George Franklin Fort (June 30, 1809 – April 22, 1872) was a physician, judge, and Democratic Party politician who served as the 16th Governor of New Jersey from 1851 to 1854.

[1] Fort began his public career in 1844, when he was elected to the state constitutional convention as a Democratic delegate from Monmouth County.

He also served on committees for education and the investigation of the Plainfield Bank, and as one of three commissioners to value the riparian lands at Jersey City.

[1] Fort's opponent in the general election was Whig Party nominee John Runk, a former U.S. Representative from Hunterdon County.

[2] The Joint Companies exercised tremendous economic leverage and dominated state politics at the time, primarily through the Democratic Party.

"[1] Fort openly favored the Fugitive Slave Act as binding because it was "in accordance with the evident intentment of the constitutional compact" and would, in his view, ensure peace, stability, and the preservation of the Union.

[1] The result was a large victory for Fort and the largest percentage of the popular vote in any of the six pre-Civil War elections in the state.

[1] During the Fort administration, expenditures for public schools were increased substantially, drawn from dividends paid on state-owned Joint Companies stock.

[1] Fort also secured a bill for the regulation of banks consistent with the "hard money" platform of the Democratic Party.

At the expiration of his term in office, incoming Governor Rodman M. Price appointed Fort to the Court of Errors and Appeals.