1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [45]
Galloway, Joseph (1731–1803) In 1774, this distinguished Philadelphia attorney introduced the Galloway Plan, which proposed a union between the discontented American colonies and Britain. The plan provided for greatly expanded home rule, including a colonial president general (appointed by the king) and a locally voted colonial legislature, which would function in the manner of the House of Commons. The Continental Congress debated the plan for a single day, then rejected it by a single vote. This narrow rejection was a major step toward revolution.
Gallup, George (1901–1984) Gallup was a journalism professor, who, in 1932, was hired by an advertising firm to conduct public-opinion surveys on behalf of its clients. This led to his developing a system of public opinion survey, the “Gallup Poll,” which had a profound impact on corporate marketing and political campaigning. Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion (1935), the British Institute of Public Opinion (1936), and the Audience Research Institute, Inc. (1939).
Gardner, John (1933–1982) A respected university professor and poet, Gardner’s enduring literary reputation rests largely on a single work, Grendel (1971), which retold the Old English story of Beowulf—from the point of view of the monster, whose situation, perceptions, and emotions are remarkably and profoundly human.
Garfield, James A. (1831–1881) Garfield, who served with distinction in the Union army during the Civil War, was an Ohio representative and Senator before he was elected president in 1880. Inaugurated on March 4, 1881, he was shot in the back on July 2, 1881, by a disgruntled office seeker, Charles J, Guiteau. Garfield lingered until September 19, 1881. His long incapacity raised critical constitutional questions concerning the circumstances under which the vice president should assume the role of the chief executive.
Garland, Hamlin (1860–1940) Garland was born on a Wisconsin farm and moved with his family to Iowa and then the Dakotas. As an adult, he embodied his experiences in autobiographical novels and short stories that chronicle the hardships—both physical and economic—of pioneer life. His masterpiece is Main-Travelled Roads of 1891.
Garrett, Pat (1850–1908) Garrett was born in Alabama and settled in Texas and New Mexico, where he worked as a cowboy and buffalo hunter before becoming deputy sheriff then sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico. His fame rests solely on his having tracked and shot down the legendary outlaw Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on July 14, 1881.
Garrison, William Lloyd (1805–1879) In 1831, Garrison started publishing The Liberator, which emerged as the most radical of American abolitionist journals. In its pages, Garrison called for an immediate, unconditional end to slavery, and in 1832 founded the New England Anti Slavery Society, also becoming the following year a founding member of the American Anti Slavery Society. Uncompromising in his views, Garrison in 1844 called for the peaceful secession of the free northern states from the states of the slaveholding South.
Garvey, Marcus (1887–1940) Born in Jamaica, Garvey, mostly self-taught, traveled in Central America, lived in London from 1912 to 1914, then returned to Jamaica, where, with others, he founded the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League, or Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The principal goal of the organization was to create, in Africa, an independent black governed nation. Meeting with little success in Jamaica, Garvey brought the UNIA to the United States in 1916, establishing branches in New York’s Harlem and black neighborhoods in other northern cities. Between 1919 and 1926, when he was jailed for mail fraud, Garvey was hailed as the “Black Moses” for having awakened the African-American community to the possibilities of self-determination.
Gary, Elbert (1846–1927) A powerful corporate attorney and noted jurist, Elbert Gary was elected