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American politician (1848–1920)

Edwin Warfield (May 7, 1848March 31, 1920) was an American politician and a member of the United States Democratic Party, and the 45th Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1904 to 1908. From 1902 to 1903, he served as president general of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

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, a "streetcar suburb" southwest of Baltimore. In 1877, he became a professor at Maryland's Agricultural College. 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. After the abolition of slavery in the United States, Warfield returned home frequently to help run his family's estate. 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. Through his father's line, he was a third cousin to the Duchess of Windsor (originally named/née 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. Warfield's lineage also allowed him membership into the Sons of the American Revolution, where he served as 8th President General from 1902 until 1903.

In 1874, Warfield was appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of Register of Wills for Howard County. He was elected to a full six year term the following year, and served until 1881. 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. 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. 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 Maryland flag. Another historical "final act" for Wakefield's term as Governor was the success of a long search and process by the United States' then Ambassador to France to discover the whereabouts of an American naval hero's burial site in Paris, and to oversee the return of the body of American Revolutionary War Captain John Paul Jones to a specially prepared marble crypt at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Warfield left office in January 1908.

After his tenure as governor, Warfield returned to his previous activities. He became president of the Fidelity Trust Company with Baltimore Sun Publisher Van Lear Black. He served on the board of the Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company until his death. In addition to retaining his presidency at the Fidelity and Deposit Company, he was a prominent member of the Maryland Club and served as president of the Maryland Historical Society. Warfield was proud of his family's Confederate legacy, representing Maryland in reunions and events like the 1911 Southern Commercial Congress in Atlanta. Warfield's health began to deteriorate in late 1919, and he was confined to his home in Baltimore during the last few months of his life. He died there, and was interred in his family burial ground at "Cherry Grove" in Howard County. Warfield was eulogized by The Baltimore Sun not as a man of definitive accomplishments, but one who stood up to the Democratic machine, supported the public interest, and transformed the office of the governor into a modern institution responsible to the public, rather than the political party. On September 23, 1948, Edwin Warfield Jr. commemorated a memorial at the Howard County Courthouse to honor Confederate soldiers from Howard County. In Columbia, Maryland, Governor Warfield is remembered with a street named for him, Governor Warfield Parkway. In 1914, a dredge named the Gov. Warfield helped to dig the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts.