Public Life
In 1844, Folger was appointed to the bench of the Ontario County Court of Common Pleas, serving for about a year.
As a Republican, he was a member of the New York State Senate (26th D.) from 1862 to 1869, sitting in the 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st and 92nd New York State Legislatures. During his term he served as President pro tempore for four years and as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Folger served as a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867–68, and as a delegate to the 1868 Republican National Convention.
In 1869, he resigned from the State Senate when he was appointed Assistant United States Treasurer in New York City by President Ulysses S. Grant.
A year later, in 1870, he was elected one of the first judges of the re-organized New York Court of Appeals. Following the death of Sanford E. Church, Folger was appointed Chief Judge by Governor Alonzo B. Cornell on May 20, 1880, to fill the vacancy temporarily. In November he was elected to a full 14-year term as Chief Judge.
In 1881, President James Garfield offered him the position of Attorney General, which he declined. Later that year, however, he resigned from the bench to accept an appointment by President Chester Arthur to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. In 1883 he appointed Mifflin E. Bell to the Office of the Supervising Architect.
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Famous quotes related to public life:
“I leave the governor’s office next week, and with it public life ... [which] has been on the whole a pleasant one. But for ten years and over my salaries have not equalled my expenses, and there has been a feeling of responsibility, a lack of independence, and a necessary neglect of my family and personal interests and comfort, which make the prospect of a change comfortable to think of.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)