Henry Gardner

Henry Joseph Gardner ( born June 14, 1818 in Boston, Massachusetts, † July 21, 1892 ) was an American politician and from 1855 to 1858 Governor of Massachusetts.

Early years and political rise

Henry Gardner attended Phillips Academy and then to 1838 Bowdoin College. Then he built in Boston on a commercial transaction. Between 1850 and 1854 he was a town councilor in Boston and from 1851 to 1852 deputy in the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. In 1853 he was member of a commission to revise the constitution of Massachusetts. Gardner was one of the Know-Nothing party to, as their candidate, he was elected on 13 November 1854 governor of his state.

Governor of Massachusetts

After he was confirmed in the following years, respectively, Gardner was able to officiate between 4 January 1855 to 6 January 1858 Governor. In his tenure, the naturalization law in Massachusetts was tightened and the electoral laws reformed. His tenure was overshadowed by the national antagonism between the North and the South prior to the Civil War. Governor Gardner refused to dismiss a judge who had sent back a fugitive slave back into slavery in Virginia, while the public and the legislature called for the dismissal massive. Only Gardner's successor in office, Nathaniel Prentiss Banks then took this step.

Further CV

As in 1857, the attempt of a re- re-election, Gardner retired from politics. He went back to his business interests and later joined the insurance business. Gardner died in July 1892. Together with his wife Helen Elizabeth Cobb, he had seven children.