Representative Joshua Van Sant

Joshua Van Sant (December 31, 1803 – April 8, 1884) was a United States Congressional representative from Maryland and a prominent Democratic politician who served as mayor of Baltimore from 1871 to 1875. Over a long public career, he held numerous municipal and state offices, contributing to the civic, educational, and institutional development of Baltimore and Maryland during a period of significant political and social change in the United States.

Van Sant was born on December 31, 1803, in Millington, Kent County, Maryland. In 1807 he moved with his parents to Wilmington, Delaware, and in 1812 the family relocated again to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the common schools in these communities. As a young man, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he would spend the remainder of his life and build his career in trade and public service.

In 1817 Van Sant entered the hat-making trade in Baltimore, becoming a journeyman hatter and continuing in that occupation until 1835. While still engaged in his trade, he became active in politics as a Jackson Democrat, supporting the policies of President Andrew Jackson. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates in 1833 and 1834, but his growing involvement in public affairs led to his selection as a delegate to the Maryland state constitutional convention of 1836, whose proposed constitution was ultimately not ratified. This early experience in constitutional deliberation marked the beginning of his long association with state and local governance.

Van Sant’s municipal and state service expanded in the late 1830s and 1840s. He was appointed United States postmaster of Baltimore, serving from 1839 to 1841. He later won election to the Maryland House of Delegates, serving in that body in 1845. From March 1, 1846, to March 1, 1855, he was commissioner of Baltimore finances, overseeing important aspects of the city’s fiscal administration during a period of urban growth. He also served as a trustee of the city and county almshouse from 1847 to 1853 and again in 1861, reflecting his involvement in public welfare. His interest in education led to his service as a commissioner of public schools from 1852 to 1854, and in 1854 he became president of the Baltimore Board of School Commissioners, helping to guide the development of the city’s public school system. By the mid-1850s he was also active in the city’s cultural life, being noted as president of the Baltimore Institute of Music in 1856.

As a member of the Democratic Party representing Maryland, Van Sant contributed to the legislative process during one term in the United States Congress. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress and served as a United States Congressional representative from Maryland from March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1855. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, in the decade preceding the Civil War, when issues of sectional conflict and national expansion dominated the political agenda. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Thirty-fourth Congress in 1854, but remained active in party politics. In 1860 he served as a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket for John C. Breckinridge in the pivotal presidential election that immediately preceded the outbreak of the American Civil War.

After his congressional service, Van Sant continued to hold important positions in Maryland’s civic and institutional life. He was a delegate to the Maryland constitutional convention of 1867, which produced the state’s fourth and current constitution, thereby returning to the kind of constitutional work in which he had first engaged three decades earlier. From 1867 to 1869 he served as a director of the Maryland State Penitentiary, acting as president of the board for two of those years. He was a member of the board of trustees of the McDonough Educational Fund and Institute from 1867 to 1871, serving as president in 1871, and he also served as a member and president of the board of the Bay View Asylum (later Baltimore City Hospitals, then Francis Scott Key Medical Center, and now Johns Hopkins Bayview) from 1868 to 1870, underscoring his sustained commitment to education, correctional reform, and public health institutions.

Van Sant reached the pinnacle of his municipal career when he was elected mayor of Baltimore, serving from 1871 to 1875. His mayoralty coincided with the completion of the massive Baltimore City Hall construction project, begun in 1867 and completed and dedicated during his term. The building was finished under budget, a point of civic pride and a testament to the administration’s fiscal management. After serving one term as mayor, Van Sant declined to be a candidate for renomination, but he remained closely involved in city government. In July 1876 he was appointed city comptroller of Baltimore, a key financial office, and served in that capacity for five years until January 1881. Subsequently, he was elected to the same office and continued as comptroller until his death.

Joshua Van Sant died in Baltimore on April 8, 1884, while still serving as city comptroller. He was interred in Greenmount Cemetery in northeast Baltimore, near the intersection of Greenmount Avenue and East North Avenue. His long career, spanning trade, municipal administration, state constitutional work, congressional service, and leadership in educational and charitable institutions, left a durable imprint on the civic and political life of Baltimore and Maryland in the nineteenth century.