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Levi Lincoln Sr. was an American revolutionary, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. A Democratic-Republican, he most notably served as Thomas Jefferson's first attorney general, and played a significant role in the events that led to the celebrated Marbury v. Madison court case. He served two terms as the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, acting as governor for the remainder of Governor James Sullivan's term after his death in December 1808. Lincoln was unsuccessful in his bid to be elected governor in his own right in 1809.
William Eustis was an early American physician, politician, and statesman from Massachusetts. Trained in medicine, he served as a military surgeon during the American Revolutionary War, notably at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He resumed medical practice after the war, but soon entered politics.
Marcus Morton was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Taunton, Massachusetts. He served two terms as the governor of Massachusetts and several months as Acting Governor following the death in 1825 of William Eustis. He served for 15 years as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, all the while running unsuccessfully as a Democrat for governor. He finally won the 1839 election, acquiring exactly the number of votes required for a majority win over Edward Everett. After losing the 1840 and 1841 elections, he was elected in a narrow victory in 1842.
Samuel Turell Armstrong was a U.S. political figure. Born in 1784 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, he was a printer and bookseller in Boston, specializing in religious materials. Among his works were an early stereotype edition of Scott's Family Bible, which was very popular, and The Panoplist, a religious magazine devoted to missionary interests.
Caleb Strong Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and Founding Father who served as the sixth and tenth governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. He assisted in drafting the Massachusetts State Constitution in 1779 and served as a state senator and on the Massachusetts Governor's Council before being elected to the inaugural United States Senate. A leading member of the Massachusetts Federalist Party, his political success delayed the decline of the Federalists in Massachusetts.
James Sullivan was an American lawyer and politician in Massachusetts. He was an early associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, served as the state's attorney general for many years, and as governor of the state from 1807 until his death.
Thomas Talbot was an American textile mill owner and politician from Massachusetts, United States. Talbot ran a major textile business, involving chemical dyeworks and the weaving of fabric, in Billerica that was a major local employer. As a Republican, he served in the state legislature, on the Massachusetts Governor's Council, and as the 29th lieutenant governor before serving for one partial term as acting governor of Massachusetts, and later for one full term as the 31st governor.
John Davis was an American lawyer, businessman and politician from Massachusetts. He spent 25 years in public service, serving in both houses of the United States Congress and for three non-consecutive years as Governor of Massachusetts. Because of his reputation for personal integrity he was known as "Honest John" Davis.
William Barrett Washburn was an American businessman and politician from Massachusetts. Washburn served several terms in the United States House of Representatives (1863–71) and as the 28th governor of Massachusetts from 1872 to 1874, when he won election to the United States Senate in a special election to succeed the recently deceased Charles Sumner. A moderate Republican, Washburn only partially supported the Radical Republican agenda during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era that followed.
Christopher Gore was a prominent Massachusetts lawyer, Federalist politician, and U.S. diplomat. Born into a family divided by the American Revolution, Gore sided with the victorious Patriots, established a successful law practice in Boston, and built a fortune by purchasing Revolutionary government debts at a discount and receiving full value for them from the government.
Emory Washburn was an American lawyer, politician, and historian. He was Governor of Massachusetts for one term, and served for many years on the faculty of Harvard Law School. His history of the early years of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is considered a foundational work on the subject.
Moses Gill was an American merchant and politician who served as the acting governor of Massachusetts from 1799 to 1800, when he died in office, the only acting governor to do so. A successful businessman, he became one of the most prominent colonists in Princeton, Massachusetts, entering politics shortly before the American Revolutionary War. He served on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress's executive committee until the state adopted its constitution in 1780, after which he continued to serve on the state's Governor's Council.
Henry Joseph Gardner was the 23rd Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1855 to 1858. Gardner, a Know Nothing, was elected governor as part of the sweeping victory of Know Nothing candidates in the Massachusetts elections of 1854.
John Brooks was an American doctor, military officer, and politician from Massachusetts. He served as the 11th Governor of Massachusetts from 1816 to 1823, and was one of the last Federalist officials elected in the United States.
Alexander Hamilton Bullock was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman from Massachusetts. First a Whig and then a Republican, he served three terms (1866–69) as the 26th Governor of Massachusetts. He was actively opposed to the expansion of slavery before the American Civil War, playing a major role in the New England Emigrant Aid Society, founded in 1855 to settle the Kansas Territory with abolitionists. He was for many years involved in the insurance industry in Worcester, where he also served one term as mayor.
