Governor of Delaware
As a successful and popular conservative businessman, Temple reflected the majority views well. Temple was elected to the State House in the fall of 1844. He became Speaker in January 1846. After the successive deaths in office of the elected Governor, Thomas Stockton, and his constitutional successor, the Speaker of the State Senate, Joseph Maull, Temple surprisingly became Governor himself on May 6, 1846, the third Governor in two years. At 32 years of age, he was the youngest Delaware Governor ever and only served the remainder of the term, until January 19, 1847. No sooner had he inherited the job than he received a call from President Polk to raise troops for the Mexican-American War. Much of his short tenure was spent on this task.
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“Three years ago, also, when the Sims tragedy was acted, I said to myself, There is such an officer, if not such a man, as the Governor of Massachusetts,—what has he been about the last fortnight? Has he had as much as he could do to keep on the fence during this moral earthquake?... He could at least have resigned himself into fame.”
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