Edwin Warfield

Edwin Warfield was born to Albert G. Warfield and Margaret Gassaway Warfield at the "Oakdale" plantation in Howard County, Maryland. He received early education at the public schools of Howard County and at St. Timothy's Hall (formerly an Episcopal Church institution, now known as St. Timothy's School) in Catonsville, Maryland, southwest of Baltimore. In 1877, he became a professor at Maryland's Agricultural College.^[3]

Although Maryland was a Union State, many families were southern sympathizers, and two of Warfield's brothers served in the Confederate States Army. Gassaway Watkins Warfield died at Camp Chase, while Albert G Warfield Jr. survived the conflict.^[4] The emancipation of enslaved workers left his family with little property besides their land, and so Warfield interrupted his education to work on the family farm.^[1] He also spent time as a teacher in the county schools, and studied for admission to the bar in his spare time. In 1888, Warfield founded The Daily Record as a newspaper covering finance, commerce, business, and court matters or legal proceedings. The publication continued into the 21st century, along with a corresponding "Warfield's" magazine published from the 1980s through the 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

Through his father's line, he was a third cousin to the Duchess of Windsor (originally named Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore), wife of the abdicated king of the United Kingdom, King Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor.^[5] Warfield's lineage also allowed him membership into the Sons of the American Revolution, where he served as President General from 1902 until 1903.^[6]

In 1874, Warfield was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of Register of Wills for Howard County.^[7] He was elected to a full six-year term the following year, and served until 1881.^[7] He was appointed to the Maryland Senate following the resignation of Arthur Pue Gorman to accept a higher office, was re-elected in 1883, and served as President of the Maryland State Senate during the 1886 session.^[7][8] While in the Senate, Warfield began his own law practice in Ellicott City, Maryland, and purchased the Ellicott City Times, where he served as editor from 1882 to 1886.^[7]

During the 1884 Presidential election, Warfield made significant contributions to the campaign of Grover Cleveland in Maryland. Cleveland would become the first Democratic president to be elected since before the Civil War. Following the election, Cleveland appointed Warfield to serve as Surveyor of the Port of Baltimore beginning April 5, 1885. Warfield served in that position until May 1, 1890, after the Republicans returned to power. In 1890, Warfield married Emma Nicodemus, with whom he had three daughters and one son.^[7]

In 1890, after his removal from the position of Surveyor, Warfield founded the Fidelity and Deposit Company, where he served as president until his death.^[7] He was chosen as a delegate to the 1896 Democratic National Convention, but otherwise remained out of politics for nearly a decade.^{[citation needed]}

In September 1903, Warfield served as an orator for the ceremonies dedicating the William H. Watson Monument.^[9]

Warfield chose to run for Governor of Maryland in 1899, but lost the Democratic nomination after he was opposed by influential Maryland politicians, including Arthur Pue Gorman, a powerful U.S. Senator who was allied to the interests of "old pols" in Baltimore City. Though it was apparent that the party bosses did not hold him in favor, he again sought the nomination in 1903, openly discouraging African Americans' ability to vote.^[10] He was successfully nominated by the party, and defeated his Republican opponent, Stevenson A. Williams, by over 12,600 votes. He was inaugurated as the 45th Governor of Maryland on January 13, 1904.

The most significant event of his tenure as Governor came when Arthur Pue Gorman, who had opposed Warfield's election, proposed the "Poe Amendment" to the Maryland State Constitution of 1867, which would have disenfranchised most black voters in the state. The bill easily passed the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, but Warfield refused to support the proposed amendment and delayed placing it before the voters. While Warfield was in favor of some of the amendment's provisions (such as denying the vote to the less-educated black voters of the state) he feared it would eventually lead to greater levels of disenfranchisement which could threaten all voters in the state.^[1] The proposed amendment was put before voters in a 1904 referendum and was defeated by 30,000 votes, a defeat to the crypto-segregationists in the party in which Warfield played a major role. Warfield's actions in this affair further alienated him from the Democratic machine in Maryland, which was openly hostile towards him by the time he left office.

As Governor, Warfield supported the establishment of direct voting by popular election for U.S. Senators, in contrast to that time's processes of election via each state's legislative body. He argued this before the General Assembly in 1906, and direct election of senators was eventually codified into national law with the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In his time as Governor, Warfield also authorized and approved of an official state Flag of Maryland, representing a reunited State of Maryland following the division of the Civil War. This was further supported by the Maryland National Guard flying the reinvigorated^[clarify]Maryland flag.

Warfield helped arrange for the return of the body of American Revolutionary War Captain John Paul Jones from its original burial site in Paris to its reinterment at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Warfield left office in January 1908.^[1]