Robert B. Cranston

Robert Bennie Cranston ( born January 14, 1791 in Newport, Rhode Iceland, † January 27, 1873 ) was an American politician. Between 1837 and 1843, and again from 1847 to 1849, he represented the first electoral district of the state of Rhode Iceland in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Robert Cranston attended the common schools and worked 1812-1815, during the British - American War, as a tax collector. Between 1818 and 1827 he served as sheriff police chief in Newport County. In 1827 he was postmaster in Newport. As an opponent of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party Cranston was a member of this new party after the founding of the Whigs. In 1836 he was chosen as their candidate in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington. There he met on March 4, 1837 the successor of William Sprague. After two re- elections he could implement his mandate in Congress until March 3, 1843. Then his brother Henry Y. Cranston took his seat, he was to keep until 1847.

In the years 1843-1847 Robert Cranston was a member for a year and also president of the House of Representatives of Rhode Iceland. Then he sat for a short time in the state Senate before he could recover after his victory in the congressional elections of 1846 on March 4, 1847 his old seat of his brother. By March 3, 1849 Robert Cranston completed another term in Congress. On 9 June 1853 he was elected mayor of the city of Newport. On the same day he resigned from this office. After the dissolution of the Whig Party Robert Cranston was a member of the newly formed Republican Party. In the presidential election of 1864 he was one of the Republican electors, officially chose President Abraham Lincoln in his second term. After he retired from politics. Robert Cranston died in 1873 in his hometown of Newport.