Levi Lincoln

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Levi Lincoln

Levi Lincoln senior (born May 15, 1749 in Hingham , Plymouth County , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † April 14, 1820 in Worcester , Massachusetts ) was an American lawyer , politician , attorney general and acting governor of Massachusetts .

Family, studies and professional career

Lincoln was distantly related to Abraham Lincoln through a common relative . His two sons Levi and Enoch were also governors of Massachusetts and Maine, respectively .

Lincoln first completed a general education course at Harvard University , which he graduated in 1772 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) . He then studied law .

At the outbreak of the War of Independence (1775 to 1783) he served as a so-called Minuteman in the militia and participated as a volunteer in the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. He then served from 1775 to 1781 as a court clerk, probate judge and district prosecutor ( County Prosecutor ) of Worcester County . In 1780 he was one of the first members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Political career

MPs in Massachusetts and Washington

In 1779, Lincoln was also a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. Despite being elected a member of the Continental Congress in 1781, he refused to accept the mandate. His political career began with his election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1796 and continued the following year with membership in the State Senate .

In 1800 he was elected a member of the US House of Representatives . There he represented the interests of the fourth congressional electoral district of Massachusetts until March 5, 1801 .

Attorney General and Governor of Massachusetts

On March 5, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson appointed him to his cabinet as Attorney General . At the same time he was acting Foreign Minister until May 2, 1801 . He served as Attorney General until the end of Jefferson's first term on March 5, 1805.

In 1806 he was initially a member of the State Council of Massachusetts. He subsequently became lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1807 ; as such, he was acting governor of Massachusetts from 1808 to 1809 after the death of James Sullivan . In 1809 his regular election as governor failed. From 1810 to 1812 he was again a member of the State Council.

The 1811 offered him the office of judge at the United States Supreme Court , he declined.

Publications

  • Letters to the people, by a farmer. 1802.

literature

  • Marvin J. Petroelje: Levi Lincoln, Sr .: Jeffersonian Republican of Massachusetts. Dissertation ( Ph.D. ), Michigan State University, 1969.
  • Lincoln, Levi . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 3 : Grinnell - Lockwood . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1887, p. 729 (English, full text [ Wikisource ] - Biographies of Lincoln and his sons).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lincoln, Levi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lincoln, Levi senior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1749
PLACE OF BIRTH Hingham , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1820
Place of death Worcester , Massachusetts