The 1839 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was a tightly contested race won by Marcus Morton. Under Massachusetts law at the time, a majority of the votes cast was required to win, and Morton received exactly half the votes cast. Despite the presence of some irregularities, incumbent Whig governor Edward Everett refused to contest the results once a legislative committee dominated by his party accepted a report giving Morton 51,034 votes out of 102,066 cast.
Robert Morris Washburn (1868–1946) was an American politician and writer who served in the Massachusetts General Court and wrote a newspaper column and a number of biographies on Massachusetts politicians, including Calvin Coolidge.
The 1854 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 15. American Party candidate Henry J. Gardner was elected to his first term as governor, defeating incumbent Whig governor Emory Washburn.
The 1874 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1874. Republican acting Governor Thomas Talbot, who took office after the resignation of William B. Washburn, was defeated by Democrat William Gaston, a former Mayor of Boston.
The second 1831 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 14.
Levi Lincoln Jr. | |
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13th Governor of Massachusetts | |
In office May 26, 1825 –January 9, 1834 | |
Lieutenant | none (1825–1826) Thomas L. Winthrop (1826–1833) Samuel Turell Armstrong (1833–1834) |
Preceded by | Marcus Morton (acting) |
Succeeded by | John Davis |
11th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts | |
In office May 31,1823 –May 26,1824 | |
Governor | William Eustis |
Preceded by | William Phillips Jr. |
Succeeded by | Marcus Morton |
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from Massachusetts's 5th district | |
In office February 17,1834 –March 16,1841 | |
Preceded by | John Davis |
Succeeded by | Charles Hudson |
1st Mayor of Worcester,Massachusetts | |
In office April 17,1848 –April 1,1849 | |
Preceded by | Board of Selectmen |
Succeeded by | Henry Chapin |
29th President of the Massachusetts Senate | |
In office 1845 | |
Preceded by | Frederick Robinson |
Succeeded by | William B. Calhoun |
23rd Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office May 31,1822 –May 31,1823 | |
Preceded by | Luther Lawrence |
Succeeded by | William C. Jarvis |
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
In office 1814–1820 | |
Member of the Massachusetts Senate | |
In office 1812–1814 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Worcester,Massachusetts,U.S. | October 25,1782
Died | May 29,1868 85) Worcester,Massachusetts,U.S. | (aged
Political party | Republican Whig National Republican Democratic-Republican |
Spouse | Penelope Winslow Sever |
Children | Daniel Waldo Lincoln |
Signature | |
Levi Lincoln Jr. (October 25,1782 –May 29,1868) was an American lawyer and politician from Worcester,Massachusetts. He was the 13th governor of Massachusetts (1825–1834) and represented the state in the U.S. Congress (1834–1841). Lincoln's nine-year tenure as governor is the longest consecutive service in state history;only Michael Dukakis (12 years),John Hancock (11 years) and Caleb Strong (10 years) served more years,but they were not consecutive.
Born to Levi Lincoln Sr.,a prominent Worcester lawyer,he studied law and entered the state legislature in 1812 as a Democratic-Republican. He supported the War of 1812 (a minority position in Federalist-dominated Massachusetts) and opposed the Hartford Convention. Over the next ten years his politics moderated,and he was elected governor in 1825 in a nonpartisan landslide after serving one year on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Lincoln oversaw significant economic development in Massachusetts during his tenure and issued the first-ever veto by a Massachusetts governor. Lincoln and Daniel Webster were leading forces in the foundation of the National Republican (later Whig) Party in Massachusetts,which dominated state politics until the 1850s.
Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1835,serving in the House of Representatives until 1841,when President William Henry Harrison appointed him collector of the Port of Boston. He was a major civic and philanthropic force in Worcester,owning and developing land in the city,and serving as its first mayor in 1848.
