Levi Lincoln, Jr., American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1868)
Levi Lincoln Jr. (October 25, 1782 – May 29, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician from Worcester, Massachusetts. He was the 13th Governor of Massachusetts (1825–1834) and represented the state in the U.S. Congress (1834–1841). Lincoln's nine-year tenure as governor is the longest consecutive service in state history; only Michael Dukakis (12 years), John Hancock (11 years) and Caleb Strong (10 years) served more years, but they were not consecutive.
Born to Levi Lincoln Sr., a prominent Worcester lawyer, he studied law and entered the state legislature in 1812 as a Democratic-Republican. He supported the War of 1812 (a minority position in Federalist-dominated Massachusetts) and opposed the Hartford Convention. Over the next ten years his politics moderated, and he was elected governor in 1825 in a nonpartisan landslide after serving one year on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Lincoln oversaw significant economic development in Massachusetts during his tenure and issued the first-ever veto by a Massachusetts governor. Lincoln and Daniel Webster were leading forces in the foundation of the National Republican (later Whig) Party in Massachusetts, which dominated state politics until the 1850s.
Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1835, serving in the House of Representatives until 1841, when President William Henry Harrison appointed him collector of the Port of Boston. He was a major civic and philanthropic force in Worcester, owning and developing land in the city, and serving as its first mayor in 1848.