John Gorham Palfrey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's4th district | |
| In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Thompson |
| Succeeded by | vacant; next occupied byBenjamin Thompson, from March 4, 1851. |
| 10thMassachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | |
| In office 1844–1848 | |
| Governor | George N. Briggs |
| Preceded by | John A. Bolles |
| Succeeded by | William B. Calhoun |
| Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
| In office 1842–1843 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 2, 1796 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | April 26, 1881(1881-04-26) (aged 84) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery |
| Political party | Whig,Free-Soil,Republican |
| Spouse | Mary Ann Hammond |
| Alma mater | Phillips Exeter Academy,Harvard University,Harvard Divinity School. |
John Gorham Palfrey (May 2, 1796 – April 26, 1881) was an American clergyman and historian who served as aU.S. Representative fromMassachusetts. AUnitarian minister, he played a leading role in the early history ofHarvard Divinity School, and he later became involved in politics as a State Representative and U.S. Congressman.
He was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Mary Sturgis Gorham and John Palfrey, a son of the merchant and PatriotWilliam Palfrey. In 1803, his mother died soon after giving birth, and in 1804 his father moved to Baltimore. Palfrey began school at the Berry Street Academy in Boston and studied Greek and Latin withWilliam Ellery Channing. He completed preparatory studies as a "charity student" atPhillips Exeter Academy,Exeter, New Hampshire, and graduated fromHarvard University in 1815. He studied theology atHarvard Divinity School, graduating in its second class.
Palfrey was ordained minister of Boston'sBrattle Square Unitarian Church on June 17, 1818. He held the usual duties of preaching two sermons every Sunday (with a substitute every fourth Sunday), calling on all his parishioners at least once a year, teaching Sunday school, and visiting the sick and poor. He was a member of theAmerican Unitarian Association.
In 1827, Palfrey delivered three sermons onintemperance, which were published and widely circulated.[1] In their first report, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance gave special thanks to "the Rev. Dr. Beecher, and the Rev. Mr. Palfrey" for their "series of masterly discourses on the causes, extent, and remedies of intemperance."[2]
When the Society for the Promotion of Theological Education, which controlled Harvard Divinity School at the time, appealed to alumni for funds to buildDivinity Hall, Palfrey preached two sermons to raise $2,000. He became the society's secretary in 1827 and aHarvard Overseer in 1828, when he also began teaching part-time. In 1831, afterAndrews Norton retired in 1830, he became a Professor of Biblical Literature and Dean of Faculty at the Divinity School and removed toCambridge. In this position, in addition to teaching the Bible, Hebrew, and other semitic languages, he was in charge of the building, organized faculty meetings, and was the chief disciplinarian. He made changes, including instituting a new set of rules for the school, reorganizing the curriculum, and dealing with complaints from faculty members about their salaries.
As a professor, he taught Unitarian ministers such asAndrew Peabody,William Henry Channing,James Freeman Clarke, Chandler Robbins,William Greenleaf Eliot,Cyrus A. Bartol,Charles Timothy Brooks,George Edward Ellis,Abiel Abbot Livermore,Theodore Parker,Henry Whitney Bellows,Edmund Hamilton Sears,Rufus Phineas Stebbins, the philosopherWilliam Dexter Wilson, the artistChristopher Pearse Cranch, the music criticJohn Sullivan Dwight, and the SwedenborgianBenjamin Fiske Barrett.
After living in Divinity Hall with his students for several months, Palfrey built a house north of the college on 12 acres (49,000 m2) he bought, which was the Palfrey home until 1916, when it was bought by Harvard. It still stands today as Palfrey House, part of the Department of Physics.[3]
To add to his income, Palfrey was at various times in his life editor of several publications. First, in 1824 and 1825 he was editor of theChristian Disciple, which he renamed theChristian Examiner. He was editor of theNorth American Review from 1835 to 1843, having become a financial partner in that publication in 1817 and having bought theReview in 1835. Difficulty managing both teaching and editing led him to resign from the Divinity School in 1839 when the Corporation would not allow him to teach part-time. He sold theReview in 1842 after it had become a financial liability, partly due to thePanic of 1837.
As a writer he is best known by hisHistory of New England to the Revolutionary War, in five volumes, of which the first appeared in 1859 and the last posthumously in 1890. The writing of this consumed much of his later life, and he worked with early state sources and made a research trip to England in 1856. He also wrote various works on theology earlier in his career. He was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society in 1856.[4]
Not having been politically involved or written in newspapers, he was nevertheless elected as aWhig to theMassachusetts House of Representatives in 1842 and 1843. He was chairman of the House Standing Committee on Education, working closely withHorace Mann. During his second term, however, the Whigs were in the minority, leading to several legislative disappointments, so he sought state office instead of re-election to the House. He becameMassachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, a post he held from 1844 to 1848. As secretary, a largely ceremonial position, he introduced statistical tables which set a new standard for the state, organized the Revolutionary War records to better answer pension claims, and organized the state's 14,000 volumes and 40,000 pamphlets of written records.
Palfrey was elected as aWhig to theThirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). He was a "Conscience Whig" who opposed slavery, having freed sixteen slaves inherited from his father, who, like his two brothers, was a successful Louisiana plantation owner. In Washington, he was a member of a small group of anti-slavery congressmen, includingJoshua Giddings, who met regularly. His anti-slavery views alienated him from more conservative members of his district, such as the "Cotton Whigs," and in 1848 he was unsuccessful in his campaign for re-election on theFree-Soil ticket. (The seat remained vacant for the31st Congress despite multiple elections, in which no candidate achieved the needed 51% majority.) He was also the Free-Soil candidate forGovernor of Massachusetts in 1851.
In addition to opposing slavery, Congressman Palfrey advocated for the rights of free blacks traveling in the South and attempted unsuccessfully to remove provisions that limited suffrage to whites in Oregon's Territorial Constitution.[5]
As the anti-slavery movement grew in Massachusetts and theRepublican Party emerged, Palfrey's political fortunes improved again. AfterAbraham Lincoln's election in 1861, SenatorCharles Sumner secured him appointment as Postmaster of Boston, a post he held from 1861 to 1867. He suffered a stroke in the mid-1870s and died inCambridge, Massachusetts on April 26, 1881. He was interred inMount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.
In March 1823, Palfrey married one of his parishioners, Mary Ann Hammond (1800–1897). Their children wereSarah Hammond (1823–1914), a novelist and poet; Hannah (1825);Francis Winthrop Palfrey (1831), historian of the Civil War; andJohn Carver Palfrey (1833–1906), a military engineer in the Civil War and a textile manufacturer. Mary Ann Hammond was the cousin of Charles Hammond Gibson Sr., whose son,Charles Hammond Gibson Jr., opened theGibson House Museum.[6] His 4th great grandson is Drew Palfrey.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Palfrey, John Gorham".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Media related toJohn Gorham Palfrey (1796-1881) at Wikimedia Commons| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Free Soil nominee forGovernor of Massachusetts 1851 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromMassachusetts's 4th congressional district March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849 | Succeeded by vacant; next held byBenjamin Thompson |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by John A. Bolles | 10thMassachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth 1844–1848 | Succeeded by |
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