Randall, Alexander Williams

Life Span
to
Dickinson Connection
Succeeded as PMG by John A.J. Creswell, Dickinson of 1848
    Full name
    Alexander Williams Randall
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    Family
    Phineas Randall (father)
    Occupation
    Politician
    Diplomat
    Attorney or Judge
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Republican
    Government
    Lincoln Administration (1861-65)
    Johnson Administration (1865-69)
    Governor

    Alexander Williams Randall (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    Secession and civil war confronted Randall during his second term. After unceremoniously dumping a high-ranking militia officer from the state's only organized regiment for being unenthusiastic about the prospect of confronting Federal authorities in 1860--Wisconsin was challenging the Supreme Court's decision on the state's personal liberty law at the time--Randall became a bulwark of Unionism. In a remarkable reversal, the governor--an ardent supporter of the state's efforts to nullify the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850--declared in his annual legislative message in 1861 that "secession is revolution; revolution is war; [and] war against the Government of the United States is treason" (quoted in Thwaites, p. 44). Randall organized an infantry regiment and made plans for three others immediately after Fort Sumter; he raised fourteen additional regiments, ten artillery batteries, and three cavalry units before leaving office, exceeding Wisconsin's quota by 3,232 men. Randall even sent representatives with his regiments to ensure that Wisconsin's wounded received proper medical attention and free railroad passes home.
    Robert W. Burg, "Randall, Alexander Williams," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00819.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Randall, Alexander Williams," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12526.