Governor of Indiana

Indiana Governor Joseph Fellows.

The Governor of Indiana (originally Governor-General of Indiana) is the chief executive of the Confederation of Indiana. When the Britannic Design was drafted in 1781, the Governor-General (as he was then known) was selected by Parliament. This continued to be the case until 1808, when a revision of the Design allowed for the Governor to be chosen by the Royal Governors of Indiana's individual provinces. Following the adoption of the Second Britannic Design in 1842, the Governor of Indiana was popularly elected.

The first Governor-General of Indiana was Pierre Concordé, who was appointed by Parliament in 1782. One of the earliest Governors to be chosen by the heads of the provinces was General William Henry Harrison, who suffered several defeats at the hands of the Indian leader Tecumseh between 1810 and 1814, and who was forced to call upon the military forces of the Northern and Southern Confederations to deal with Tecumseh's uprising.

Two notable Governors of Indiana from the 1870s were Claude Baldwin of the Liberal Party and Joseph Fellows of the Conservative Party. Baldwin was elected governor twice in spite of the Conservatives' numerical advantage among registered voters. After the end of his second term as governor, Baldwin sought the Liberal nomination for Governor-General at the party's 1878 national convention in Philadelphia. However, Baldwin's reputation for corruption was well-known, and the nomination went to Councilman John McDowell of Manitoba.

Baldwin's successor as Governor of Indiana, Joseph Fellows, was chosen by incumbent Governor-General Herbert Clemens as the Conservative nominee at their 1878 national convention in Michigan City. After receiving the nomination, Fellows pledged himself "to the continuation of the prosperity we have enjoyed for the past decade." However, the Conservatives won only 49 Grand Council seats in the 1878 elections, and McDowell became Governor-General.

Maxwell Boatner of the People's Coalition served as governor in the 1890s. When Governor-General Christopher Hemingway reorganized the National Financial Administration in 1904, he named Boatner as one of the agency's three co-Administrators.

Governor-General Henderson Dewey of Indiana was able to rebuild the Liberal Party's organization in that confederation, leading to the election of David Heald as Governor in the 1920s. Heald was an intelligent man who was able, like Dewey, to present an appearance of modesty, understatement, and coolness, qualities which came across well on vitavision.