Badger, George E.
George E. Badger (1795-1866)
12th Secretary of the Navy, 6 March 1841 - 11 September 1841
George Edmund Badger was born on 17 April 1795 in New Bern, North Carolina. Following a partial college education at Yale, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1814. Badger practiced law in North Carolina, was active in state politics and held public office on occasion. A supporter of Andrew Jackson from the 1820s, he separated with him in the mid-1830s, became a leader of the Whig party and helped carry the Whigs to victory in the 1840 Presidential election.
Upon taking office, President William Henry Harrison appointed George E. Badger as his Secretary of the Navy, and he continued in that post when John Tyler succeeded to the Presidency upon Harrison's death. Badger's brief term as Secretary was marked by efforts to strengthen the Navy in the face of tension with Great Britain, the establishment of the Home Squadron and continued interest in steamships.
Badger resigned in September 1841, during a general cabinet shakeup. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1846 and remained a Senator until 1855. His political activities continued into the 1860s, when he was a Unionist during the secession crisis but thereafter supported the Confederate war effort. George E. Badger died in Raleigh, North Carolina, on 11 May 1866.
USS George E. Badger (DD-196, later AVP-16, AVD-3 and APD-33), 1920-1946, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Badger.
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