14 Facts About Francis Thomas

Francis Thomas was an American politician who served as the 26th Governor of Maryland from 1842 to 1845.

Francis Thomas served as a United States Representative from Maryland, representing at separate times the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh districts.

Francis Thomas served as United States minister to Peru from 1872 to 1875, and speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1829.

Francis Thomas later studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1820, commencing practice in Frankville, Maryland.

Francis Thomas entered politics after becoming a member of the Maryland House of Delegates in 1822,1827, and 1829, and served the last year as 34th Speaker of the House.

In 1841, Francis Thomas was elected Governor of Maryland, defeating challenger William Cost Johnson by a margin of 600 votes.

Francis Thomas proposed a direct tax upon the people, which was widely unpopular, and did not raise adequate funds to allow repudiation of the debt.

Francis Thomas was a staunch opponent of slavery, a unique position in a border-state like Maryland, decrying it as "altogether unworthy of enlightened statesmen, and should be by all patriots repudiated".

Francis Thomas served as governor from 1842 until 1845, narrowly beating William Cost Johnson, who he succeeded as Maryland's 6th district congressman, in 1841 for a three-year term.

Francis Thomas was again elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress as a Unionist, as an Unconditional Unionist to the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses, and as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress, serving from March 4,1861 until March 3,1869.

Francis Thomas served as collector of internal revenue for Maryland from 1870 until 1872.

Francis Thomas was appointed by President Grant to serve as the United States Minister to Peru, and help this position from March 25,1872 to July 9,1875.

On January 22,1876, while overseeing improvements on his estate near Frankville, Maryland, a community that once existed along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Garrett County, Francis Thomas was killed instantly when he was struck by a locomotive.

Francis Thomas is interred in a vault in Rose Hill Cemetery of Cumberland, Maryland.