Addison Gardiner

Addison Gardiner

Addison Gardiner (born March 19, 1797 in Rindge , Cheshire County , New Hampshire , † June 5, 1883 in Rochester , New York ) was an American lawyer and politician ( Democratic Party ). He was from 1845 to 1847 Vice-Governor and 1854-1855 Chief Judge at the Court of Appeal of New York .

Early years

Gardiner studied law , was admitted to the bar in 1822, and then began practicing in Rochester. He opened a law firm there with Samuel L. Selden , who later also became a judge at the court of appeal. His youngest brother, Henry R. Selden , studied law in the law firm and later became lieutenant governor and judge at the New York Court of Appeals. Gardiner was later a Justice of the Peace in Rochester.

District Attorney and District Judge

He was appointed District Attorney of Monroe County in 1825 . He was then between 1829 and 1838 judge in the 8th Judicial District of New York with local jurisdiction for the counties of Allegany , Erie , Chautauqua , Monroe, Genesee and Niagara . During this time he was negotiating the kidnapping of William Morgan , which caused a great stir among the Anti-Masonic . Elihu Mather had been charged with attempted abduction and acquitted. After his acquittal, a motion was filed for retrial in the New York Court of Appeals. However, like all of his others, the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court , which earned him the reputation of an exemplary magistrate. In February 1838 he resigned from his post as a judge and returned to practice in Rochester.

Lieutenant Governor and Court of Appeal

On November 5, 1844, Gardiner was elected Lieutenant Governor of New York. Many important issues were discussed in the New York Senate during his tenure . It was a period of anti-pension unrest where various preventive and remedial measures were discussed. Attention was paid to channel expansion and other domestic policy improvements. One of the most important draft laws was the calling of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution .

As President of the Senate, Gardiner presided over the Court for the Correction of Errors , the state's highest appeals court, composed of the Senate President, Senators, the Chancellor and the judges of the New York Supreme Court . Few cases have been dealt with by this court as the judicial proceedings usually ended with the decision of the Supreme Court or the Chancellor , so many of these were fundamentally important or significant.

On November 3, 1846, Gardiner was re-elected to the office of Lieutenant Governor of New York. He beat his opponent from the Whig Party , Hamilton Fish , with a majority of over 13,000 votes, during which John Young as Whig with a majority of over 11,000 votes against incumbent Governor Wright won a victory. Although the governor ran with the lieutenant governor as running mate , both were elected on separate ballot papers. Gardiner was nominated by the Anti-Renters on their cross-endorsed ticket with Young, whose votes decided this election.

Gardiner was one of the first justices to be elected to the New York Court of Appeals on June 7, 1847. On June 22nd, he was elected for the longest term (eight and a half years) and took office on July 5th, in accordance with the new constitution adopted in 1846. When Gardiner moved to the New York Court of Appeals, a vacancy arose , a gubernatorial election was held in the annual state election, where Fish was elected for the remainder of Gardiner's term. Gardiner became Chief Judge in 1854 and held that office until late 1855 when his term expired.

Another résumé

After the end of his tenure at the Court of Appeal, he held a position in the administration of justice as an arbitrator. In this position he worked for twenty years, where he arbitrated many important cases. He was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

family

Addison Gardiner married Mary Selkrigg, of Scottish descent , in 1831 . Their children were Charles A. Gardiner and Celeste M. Gardiner. His older brother, William Gardiner (1787 – approx. 1855), lived in Lowell, Massachusetts for a few years , then moved to Texas , where he died on his plantation near San Antonio . Another brother, Charles (1789-1860) was a merchant in New Orleans . His sister Rebecca (1791-1818) married Oren Stone, a merchant and partner of Governor Seymour's father, and then lived in Watertown, New York. Another sister, Dorothy, married Thomas A. Gould, a lawyer from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she died in 1857. The youngest sister, Andu Lucia, born around 1800, married Elijah Rhoades of Manlius, New York, a merchant and senator from New York.

Web links

• Biographies of Monroe County People, Page 19 RootsWeb
• Papers of Victory Birdseye - The Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of Grand Lodge
• Obituary notice in the New York Times on June 6, 1883
• Addison Gardiner at The Political Graveyard

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme court of judicature, and in the Court for the trial of impeachments and the correction of errors of the state of New York (1828-1841) , Volume 3, Gould, Banks & Co., 1839, pp. 431-435
2. ^ Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court and in the court for the correction of errors of the State of New York , Volume 3, Banks & Bros., 1859
3. ↑ The New York Civil List by Franklin Benjamin Hough, Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858, pages 32, 348 and 356