Levi WOODBURY, Congress, NH (1789-1851)

WOODBURY, Levi, a Senator from New Hampshire; born in Francestown, N.H., December 22, 1789; graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., in 1809; studied law in Litchfield, Conn., Boston, Mass., and Exeter, N.H.; admitted to the bar in 1812 and practiced in Francestown, N.H., 1813-1816; judge of the superior court of New Hampshire 1816-1823; moved to Portsmouth, N.H., in 1819; Governor of New Hampshire 1823-1824; member, State house of representatives 1825, and served as speaker; elected as a Jacksonian to the United States Senate for the term beginning March 4, 1825, and served from March 16, 1825, to March 3, 1831; chairman, Committee on Commerce (Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses); nominated for the State senate in 1831 but declined; Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Andrew Jackson 1831-1834, when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury 1834-1841; appointed chief justice of the superior court of New Hampshire but declined to serve; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1841, to November 20, 1845, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Finance (Twenty-ninth Congress); declined the British mission; appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and served from November 1845 until his death in Portsmouth, N.H., September 4, 1851; interment in Harmony Grove Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Capowski, Vincent. “The Making of a Jacksonian Democrat: Levi Woodbury, 1789-1851.” Ph.D. dissertation, Fordham University, 1966; Woodbury, Levi. Writings of Levi Woodbury. 3 vols. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1852.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present