Massachusetts Governor and Congressman (1782?1868)
Levi Lincoln Jr.
|
---|
|
|
|
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
|
---|
|
In office
May 31, 1823 ? May 26, 1824
|
Governor
| William Eustis
|
---|
Preceded by
| William Phillips Jr.
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Marcus Morton
|
---|
|
In office
February 17, 1834 ? March 16, 1841
|
Preceded by
| John Davis
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Charles Hudson
|
---|
|
In office
April 17, 1848 ? April 1, 1849
|
Preceded by
| Board of Selectmen
|
---|
Succeeded by
| Henry Chapin
|
---|
|
In office
1845
|
Preceded by
| Frederick Robinson
|
---|
Succeeded by
| William B. Calhoun
|
---|
|
In office
May 31, 1822 ? May 31, 1823
|
Preceded by
| Luther Lawrence
|
---|
Succeeded by
| William C. Jarvis
|
---|
|
In office
1814?1820
|
|
In office
1812?1814
|
|
|
Born
| (
1782-10-25
)
October 25, 1782
Worcester, Massachusetts
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| May 29, 1868
(1868-05-29)
(aged 85)
Worcester, Massachusetts
, U.S.
|
---|
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.
Early political career
[
edit
]
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]
Governor
[
edit
]
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]
Congressman
[
edit
]
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]
Growth of Worcester
[
edit
]
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]
Family and legacy
[
edit
]
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]
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Nutt, p. 173.
- ^
Nutt, pp. 171?172.
- ^
a
b
Worcester Bank and Trust, p. 25.
- ^
Worcester Bank and Trust, p. 17.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Brauer, p. 678.
- ^
a
b
c
Formisano, p. 82.
- ^
Washburn, p. 56.
- ^
Washburn, p. 51.
- ^
"Book of Members, 1780?2010: Chapter L"
(PDF)
. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. Retrieved
September 9,
2016
.
- ^
Formisano, p. 83.
- ^
Darling, pp. 47, 58, 74?75, 93, 104.
- ^
a
b
Formisano, p. 193.
- ^
a
b
Formisano, p. 195.
- ^
Washburn, p. 60.
- ^
Dalzell, p. 87.
- ^
Formisano, p. 192.
- ^
Formisano, p. 194.
- ^
Johnson, pp. 344?348.
- ^
Grob, p. 98.
- ^
Lewis, pp. 68?77.
- ^
Washburn, p. 64.
- ^
Frothingham, p. 139.
- ^
Chase, p. 135.
- ^
Chase, pp. 136?140.
- ^
Gilman, D. C.
; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905).
"Shaw, Lemuel"
.
New International Encyclopedia
(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ^
Warren, p. 397.
- ^
Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary
, pp. 109?111.
- ^
Urwin, pp. 138?139.
- ^
"THE 1998 ELECTIONS: THE NATION -- GOVERNORS; George W. Bush Is Re-elected in Texas; His Brother Jeb Is Victorious in Florida"
.
New York Times
. November 4, 1998.
- ^
Washburn, p. 69.
- ^
Zboray and Zboray, p. 58.
- ^
a
b
Brauer, Kinsley, p. 679.
- ^
a
b
Moynihan, p. 138.
- ^
"MACRIS Record for Lincoln Estate-Elm Park Historic District"
. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
. Retrieved
March 7,
2013
.
- ^
Moynihan, p. 149.
- ^
Moynihan, pp. 150?151.
- ^
Moynihan, p. 152.
- ^
Moynihan, p. 153.
- ^
American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
- ^
Worcester Bank and Trust, p. 26.
- ^
"Abraham Lincoln Family Tree"
.
YouTube
.
- ^
The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography
. Vol. I. New York, N.Y.: James T. White & Company. 1898. pp. 114?115 – via
Google Books
.
- ^
United States Congress.
"Levi Lincoln Jr. (id: L000315)"
.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
.
- ^
See e.g. Rice, pp. 46, 55, and others.
