Meldrim Thomson, Jr.

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Meldrim Thomson, Jr. (March 8, 1912April 19, 2001) was a Republican who served three terms as Governor of the U.S. state of New Hampshire from 1973 to 1979, during which time he became known for the pugnacious presentation of an extremely conservative political viewpoint.

Thomson was born in 1912, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania and was an Eagle Scout.

During his governorship, and after, Tomson was well known for actions that brought contempt from his detractors and praise from his supporters, which included:

  • having an aide search the tax records of political opponents, a move later invalidated by the New Hampshire Supreme Court
  • suggesting nuclear weapons for the state National Guard
  • calling Martin Luther King Jr. "a man of immoral character, whose frequent association with leading agents of communism is well established"
  • putting state flags at half-staff to mourn the U.S. recognition of China, the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty, and the ousting of Taiwan from the Olympic Games
  • ensuring that a Massachusetts driver who gave the finger to Thomson's gubernatorial car lost his privilege to drive in New Hampshire
  • pulling a $750 state grant from a literary magazine because he objected to a poem titled "Castrating the Cat."
  • during the anti-nuclear demonstrators in Seabrook in 1977, dressing in military fatigues and being carried in by helicopter to personally order the arrest of 1,400 protesters
  • calling out the state National Guard when two 1960s radicals Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman spoke at the University of New Hampshire, and having the student leader who invited them arrested
  • running for president in 1980 because he found Ronald Reagan too liberal

It was during Thomson's tenure that "Live Free or Die" was placed on New Hampshire's license plates; it is one of best-known state mottos in the country. Also during his tenure, the state reinstituted the death penalty, which gave Thomson great satisfaction. Thomson also abolished a majority of New Hampshire's taxes (income, capital gains, sales, etc.).

He was also a strong proponent of state sovereignty. When Thomson learned Massachusetts tax agents were at New Hampshire liquor stores taking down the numbers on cars with Massachusetts license plates, he had them arrested. When he learned that Maine had arrested a Portsmouth (New Hampshire) lobsterman, in Maine waters, he began what was known as the "Lobster war." The conflict ended in the U.S. Supreme Court with the drawing of an ocean boundary between the two states at the mouth of the Piscataqua River.

Thomson was also responsible for the rise of David Souter. In 1978, Thomson appointed Souter to the Superior Court bench. Twelve years later, Souter became a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Thomson was a close ally of William Loeb, the extremely conservative publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, New Hamsphire's only statewide newspaper. He died in 2001 aged 89 from Parkinson's Disease and heart problems in Orford, New Hampshire.

In 2002, the state named a both a state building and state road in honor of the late governor. The state office complex on Hazen Drive in Concord was named "Meldrim Thomson, Jr. State Office Complex." A 16-mile stretch of Route 25A, where his Mt. Cube Farm lined both sides of the road, was named the "Governor Meldrim Thomson Scenic Highway."

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Preceded by
Walter R. Peterson, Jr.
Governor of New Hampshire
19731979
Succeeded by
Hugh J. Gallen