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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—Massachusetts / USNathaniel Prentice BANKS
(1816-1894)
BANKS, Nathaniel Prentice,
a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Waltham, Mass.,
January 30, 1816; attended the common schools; a machinist by
trade; editor of a weekly paper in Waltham, Mass.; clerk in the
customhouse in Boston, Mass.; studied law; was admitted to the
Suffolk County bar and commenced practice in Boston; member of the
State house of representatives 1849-1852, for two years serving as
speaker; member of the State constitutional convention of 1853;
elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress, as the
candidate of the American Party to the Thirty-fourth Congress, and
as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth Congress and served from March
4, 1853, until he resigned December 24, 1857, to become Governor;
Speaker of the House of Representatives (Thirty-fourth Congress);
Governor of Massachusetts from January 1858, until January 1861;
moved to Chicago, Ill.; vice president of the Illinois Central
Railroad; entered the Union Army as a major general of Volunteers
May 16, 1861; honorably mustered out August 24, 1865; returned to
Massachusetts; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth Congress
to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Daniel W. Gooch;
reelected as a Republican to the Fortieth, Forty-first, and
Forty-second Congresses and served from December 4, 1865, to March
3, 1873; chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs (Thirty-ninth
through Forty-second Congresses); unsuccessful Liberal and
Democratic candidate for reelection in 1872 to the Forty-third
Congress; member of the State senate in 1874; elected as an
Independent to the Forty-fourth Congress and as a Republican to the
Forty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1879); unsuccessful
candidate for renomination in 1878 to the Forty-sixth Congress;
appointed United States marshal on March 11, 1879, and served until
April 23, 1888; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first Congress
(March 4, 1889-March 3, 1891); chairman, Committee on Expenditures
in the Department of the Interior (Fifty-first Congress);
unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1890 to the Fifty-second
Congress; died in Waltham, Middlesex County, Mass., September 1,
1894; interment in Grove Hill Cemetery.
Bibliography
Hollandsworth, James G. Pretense of Glory: The Life of General
Nathaniel P. Banks. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 1998.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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