George Henry Williams (March 26, 1823April 4, 1910) was an American judge and politician. He served as chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was the 32nd Attorney General of the United States, and was elected Oregon's U.S. senator, and served one term. Williams, as U.S. senator, authored and supported legislation that allowed the U.S. military to be deployed in Reconstruction of the southern states to allow for an orderly process of re-admittance into the United States. Williams was the first presidential Cabinet member to be appointed from the Pacific Coast. As attorney general under President Ulysses S. Grant, Williams continued the prosecutions that shut down the Ku Klux Klan. He had to contend with controversial election disputes in Reconstructed southern states. President Grant and Williams legally recognized P. B. S. Pinchback as the first African American state governor. Williams ruled that the Virginius, a gun-running ship captured by Spain during the Virginius Affair, did not have the right to bear the U.S. flag. However, he argued that Spain did not have the right to execute American crew members. Nominated for Supreme Court Chief Justice by President Grant, Williams failed to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate primarily due to Williams's removal of A. C. Gibbs, United States District Attorney at Portland, Oregon. In 1875, Williams resigned as U.S. Attorney General under the controversy of his wife allegedly taking payment money from the custom house firm Pratt & Boyd in order to drop litigation by the U.S. Justice Department. After his resignation, Williams took part in counting Florida ballots for Rutherford B. Hayes in settling the controversial presidential election of 1876. Williams returned to Oregon, resumed private law practice, and was elected Portland's mayor, serving two terms from 1902 to 1905. Williams, at the age of 83, was indicted while Mayor of Portland for not enforcing gambling restriction statutes; he was acquitted and served out the rest of his term as mayor. Early life and law career George Henry Willams was born in upstate New York, New Lebanon, Columbia County, on March 26, 1823. When he was very young his family moved to Onondaga County, where was educated in public and private schools, including Pompey Academy; he did not attend college. Williams studied law under Honorable Daniel Scott having passed the bar in 1844 at the age of 21. In the same year Williams moved west, and practiced law in