Benjamin Swift Explained

Benjamin Swift
Image Name:BSwift.jpg
Office:United States Senator
from Vermont
State1:Vermont
Term Start1:March 4, 1833
Term End1:March 3, 1839
Preceded1:Horatio Seymour
Succeeded1:Samuel S. Phelps
Office2:Member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's 4th congressional district
Term Start2:March 4, 1827
Term End2:March 3, 1831
Successor2:Heman Allen (of Milton)
Office3:Member of the Vermont House of Representatives from St. Albans
Term Start3:1825
Term End3:1827
Predecessor3:Stephen Royce
Successor3:John Smith
Birth Date:3 April 1781
Birth Place:Amenia, New York, U.S.
Death Place:St. Albans, Vermont, U.S.
Resting Place:Greenwood Cemetery
St. Albans, Vermont
Parents:Job Swift
Mary Ann (Sedgwick) Swift
Spouse:Rebecca Brown Swift
Children:9
Alma Mater:Litchfield Law School
Profession:Politician
Lawyer
Banker
Farmer
Party:Democratic-Republican
National Republican
Whig

Benjamin Swift (April 9, 1780 – November 11, 1847) was an American lawyer, banker and politician from Vermont. He served as a United States Representative and United States Senator, and helped found the Whig Party.

Early life

Swift was born in Amenia, New York, the son of Job Swift and Mary Ann (Sedgwick) Swift.[1] In 1786, at the age of five, he moved with his father to Bennington in the Vermont Republic. He attended the common schools in Bennington before attending Litchfield Law School in 1801.[2] He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1806. He began the practice of law in Bennigton before moving to Manchester to practice law. In 1809 he moved to St. Albans to practice law. He also engaged in banking and farming in the area.

Political career

He held various political positions in Vermont, and was elected to the Vermont State House in 1825.[3] He served in the State House until 1827. He was then elected to serve Vermont as a National Republican Party candidate in the United States House of Representatives. He served in the Twentieth and the Twenty-first Congresses from March 4, 1827, to March 3, 1831.[4] While in Congress, he was on the executive committee of the Congressional Temperance Society.[5] He declined renomination.

In 1833 he was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the United States Senate, serving from March 4, 1833, to March 3, 1839.[6] While in the Senate, Swift was a strong opponent of President Andrew Jackson and helped found the Whig Party. Swift was not renominated for a second term in the Senate and returned to St. Albans where he continued to work as a lawyer and farmer until his death. He died on November 11, 1847, in St. Albans, Vermont and is interred in Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans.[7]

Family life

Swift married Rebecca Brown on October 26, 1809. They were the parents of nine children: Charles Henry, Cordelia, William, Catherine Sedgwick, Alfred Brown, Jane Harriet, George Sedgwick, Caroline, and Charles Benjamin.

Further reading

External links


Notes and References

  1. Web site: Benjamin Swift. Ancestry.com.. May 6, 2014.
  2. Web site: Benjamin Swift. Litchfield Historical Society.. May 6, 2014.
  3. Book: Middlebury College. Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. 1917. The College. xiv.
  4. Book: Herringshaw, Thomas William. Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century. 1904. American Publishers' Association. 910.
  5. Book: American Temperance Union. Journal of the American Temperance Union, Volumes 1-4. 1837. The Union. 36.
  6. Book: U.S. Government Printing Office. United States Congressional Serial Set. 1913. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1039.
  7. Web site: Prominent People Buried in Vermont . Vermont Old Cemetery Association.. May 6, 2014.