Lead the State? No Thanks

After being elected governor in 1829, Garret D. Wall did the unthinkable: He turned down the job.

Elected governor of New Jersey in 1829, Middletown native Garret D. Wall did the politically unthinkable. He turned down the job, the only person in state history to do so.

Wall, then a 46-year-old assemblyman from Hunterdon County, had set his sights on another office, says Michael D. Birkner, professor of history at Gettysburg College. “He was more interested in serving as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.” Wall had been a strong supporter of newly elected President Andrew Jackson in the 1828 presidential race and was a logical choice for the federal appointment.

Birkner, lead editor of Governors of New Jersey: Biographical Essays, to be published in January by Rutgers University Press, says governors of Wall’s era had limited power. “The governor operated under the state constitution [of 1776] in a system that gave most power to the Legislature,” Birkner says. “The governor was elected annually by the Legislature and had little direct authority [other than to] preside over the Legislative Council and break ties.”

Wall did get the job as U.S. attorney, serving from 1829 to 1834, when he won election to the U.S. Senate, where he served a single term. Wall died at 67 in 1850, and is buried in Burlington City. Four months after his death, newly incorporated Wall Township was named in his honor.

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