George Washington McCrary (August 29, 1835 – June 23, 1890) was a United States representative from Iowa, the 33rd United States Secretary of War and a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Eighth Circuit. Education and career Born on August 29, 1835, near Evansville, Vanderburg County, Indiana, McCrary moved with his parents in 1836 to the Wisconsin Territory (Iowa Territory from July 4, 1838, State of Iowa from December 28, 1846) who settled in Van Buren County. He attended the public schools, taught in the country schools at age 18, read law at the law firm of future United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Freeman Miller and was admitted to the bar in 1856. He entered private practice in Keokuk, Iowa from 1856 to 1857. He was a member of the Iowa House of Representatives in 1857, resuming private practice in Keokuk from 1858 to 1861. He was a member of the Iowa Senate from 1861 to 1865, again resuming private practice in Keokuk from 1862 to 1869. Congressional service In 1868, McCrary successfully sought a U.S. House seat from Iowa's 1st congressional district to succeed Radical Republican James F. Wilson. He was elected as a Republican from the district to the United States House of Representatives of the 41st United States Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1869, to March 3, 1877. He was Chairman of the Committee on Elections for the 42nd United States Congress and Chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals for the 43rd United States Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1876. Congressional activity In McCrary's first month in Congress, he received national attention for refusing to support an appropriation for a federal courthouse in Keokuk because the nation was in debt and he could not support such a courthouse in every district. He published A Treatise on the American Law of Elections, in 1875. In the 44th United States Congress, as a member of the United States House Committee on the Judiciary, he was the author of a farsighted (but unsuccessful) bill to reorganize the federal courts to enable reasonable and prompt judicial review. He helped create the Electoral Commission to resolve the outcome of the 1876 Presidential Election, and served on the committee that investigated the Crédit Mobilier scandal. Maintaining his passion for law, McCrary established an expertise