George Brinton McClellan, Jr., (November 23, 1865 – November 30, 1940) was an American politician, statesman, and educator. The son of American Civil War general and presidential candidate George B. McClellan, he served as Mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909.

McClellan, known to his family as "Max", was born in Dresden, Saxony, where his parents were visiting. He received his A.B. at Princeton in 1886 and his A.M. in 1889; and Princeton, Fordham, and Union later gave him the honorary degree of LL.D. After leaving school, he engaged in reportorial and editorial work on the New York World and other newspapers. In 1892 he was admitted to the bar. He served for some time as secretary and treasurer of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. In 1893 he was elected president of the board of aldermen of New York, and for a part of the following year he was acting mayor, although still in his twenties.

His success and popularity enabled him in 1895 to become Congressman (Democratic), a position he held until 1903. In Congress, he was a prominent member of the Ways and Means Committee. Seth Low opposed him in the election for Mayor of New York in 1903. He was re-elected in 1905, but not considered in 1909. Throughout his political career he remained interested in education and in 1906 he was made chancellor of Union University. At Princeton he delivered the Stafford Little lectures on public affairs (1908–10), served as university lecturer (1911–12), and was then appointed professor of economic history.

He is notable in the history of movie censorship for canceling all moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908, claiming that the new medium degraded the morals of community.

References

External links

• From Regulation to Censorship: Film and Political Culture in New York in the Early Twentieth Century

1865 births 1940 deaths People from New York City Mayors of New York City American educators | Princeton University alumni | Members of the United States House of Representatives from New York American lawyers | American academics | Natives of Dresden