Joseph Emerson Brown

Georgia governor and U.S. senator Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894) is chiefly remembered for his political representation of the common man and his obstructionist attitude toward the policies of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Joseph E. Brown was born in Pickens District, S.C., on April 15, 1821, but his family soon moved to the mountains of northern Georgia. At the age of 19 Brown attended school in Anderson District, S.C. He returned to Canton, Ga., where he directed the local academy and read law. In 1845, after admission to the Georgia bar, he left to attend Yale Law School. He graduated in 1846, settled in Canton, and began practicing law.

In 1849 Brown was elected to the state senate, where he demonstrated a capacity for work and innate political skill. In 1855 he became judge of the Blue Ridge circuit. A Democrat, Brown was elected governor in 1857, 1859, 1861, and 1863—a record never equaled before in the history of Georgia.

Brown protected the interests of the average Georgian and sought measures to extend benefits to the plain people. He opposed legislation especially favorable to the banks of the state, advocated the establishment of free schools and endowment of the state university, reformed the administration of the state-owned Western and Atlantic Railroad, and improved the militia system.

Though Brown consistently maintained proslavery and secessionist attitudes, he was in constant conflict with the Confederate government: he was nearly fanatical in adhering to the doctrine of state sovereignty, while the exigencies of the Civil War forced President Davis to promote centralization of government. Brown opposed Davis's acceptance of state troops without the governor's permission and the appointment of officers to command Georgia troops. He disputed both the wisdom and constitutionality of the conscription law and at times obstructed its application; he protested against seizure of property without compensation; and he opposed the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

At the end of the war in 1865, Brown was imprisoned briefly and then resigned the governorship. During Reconstruction he advised compliance with the congressional plan, an attitude which subjected him to widespread denunciation. He even joined the Republican party. In 1868 he was named chief justice of the state supreme court but 2 years later resigned to become president of the Western and Atlantic Company. By 1872 Brown had rejoined the Democratic party. He was elected U.S. senator in 1880 and twice reelected, serving until 1891. Brown died on Nov. 30, 1894.

Further Reading

The best full-length work on Brown is Louise Biles Hill, Joseph E. Brown and the Confederacy (1939). This is a well-documented study of Brown's career as Georgia's wartime governor and his significance in the failure of the Confederacy. Elizabeth Studley Nathans, Losing the Peace (1969), contains useful information on Brown's railroad interests and on his activities as a Republican. Brown is a prominent figure in E. Merton Coulter, Georgia: A Short History (1947; rev. ed. 1960).

Additional Sources

Parks, Joseph Howard, Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977. □

BROWN, EDMUND G. ("JERRY"), JR., 1938-

governor of california, 1974-1982

Governor Moonbeam

A charismatic and controversial figure during the 1970s, Jerry Brown fused old-fashioned liberalism to an assimilated counterculture and offered some of the more unconventional departures in American politics during the 1970s. First elected California governor in 1974, Brown rode a wave of voter disgust with "politics as usual" into office; from there he used his position to advocate unusual politics. He urged Americans to "lower their expectations" and live sparingly; as governor he eliminated elaborate ceremonies and sought to simplify official language. He expressed the traditional liberal concern with the rights of minorities (especially migrant workers), but he attacked bureaucracy, high taxes, and elitist education. He inaugurated programs to utilize California's geothermal, solar, and wind power. His vocal opinions, willingness to argue abstractions (fluent in Latin and Greek, he had a predilection for the theologies of Jesuits and Zen Buddhists), propensity to propose odd programs (a state of California space academy, never passed), and unorthodox lifestyle (he was often accompanied in public by pop singer Linda Ronstadt) earned him the somewhat humorous nickname of Governor Moonbeam.

Electoral Reformer

The only son of former California governor Edmund G. ("Pat") Brown, Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco on 7 April 1938. Originally planning to become a Jesuit priest, Brown abandoned the seminary and graduated from Berkeley in 1961. He went on to Yale Law School, graduating in 1964, and set up a law practice in Los Angeles. In the late 1960s he began to be politically active, organizing migrant workers and antiwar groups. In 1970 he was elected secretary of state of California and used the office, traditionally limited in scope, to initiate highly publicized suits for campaign-contribution violations against corporations such as Standard Oil and International Telephone and Telegraph. Brown's suits won him the acclaim of voters, and in 1974, without much help from his father's political allies, he won the gubernatorial race.

An Unorthodox Governor

As governor of California, Brown adopted some standard liberal positions, such as vetoing the death penalty (overridden), favoring the right to choose abortion, strengthening environmental regulation and conservation, and protecting the rights of migrant workers. He simultaneously made significant departures from traditional liberalism, such as favoring right-to-die legislation, urging an equal-wage law for California state employees, and adopting a heavy law-and-order stance. More important, his willingness to refuse the trappings of his office—canceling a raise for himself, refusing to ride in limousines, failing to occupy the governor's mansion—proved popular with voters, and by the 1976 presidential election Brown's California approval rating stood near 80 percent. Brown attempted to cash in on this popularity with a last-minute run at the Democratic presidential nomination, but he started too late, after Jimmy Carter

BROWN, JOSEPH EMERSON

Joseph Emerson Brown was born April 15, 1821, in Pickens District, South Carolina. He was a graduate of the Yale Law School class of 1846, and was admitted to the Georgia bar.

In 1849 Brown entered politics and served in the Georgia Senate. In 1852 he was a presidential elector and in 1855 he served as a circuit judge.

Brown became governor of Georgia in 1857 and, for the next eight years, voiced his opposition to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, concerning involuntary service in the armed services and the elimination of the writ of habeas corpus. He was a strong supporter of states' rights and often spoke out against the authority of a centralized government. In 1865 he was imprisoned but was released by President andrew johnson shortly afterwards.

From 1868 to 1870 Brown again served in the judiciary, presiding as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

Brown entered federal government service in 1880, representing Georgia in the U.S. Senate for an eleven-year period, retiring in 1891. He died November 30, 1894, in Atlanta.

Joseph Emerson Brown 1821–94, U.S. public official, b. Pickens District, S.C. As governor of Georgia during the Civil War, Brown quarreled with Jefferson Davis over conscription and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus despite their common secessionist stand. After the war Brown briefly became a Republican but returned to the Democratic fold, and in 1880 he was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat of John B. Gordon , which he retained until his retirement in 1891. Along with Gordon and Alfred H. Colquitt, Brown controlled Georgia politics for many years.

Bibliography: See studies by L. B. Hill (1939, repr. 1972) and D. C. Roberts (1973).

Jerry Brown (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr.), 1938–, American political leader, b. San Francisco. The son of Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown (1905–96), governor of California (1959–67), Brown abandoned early ideas of entering the priesthood and obtained a law degree (Yale, 1964). He entered California politics and after a term (1970–74) as secretary of state, was a two-term governor (1975–83). Although basically a liberal Democrat, Brown gained a reputation for austerity, frugality, and unpredictability. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980, lost a U.S. Senate race in 1982, and in 1992 again ran unsuccessfully for the presidential nomination, proclaiming himself a populist outsider and advocating a flat-rate income tax. After a period as a radio personality, he was elected mayor of Oakland, Calif., in 1998 and reelected in 2002. In 2006 he ran for California state attorney general, winning handily, and in 2010 he was again elected governor.

Bibliography: See biographies by O. Schell (1978) and R. Pack (1978).