Levi Lincoln was born in Worcester,Massachusetts,on October 25,1782,the firstborn child of Levi Lincoln Sr. and Martha Waldo Lincoln. [1] His father was a lawyer who soon thereafter assumed a prominent place in state politics. [2] Lincoln attended Harvard College,graduating in 1802,studied law with his father,and was admitted to the bar in 1805. [3] By this time his father had served as United States Attorney General,and was a dominant figure in Worcester politics and statewide Democratic-Republican Party affairs. [4]
Lincoln was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1812 as a Republican,where he supported the War of 1812,a minority position in a state dominated by Federalists. [5] In 1814 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives,where he opposed the Hartford Convention,a meeting of Federalist delegates from New England states to air grievances on the conduct of the war. He served terms in the state legislature until 1822,the last year as Speaker of the House. [3] He was elected to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820–1821,called after Maine was separated from the state. [6] The separation of Maine included the division of its extensive public lands,in which Massachusetts retained an ownership interest. Lincoln represented Massachusetts on the commission that oversaw the division of these lands. [7]
Over this time Lincoln's political views progressively moderated,and he came to be seen as relatively nonpartisan with respect to the Republican-Federalist divide. His opposition to the Hartford Convention raised his profile,and during the contentious Constitutional Convention debates,he maintained positive relations with political friends and foes. [5] In 1823 he was elected lieutenant governor,serving under moderate Republican Governor William Eustis. In 1824 Eustis nominated him to fill a vacancy on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court [6] created by the resignation of Maine justice George Thatcher. [8] That year he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [9]
In 1825 Lincoln was approached by Republican party leaders about running for governor. Adopting a firmly centrist stance,he refused to run as the candidate of a single party. When a Federalist caucus seconded the nomination,he agreed to stand and won the election in a landslide against insignificant opposition. For the next five years,he ran virtually unopposed,only occasionally facing opposition from what were basically single-issue candidates and the weak perennial Democratic candidate Marcus Morton. [6] Historian Ronald Formisano characterizes Lincoln's administration as "basically a National Republican,proto-Whig administration." [10] In 1832,opposition parties began to gain strength,and he won a narrow majority over Democratic and Anti-Masonic opposition. [11]
Economic development issues dominated Lincoln's tenure in office. He was a regular supporter of development initiatives and worked to change state laws to limit the liability of corporate investors. [12] He ordered the state's first geographical and topographical surveys. [5] The opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal (connecting New York City to the Great Lakes) and the Blackstone Canal (connecting Worcester to Providence,Rhode Island) in 1828 presented challenges to Boston's dominance as a shipping hub. [13] Lincoln early on proposed a canal connecting Boston to the Connecticut River,but this idea never caught on. [14] His government eventually approved plans for the construction of a railroad connecting Boston to Albany,New York, [13] chartering its first stage,the Boston and Worcester Railroad,in 1831. [15]
The railroad charter was issued in the wake of a controversy over the nature of state-issued corporate charters that led to the first-ever veto by a Massachusetts governor. In 1826,after several years of lobbying by its proponents,the legislature granted a charter to the Warren Bridge Company for a second bridge connecting Boston to Charlestown. The proprietors proposed that the bridge would charge tolls for only six years and then become free. [16] The proprietors of the competing Charles River Bridge,which also charged tolls,objected,claiming that the state had granted it an exclusive charter for that crossing,and prevailed on Lincoln to veto the new charter. This he did;the veto was overridden in the House but not the Senate. [12] The veto brought in a storm of criticism from populist supporters of the new bridge,who established the Free Bridge Party and ran William C. Jarvis against Lincoln in the 1827 election. Lincoln approved the charter when it was resubmitted in 1828,after which the Charles River Bridge proprietors initiated a lawsuit. [17] With Daniel Webster as their attorney,the case Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge made its way to the United States Supreme Court,which in 1837 ruled that the state had not granted exclusive privileges to the Charles River Bridge proprietors. [18]
Public health and correctional institutions were expanded during Lincoln's tenure. The state's first psychiatric hospital,the Worcester Lunatic Asylum,was authorized in 1830 and opened in 1833. [19] The state prison,built at Charlestown in 1805,had long been a subject of agitation for reform. It was expanded in 1829 and converted to operation according to the latest Auburn system ideas. [20] One reform idea proposed by Lincoln did not receive action from the legislature:in both 1826 and 1827 he promoted the idea of establishing a normal school to standardize the education of school teachers. [21] These were not established until the administration of Edward Everett in the late 1830s. [22]
Lincoln was responsible for one of the major judicial appointments in Massachusetts in the 19th century. Following the death of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Isaac Parker,Lincoln offered the post to Lemuel Shaw,a lawyer with a solid reputation who had been at Harvard with him and had served with him in the legislature. [23] Shaw at first refused the position,but Lincoln and Daniel Webster eventually prevailed on him to accept the seat. [24] Shaw headed the court for thirty years,a period that included much groundbreaking jurisprudence. [25]
