William Hull, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Michigan Territory (died 1825)

William Hull was an American military officer and politician. A veteran of the American Revolutionary War, he later served as governor of the Michigan Territory (1805–1813), where he negotiated land cessions with Native Americans through the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. Hull is most widely remembered, as the general in the first months of the War of 1812 (1812–1815), who surrendered Fort Detroit / Shelby to the British Army on August 16, 1812, following the Siege of Detroit. After the siege, he was paroled by the enemy and returned east, but court-martialed, convicted, and sentenced to death in a military court trial by the United States Army and the U.S. War Department, but later received a pardon from fourth President and military commander-in-chief James Madison, so his military and personal reputation somewhat recovered. He was assigned to several other commands in the next two years of the war, before the 1815 peace Treaty of Ghent and return to the pre-war status quo with the British.

The governor of Michigan, is the head of government of the U.S. state of Michigan as well as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws; the power to either approve or veto appropriation bills passed by the Michigan Legislature; the power to convene the legislature; and the power to grant pardons, except in cases of impeachment. The governor is also empowered to reorganize the executive branch of the state government.