GRANGER, FRANCIS., 



325 



1811. After his graduation he commenced the 

 study of law, and in 1814, having been admit- 

 ted to the bar, opened an office in Canandai- 

 gua, N. Y., to which place his father, on being 

 removed from office by President Madison, be- 

 cause of his opposition to the war with Great 

 Britain, had removed. Francis Granger soon 

 engaged in politics, taking part with his father 

 in favor of DeWitt Clinton and the policy of 

 internal improvements. His first entrj r into 

 public political life was in 1825, in which year 

 he was elected a member of the lower House 

 of the State Legislature as a representative 

 from Ontario County. He was prominent in 

 the anti- Masonic movement which created such 

 excitement in this State, and was a confrere 

 of William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, Millard 

 Fillmore, and other young men who at that 

 time were aspirants for fame, and who joined 

 the political crusade against the Masons after 

 the alleged abduction of William Morgan. In 

 1826 Mr. Granger was reflected to the Legis- 

 lature, and in 1828 was put in nomination by 

 the anti-Masons as a candidate for Governor. 

 In the same year the Adams Republicans nomi- 

 nated him for the office of Lieutenant- Governor, 

 Judge Smith Thompson being their guberna- 

 torial candidate, which candidacy he accepted. 

 Martin Van Buren and Enos T. Throop were 

 the candidates on the Jackson ticket for Gov- 

 ernor and Lieutenant-Governor respectively, in 

 that campaign, and were elected. In the fol- 

 lowing year Mr. Granger was again reflected 

 to the Legislature, and in 1830 he became the 

 anti-Masonic candidate for Governor, but was 

 again defeated by Mr. Throop. The people of 

 Ontario sent him to represent them in the As- 

 sembly for the fourth time, in 1831. When, 

 in 1832, the Clay Republicans and the anti-Ma- 

 sons coalesced on the same electoral and State 

 tickets in New York, Mr. Granger was again 

 put in nomination for Governor on the ticket 

 of the coalition, but was defeated by William 

 L. Marcy, the candidate of the Democracy. 

 In 1834 the Whig party, made up of anti- 

 Jackson Democrats and Clay Republicans, 

 came upon the political stage, and Mr. Gran- 

 ger was recognized as one of its ablest leaders. 

 His name was, that year, before the State 

 Convention in connection with the guberna- 

 torial candidacy, but William H. Seward bore 

 off the honor of the nomination. In the fall 

 of that year, however, the Whigs of the Twen- 

 ty-sixth congressional District made Mr. Gran- 

 ger their candidate for Congress, and elected 

 him. In 1836 the anti-Masons held a National 

 Convention in Philadelphia, and nominated Mr. 

 Granger for the vice-presidency, on the ticket 

 with General William H. Harrison, who was 

 their presidential candidate. At that time the 

 Whig party was not powerful enough to lay 

 claim to being a national party ; but they de- 

 termined to oppose the election of Mr. Van 

 Buren, who was the Democratic candidate. 

 They were not united in the contest, having 

 Harrison, Webster, and Judge H. L. White as 



candidates. In the New-England States, ex- 

 cept in Vermont, Mr. Granger was on the 

 ticket, as vice-presidential nominee, with Mr. 

 Webster, while in Vermont, New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, 

 he ran with General Harrison. John Tyler, of 

 Virginia, was the Whig candidate in the residue 

 of the States Mr. Granger being particularly 

 obnoxious to the Southern S,tates, by reason 

 of his supposed affiliation with the spirit of 

 abolitionism, which was at that time rising 

 into prominence. The election of a Vice- 

 President that year became the duty of the 

 Senate, in consequence of the failure of the 

 electoral colleges to agree upon a nominee, 

 and they selected Colonel Richard M. Johnson 

 for that office. Mr. Granger still remained true 

 to the Whig party, however, and when it came 

 into power, in 1838, he was elected to Congress 

 from the Ontario District, and in 1840 he was 

 reflected. In 1841 General Harrison, having 

 been elected President, sent Mr. Granger's 

 name in to the Senate for confirmation as 

 Postmaster-General. The President's selection 

 did not meet with the cordial approval of 

 that body, because of Mr. Granger's well- 

 known Anti-slavery views, but at last his 

 nomination was confirmed ; not before he had 

 voluntarily given his promise to President 

 Harrison, however, that, in case he should 

 thereafter act with the Abolition party, he 

 should expect to be removed from his 

 office as Postmaster-General; but he never 

 gave any such cause for removal. He resigned 

 his position in July, 1841, at the request of the 

 New York delegation, in consequence of the 

 rupture which took place between President 

 Tyler (Harrison's successor) and the Cabinet, 

 growing out of Tyler's action on the question 

 of the United States Bank. Mr. Granger was 

 subsequently elected to Congress in place of 

 Mr. Greig, and served in the session of 1841 -'42. 

 The Whigs of the Twenty-sixth District tendered 

 him a renomination at the following election; 

 but he declined it, and never afterward held 

 office. Mr. Granger was not inactive as a pol- 

 itician, however, for many years after his re- 

 tirement from official life. He took a warm 

 interest in the questions that agitated the coun- 

 try during the presidency of Millard Fillmore, 

 and heartily approved the course of the Execu- 

 tive during that exciting period. He is said, 

 also, to have been in sympathy with the Know- 

 Nothing movement, and to have counselled the 

 leaders of that party during the political cam- 

 paigns from 1853 to 1856, but he never took 

 any prominent part before the public as a mem- 

 ber of that organization. During the pen- 

 dency of the late war, Mr. Granger, although 

 understood to be in sympathy with the Union 

 cause, gave no public expression of his views 

 concerning the momentous issues that were 

 then involved. His health began to fail in 1863, 

 and he lost all the relish he had previously ex- 

 hibited for the excitement of politics. In per- 

 son Mr. Granger was tall, of commanding figure, 



