Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824 – June 21, 1893) was an American tycoon, industrialist, politician. He was also the founder of Stanford University along with his wife, Jane Stanford.[1] He came to California with his brothers in 1852 and they were successful in selling tools and mining equipment.
Leland joined with three other Sacramento merchants to form a group who called themselves “The Associates.” It was these men—Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and, as President, himself. They bonded together as a team to build the first Transcontinental Railway. His role with them drove his politics, and his success in politics for what he was trying to do for Sacramento and California was very much driven by his position as the head of Southern Pacific Railroad.
Stanford was a white supremacist. In 1859, he wrote:
I am in favor of free white American citizens. I prefer free white citizens to any other race. I prefer the white man to the negro as an inhabitant to our country.[2]
He spent one two-year term as Governor of California after his election in 1861. He later spent eight years as a United States Senator.
References
