a funeral. He is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery near Mount Vernon, Indiana.Gugin, p. 196

Governor

Clash with General Assembly

In 1872, the Republican party entered Hovey’s name as a candidate to run for governor, but he declined, claiming he was finished with politics. For the next fourteen years he continued operating his private law practice until 1886, he was nominated to run for Congress and accepted. He defeated his Democratic opponent J. E. McCullough 18,258 to 16,907. Two years later, he was nominated to run for Governor of Indiana. Benjamin Harrison was running for President that year and was immensely popular in the state. Despite his party ticket’s popularity, he barely won the election, defeating Democrat Courtland C. Matson by a plurality, 49%–48.6% of the vote, and Democrats retained majorities in both houses of the Indiana General Assembly. At age sixty-eight, Hovey became the oldest man ever elected governor, up until that time.

In the last year of the term of Hovey’s predecessor, Governor Albert G. Porter, the General Assembly had passed a series of laws weakening the governor’s powers. The legislature perused an agenda for the most part differing from the Governor’s, and overrode most of his symbolic vetoes to enact it. Hovey attempted to reclaim some of the power taken by the legislature by taking many of their recent laws to the courts. They had removed all the governor’s appointment powers, and the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in the legislatures favor in that matter. In another case, where the assembly had created state board to run police, fire, and other department at the local level, taking their control from Republican controlled local governments, the courts ruled in favor of Hovey and declared the laws unconstitutional. In a fight over who had the right to appoint newly created department heads, the court ruled against both the assembly and the governor, stating that like all other departments heads must be elected in a general election.Gugin, p. 195

Reforms

The only agenda item which Hovey was able to pass through the General Assembly was voter reform. The state for several election cycles been the victim of serious voter fraud, and had among the least restrictive voter regulations in the nation. Parties created their own ballots, and were responsible for including their opponents on their ballots. This led to considerable trickery on the party of the parties who would deliberately make their ballot in a manner to increase the likelihood voters would choose their candidate, even accidentally. Vote buying had also become commonplace; that had led to a national scandal in the election of Benjamin Harrison. The reforms enacted created the secret ballot, standardized ballots, provided more supervision at polling stations, and gave the responsibility of creating ballots to the state.

Hovey had campaigned on dealing with the White Cap groups operating in southern Indiana. The vigilante groups had carried out several lynchings, including the Reno Gang, and had been carrying out other forms of vigilante justice, especially in Harrison and Crawford Counties. The often meted out corporeal punishments to men who were believed to not be taking care of their family, local criminals, and alcoholics. Hovey launched investigations into the groups, and made known his intentions to put an end to their organizations. Although no arrests were made, the threat led to a significant decrease and eventual end to their activities.