George P. Fisher

George Purnell Fisher (October 13, 1817 – February 10, 1899) was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Whig Party and later the Republican Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly, as Attorney General of Delaware, as Secretary of State of Delaware, as U.S. Representative from Delaware, and as a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Fisher was born in Milford, Delaware, on October 13, 1817.

He attended local public schools and at the age of 17 entered Mount St. Mary's College in Maryland. One year later, he entered the sophomore class at Dickinson College, where he graduated in July 1838. He then read law with John M. Clayton, then the chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court.

Fisher was admitted to the bar in April 1841 and began practicing in Dover, soon developing a thriving practice.

He served two terms in the Delaware House of Representatives, in 1843 and 1844. Governor Joseph Maull, who had recently taken office, appointed Fisher as Secretary of State of Delaware in March 1846. In 1847, Fisher also became an aide-de-camp to Major General Nathaniel Young, commander of the Delaware militia. In 1849, Fisher worked in Washington with William Hunter, as a confidential clerk to Secretary of State John M. Clayton. Fisher assisted in negotiating the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain.

In 1850, Fisher was appointed by President Zachary Taylor to be a commissioner to adjudicate claims against Brazil; Fisher served in this role until 1852. In 1855, Fisher was appointed Delaware Attorney General; he served until 1860, when he was elected to the 37th Congresss, serving from March 4, 1861 to March 3, 1863. Fisher was elected on a People's Party ticket, which stood in for the Republicans in Delaware. In Congress, Fisher supported Abraham Lincoln's compensated emancipation proposal, but failed to find someone in the Delaware General Assembly willing to introduce it. Fisher ran for re-election in 1862, but lost.

On October 13, 1862, Fisher was commissioned as a colonel of the First Delaware Cavalry. His service was brief, however, because he was nominated by President Lincoln on March 10, 1863, to a seat on the newly created Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He was confirmed by the United States Senate and received his commission the next day. In 1867, Fisher presided over the trial of John H. Surratt, one of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. In May 1, 1870, Fisher resigned as judge to accept an appointment as district attorney for the District of Columbia, serving until 1875.

Finally, Fisher returned to Dover, where (according to his biography by Charles Brown Lore) he had "no intention of again entering public life." However, he was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison in mid-1889 to be the First Auditor of the Treasury Department, in which capacity he served until the end of the Harrison administration, on March 23, 1893.

Fisher "then returned to the home of his childhood, lived quietly in his extensive library, and devoted the last years of his life to reading and literary pursuits." Fisher died in Washington on February 10, 1899, after a short illness, at the age of eighty-one.

Elections are held the first Tuesday after November 1. Members of the General Assembly took office the first Tuesday of January. State Senators have a four-year term and State Representatives have a two-year term. U.S. Representatives took office March 4 and also have a two-year term.