Lincoln's term as governor is the longest consecutive service in the state's history. Only Michael Dukakis,John Hancock and Caleb Strong served for more years,but their terms were not all consecutive. Lincoln's brother Enoch was Governor of Maine from 1827 to 1829;they were the first two brothers to be governors simultaneously. [26] Later combinations of brothers as governors include John (California) and William Bigler (Pennsylvania) in the 1850s, [27] Nelson (New York) and Winthrop Rockefeller (Arkansas) in the 1960s and 1970s, [28] and George W. Bush (Texas) and Jeb Bush (Florida) from 1999 to 2000. [29]
Lincoln was one of several politicians whose leadership led to the solid establishment of the National Republicans and their successors the Whigs. The National Republican Party in Massachusetts grew out a coalition of former Jeffersonian Republicans (led by Lincoln) and former Federalists (led by Daniel Webster),who coalesced to support President John Quincy Adams in the late 1820s. Lincoln critically refused an offer of a position in the United States Senate in 1827,citing the need to remain in the state and strengthen the then-fragile National Republican organization. The Whig Party,which succeeded the National Republicans,dominated state politics until 1854. [5]
In 1833 Lincoln decided not to run for reelection,intending to return to private practice. He was instead prevailed upon in early 1834 to run for the recently vacated Congressional seat of fellow Worcester Whig John Davis,who had been elected governor. [30] The race for governor was split three ways,and no one had won a majority,sending the election to the state legislature to decide. John Quincy Adams,who had run on the Anti-Masonic ticket,withdrew and endorsed Davis,preferring him over Morton and Davis was chosen by the legislature in January 1834. Davis had been reelected to his Congressional seat as well,and resigned that to assume the governorship. In a special election in February Lincoln was elected to the vacant Congressional seat. [31] Lincoln served in the House of Representatives until 1841. He did not particularly distinguish himself in Congress,generally supporting the Whig agenda and taking a firm stance on the outstanding border dispute between Maine and the British (now Canadian) province of New Brunswick. [32]
In 1841 President William Henry Harrison appointed Lincoln collector of the Port of Boston,a post he held until September 1843. In what biographer Kinley Brauer terms the "only involuntary retirement in his career",Lincoln was replaced by Democrat Robert Rantoul Jr. on the order of President John Tyler. For his last statewide office,Lincoln won two terms to the state senate beginning in 1844,serving as the body's president. [32]
Lincoln inherited sizable properties in central Worcester from his father,and his development activities of these and other lands he acquired had a major impact on the city's character in the 19th century. [33] He purchased and donated to the city the land that became Elm Park;it and the adjacent neighborhood form the Lincoln Estate-Elm Park Historic District. [34] When Worcester was smaller,there had been little class division between its various neighborhoods;however,those that Lincoln laid out on the west side of the city became the place the wealthier elements of Worcester society chose to live. [33]
From the 1820s to the 1840s Worcester,at first a town of modest size,experienced significant growth. This was stimulated by first the construction of the Blackstone Canal and then the railroad,which connected it to Boston. The town experienced rapid industrial growth and a growing diversification of its population,especially by Irish Americans who had helped build the canal. There was political tension between the older elites,Lincoln among them,and the rising industrial working class. The arrival of Irish immigrants in the 1840s led to an increase in street gang activity and violence as the social systems of the town strained to deal with the influx. This led to calls for the town to receive a city charter,which was granted by the state in 1848. [35]
In the first mayoral election held that year,Lincoln ran against Rodney Miller,a local temperance advocate around whom opposition to the town's elites coalesced. Lincoln carried the election by more than ten percent,and became the new city's first mayor. [36] He held the post for one year,during which he played host to Abraham Lincoln,a distant relation from Illinois who was electioneering for Zachary Taylor on the Whig ticket in the 1848 presidential election. [37] (Worcester was carried by Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren,although Taylor won the election.) [38]
After one year as mayor,Lincoln retired from politics. He remained active in a large number of civic organizations including the American Antiquarian Society,of which he was a founding member in 1812, [39] and later vice president from 1854 to 1868,the Worcester Agricultural Society,and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He also served on the Board of Overseers of Leicester Academy. He briefly came out of political retirement to serve as a Republican Party presidential elector in the 1864 election,casting his vote for Abraham Lincoln, [40] a distant relative of Levi Lincoln Jr. [41] He was also a presidential elector in 1824 and 1848. [42] He died in Worcester on May 29,1868,and was interred in Worcester Rural Cemetery. [43]
Lincoln married Penelope Winslow Sever on September 6,1807. She was a descendant of Plymouth Colony Governor Edward Winslow and a member of Worcester's Chandler family. The couple had nine children,of whom one died young and three others predeceased their father. [1] Levi Lincoln's younger brother,Enoch Lincoln,served as Governor of Maine for 2 years during Levi's long service as Governor of Massachusetts.
As a consequence of the Lincoln family's prominence in Worcester,the city has a number of landmarks (streets,buildings and parks) bearing the Lincoln name. [44] A house Lincoln had built in 1834 while awaiting completion of his 1836 mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Gov. Levi Lincoln House. [45] The mansion,originally on Worcester's west side,now stands as a retail establishment near the entrance to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge,Massachusetts. [46]