Emory Washburn

Emory Washburn

Emory Washburn (born February 14, 1800 in Leicester , Worcester County , Massachusetts , †  March 18, 1877 in Cambridge , Massachusetts) was an American politician and governor of the state of Massachusetts from 1854 to 1855 .

Early years and political advancement

Emory Washburn attended Dartmouth College and then Williams College until 1817 . After a subsequent law degree at the law school of Harvard University , he began from 1817 to work in Worcester and Leicester as a lawyer. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives between 1826 and 1828 and again in 1838 . From 1830 to 1834 he belonged to the senior staff of Governor Levi Lincoln Jr. to. Emory Washburn was a member of the Whig Party and served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1841 to 1842 . From 1844 to 1847 he was a judge at an appeals court. In the gubernatorial elections of 1853 Washburn ran as a candidate for the Whigs. Since no applicant achieved an absolute majority, the state senate had to determine the governor. He chose Washburn. The defeated candidates included Henry Wilson , who was standing for the Free Soil Party and later became Vice President of the United States .

Massachusetts Governor

Emory Washburn took up his new office on January 12, 1854. He was to remain the last Whigs governor in Massachusetts. During his tenure, some social reforms were introduced and the establishment of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute was prepared. Washburn was instrumental in founding this institution. After he was not re-elected in 1854, he had to resign on January 3, 1855 to Henry Gardner .

Another résumé

For the following decades, Washburn was a professor of law at Harvard University. He served on the Massachusetts Education Committee and a curator at Williams College. Washburn was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1859). Between 1876 and 1877 he was again a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Emory Washburn died on March 18, 1877. He had three children with his wife, Marianne Cornelia Giles.

Web links

• Emory Washburn in the National Governors Association (English)
• Emory Washburn in the database of Find a Grave (English)