Political Career
While teaching in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Bartlett studied law with Judge Calvin Page. He was admitted to the bar in 1898, becoming an associate of Judge Page. Bartlett's most successful and important case was William Turner vs. Cocheco Manufacturing Company, in which a state law was established to furnish adequate fire escapes.
Bartlett began to take an active part in political movements and allied with the Republican Party. He was elected Postmaster of Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 13, 1899, which he served until 1907. Bartlett left the position of postmaster to serve on former Governor John McLane's staff. As a member of McLane's staff, he was given the rank of Colonel and became responsible for making preparations for the Russo-Japanese War Peace Conference that led to the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth officially ending the Russo-Japanese War.
Former Governor Robert P. Bass appointed Bartlett as the representative of the state of New Hampshire at the sixth annual meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, which was held at Philadelphia in March, 1912.
In 1916, Bartlett presided over the Republican State Convention. He served in the New Hampshire state House of Representatives before being elected governor in 1918. Declining to run for a second term, Bartlett served as president of the United States Civil Service Commission and was then appointed as the first United States Assistant Postmaster General in 1922, sponsoring the first transcontinental air mail service.
In 1929, he was appointed chairman of the United States section of the International Joint Commission for the United States and Canada, until his retirement in 1939.
Bartlett's New Deal sympathies caused him to switch to the Democratic Party, and he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the United States Congress.
Throughout Bartlett's political career and after retirement, he spoke at events throughout New England and at graduation ceremonies.
Read more about this topic: John H. Bartlett
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