James G. Berret

Col. James G. Berret
18th Mayor of Washington, D.C.
In office 1859 – September 14, 1861
Preceded by	William B. Magruder
Succeeded by	Richard Wallach
Delegate to the Maryland State Legislature
In office 1835–1837
Delegate to the Maryland State Legislature
In office 1891–1892
Personal details
Born	James Gabriel Berret February 1, 1815 Carroll County, MD, U.S.
Died	April 14, 1901 Washington, DC
Political party	Anti-Know-Nothing-Party, Democratic
Religion	Roman Catholic

James Gabriel Berret (February 12, 1815 – April 14, 1901) was an American politician who served as a Maryland state legislator from 1837 to 1839 and again in 1891 and as the eighteenth Mayor of Washington, District of Columbia, from 1858 to 1861, when he was forced to resign from office after being jailed by the Lincoln administration for sedition. He was also President of the Electoral College in 1888.

Berret was born in what was then Baltimore County, Maryland on February 12, 1815. He had only two years of formal education before his father pulled him out to help on the farm. When his father died in 1831, Berret took over the farm full-time. In 1836, at the age of 21, he was elected to the Maryland state legislature to represent the newly formed Carroll County. He served two one-year terms from 1837 to 1839.

Upon leaving the legislature he was appointed to an office in the U.S. Treasury by President Martin Van Buren and moved to Washington, DC. He served in the Treasury until 1850, at which time he started his own business prosecuting claims before the US government. That work continued until 1853 when President Franklin Pierce appointed him Postmaster of the District of Columbia. He served on the inaugural committee for Presidents James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln.

In 1858, Berret was nominated as the mayoral candidate for the Anti-Know-Nothing Party, a coalition of political parties that formed in 1854 as an opposition to the Know-Nothings' electoral successes in the city. He was a staunch believer in the rights of naturalized citizens to vote. However, by 1858, the Know-Nothings were a spent force, and the U.S. political landscape was such that the Republicans, who had once been a part of the Anti-Know-Nothing coalition, now stood independently from it as an opposition to President Buchanan and the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Thus Berret was pitted against Richard Wallach, the U.S. Marshal for the District; both men were of equal popularity, means, and political reputation, but on election day Berret won by 680 votes in an election that was marked by rioting, requiring the Marines to deploy, and the deaths of four citizens.

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