Career
In 1817, Moseley became a tutor at the university. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar and began practice in Wilmington. Like many lawyers of the time, law was not his only profession; Moseley also farmed and was a schoolteacher.
From 1829 to 1837, Moseley represented Lenoir County in the North Carolina Senate, serving as speaker for four terms between 1832 and 1835. He lost the Democratic nomination for governor in North Carolina by three votes.
In 1835, Moseley and his family moved to Lake Miccosukee in Jefferson County, Florida, after purchasing a plantation there. In 1840, Moseley was elected to the territorial House of Representatives. In 1844, he won a seat in the territorial Senate. On March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted as the twenty-seventh state of the Union.
Later in 1845, in the first statewide election, Moseley won the election for governor of Florida. He beat the well-known former governor Richard Keith Call, becoming the first governor of the state of Florida.
Moseley was sworn in on June 25, 1845. During his term, he established the new state government. The state Capitol building was completed during his first year in office. Moseley oversaw the state's role in the Mexican-American War. Southern states supported the war with troops as they saw it as an opportunity to gain territory where slavery could be used.
Moseley worked to resolve conflicts between white settlers and Seminole Indians. He also encouraged agriculture, supporting new citrus, avocado, tobacco, and cotton industries. During his administration, the federal government built Fort Jefferson, on one of the coral keys off the southern Florida coast, and Fort Clinch on Amelia Island, near modern-day Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Moseley was a strong supporter of states' rights. He favored the establishment of state-funded public schools.
Constitutionally limited to a single term, Moseley returned to his plantation after ending his term on October 1, 1849. Two years later, he settled in the town of Palatka in Putnam County, where he operated a citrus grove. Moseley died on January 4, 1863, and was buried at the West View Cemetery in Palatka.
After his death, his daughters commissioned a portrait to be painted from a daguerreotype. They presented the portrait to be hung in a state portrait gallery at the Florida capitol.
Read more about this topic: William Dunn Moseley
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