- ^
"MACRIS record for Gov. Levi Lincoln House"
. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
. Retrieved
March 7,
2013
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"The Stylish Stamp of the Greek Revival"
. Old Sturbridge Village. Archived from
the original
on April 15, 2013
. Retrieved
March 7,
2013
.
References
[
edit
]
- Brauer, Kinley (1999). "Lincoln, Levi".
Dictionary of American National Biography
. Vol. 13. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 678?679.
ISBN
9780195206357
.
OCLC
39182280
.
- Chase, Frederick (1918).
Lemuel Shaw: Chief Just of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
OCLC
41668851
.
- Dalzell Jr, Robert (1987).
Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
ISBN
9780674257658
.
OCLC
15107890
.
- Darling, Arthur (1925).
Political Changes in Massachusetts, 1824?1848
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
OCLC
1593840
.
- Formisano, Ronald (1983).
The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s?1840s
. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
9780195035094
.
OCLC
18429354
.
- Frothingham, Paul Revere (1925).
Edward Everett, Orator and Statesman
. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
OCLC
1517736
.
- Grob, Gerald (2009) [1973].
Mental Institutions in America : Social Policy to 1875
. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
ISBN
9781412808507
.
OCLC
265650829
.
- Johnson, John, ed. (2001).
Historic US Court Cases, Volume 1
. New York: Taylor and Francis.
ISBN
9780415937559
.
OCLC
24847153
.
- Lewis, Orlando (1922).
The Development of American Prisons and Prison Customs, 1776?1845
. Albany, NY: Prison Association of New York. p.
68
.
OCLC
720621
.
- Nutt, Charles (1919).
History of Worcester and its People, Volume 1
. New York: Lewis Historic Publishing Co.
OCLC
3257562
.
- Moynihan, Kenneth (2007).
A History of Worcester
. Charleston, SC: History Press.
ISBN
9781596292345
.
OCLC
167764114
.
- Pennsylvania Biographical Dictionary
. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishing. 1999.
ISBN
9780403099504
.
- Rice, Frank (1893).
Dictionary of Worcester (Massachusetts) and its Vicinity
. Worcester, MA: F.S. Blanchard. p.
55
.
OCLC
1163769
.
- Urwin, Cathy (1991).
Agenda for Reform: Winthrop Rockefeller as Governor of Arkansas, 1967?71
. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press.
ISBN
9781557282002
.
OCLC
22488996
.
- Warren, Kenneth, ed. (2008).
Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns Elections, and Electoral Behavior, Volume 1
. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
ISBN
9781412954891
.
OCLC
470808938
.
- Washburn, Emory
(1870).
"Memorial of Hon. Levi Lincoln"
.
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society
.
11
: 47?83.
JSTOR
25079399
.
- Worcester Bank and Trust Co (1920).
Forty Immortals of Worcester and its County
. Boston: Walton Advertising and Printing Co.
OCLC
2961541
.
- Zboray, Ronald and Mary (2010).
Voices without Votes: Women and Politics in Antebellum New England
. Durham, NH: University Press of New England.
ISBN
9781584658672
.
OCLC
464597276
.
External links
[
edit
]
Party political offices
|
First
|
National Republican
nominee for
Governor of Massachusetts
1825
,
1826
,
1827
,
1828
,
1829
,
1830
,
1831
,
1831
,
1832
|
Succeeded by
|
Political offices
|
Preceded by
|
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
May 31, 1823 ? 1824
|
Succeeded by
|
Preceded by
as Acting Governor
|
Governor of Massachusetts
May 26, 1825 ? January 9, 1834
|
Succeeded by
|
New office
|
1st
Mayor of Worcester, Massachusetts
1848
|
Succeeded by
|
U.S. House of Representatives
|
Preceded by
|
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from
Massachusetts's 5th congressional district
February 17, 1834 ? March 16, 1841
|
Succeeded by
|
Legal offices
|
Preceded by
|
Associate Justice of the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
1824?1825
|
Succeeded by
|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|