Jenkins first gained widespread attention as the author of the
Georgia Platform, a proclamation by a special state convention that endorsed the
Compromise of 1850. In the
1852 Presidential election, he ran for
Vice President under presidential candidate
Daniel Webster for the "
Union Party". During the
American Civil War, he was appointed by Governor
Joseph E. Brown as a justice of the
Supreme Court of Georgia. After a state constitutional convention in 1865 re-established Georgia's state government, he ran as the only candidate for governor. He served as the
Governor of Georgia from 1865 to 1868, during
Reconstruction. In 1868, he refused to allow state funds to be used for a racially integrated state constitutional convention that was supervised by the U.S. military occupation. In response, General
George Meade (of the
Third Military District) installed Brig. General
Thomas H. Ruger as military governor and Jenkins fled the state, taking with him the state seal to thwart state fund payments which had been ordered by the United States military authority. He later returned. In the
1872 United States presidential election, he received two electoral college votes. In that election,
Liberal Republican candidate
Horace Greeley died after the election but before the electors convened and so two electors from Georgia cast their votes for Jenkins. In the state constitutional convention of 1877, delegates unanimously chose Jenkins as president of the convention when they assembled on July 11, 1877. ==Death and legacy==