1. Francis Granger was an American politician who represented Ontario County, New York, in the United States House of Representatives for three non-consecutive terms.
21 Facts About Francis Granger
1. 2.
Francis Granger was a leading figure in the state and national Whig Party, particularly in its moderate-conservative faction.
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Francis Granger served as a Whig vice presidential nominee on the party's multi-candidate 1836 ticket and, in that role, became the only person to ever lose a contingent election for the vice presidency in the US Senate.
4.
Francis Granger served briefly in 1841 as United States Postmaster General in the cabinet of William Henry Harrison.
5.
Francis Granger was born into a prominent political family, with his father, Gideon Francis Granger, serving in the Connecticut House of Representatives before being appointed by Thomas Jefferson as the longest serving Postmaster General in United States history.
6.
Francis Granger's mother was Mindwell Granger and his first cousin, Amos Phelps Granger, served two terms in the United States House of Representatives.
7.
Francis Granger pursued classical studies at and graduated from Yale College in 1811.
8.
Francis Granger then moved with his father to Canandaigua, New York, in 1814, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1816 and commenced practice.
9.
Francis Granger started his own political career as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1826 to 1828 and from 1830 to 1832.
10.
Francis Granger ran unsuccessful campaigns for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1828, and for Governor of New York in both 1830 and 1832 with the National Republican Party.
11.
Francis Granger was then elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the 24th Congress serving from March 4,1835, to March 3,1837.
12.
Francis Granger was a regional vice presidential nominee for the northern and border states on the same ticket as William Henry Harrison, though in Massachusetts he was on the Whig ticket headed by Daniel Webster.
13.
Francis Granger was re-elected to Congress as a Whig to the 26th and 27th Congresses serving from March 4,1839, to March 5,1841.
14.
Harrison would win the presidency four years later in 1840 but Francis Granger was not again his running mate and was instead replaced by John Tyler.
15.
In 1841, Francis Granger was appointed Postmaster General in the Cabinet of President William Henry Harrison and served from March 6 to September 18,1841, the day when almost all Whig Cabinet members left the government of new President John Tyler on the instruction of their party leader Henry Clay.
16.
Francis Granger served from November 27,1841, to March 3,1843, and was not a candidate for reelection in 1842.
17.
Chairman of the Whig National Executive Committee from 1856 to 1860, Francis Granger joined in the call for the convention of the Constitutional Union Party that was held in May 1860.
18.
Francis Granger was then a member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, DC, in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war.
19.
Francis Granger married Cornelia Rutsen Van Rensselaer, the daughter of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and Sybella Adeline Van Rensselaer.
20.
Francis Granger was the granddaughter of Brigadier General Robert Van Rensselaer, who was a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the 1st, 2nd and 4th New York State Legislatures.
21.
The Grangers' home at Canandaigua from 1817 to 1827, now known as the Francis Granger House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.