Governor William Findlay

WILLIAM FINDLAY was born in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania and was admitted to the Franklin County Bar after reading law. He served in the Pennsylvania Assembly for ten years, after which the state legislature chose him State Treasurer, a position that he held until becoming governor. At the time of Findlay’s election, there were two Jeffersonian factions: the new school, which favored a protective tariff, a federally chartered bank, and publicly-funded internal improvements; and the old school, which sought to greatly limit governmental functions. Supported by the former faction, Findlay won the governorship by 7,000 out of a total of 125,000 votes cast. Findlay’s adversaries launched an investigation into his years as State Treasurer and sought his impeachment. Notwithstanding the failure of the impeachment effort, it damaged his political standing, which was further eroded during the Panic of 1819. Methods for promoting canal and turnpike construction were looked into during Findlay’s administration but were not acted on because of the financial panic. During the next gubernatorial race, the old school Jeffersonian faction was successful in defeating Findlay, who went on to win election by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1827. President Andrew Jackson later appointed him Director of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, a position that he held until 1841. He died at the age of seventy-eight in Harrisburg, where he had gone to live with his daughter.