Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Governor Levi Woodbury 1823-1824. Woodbury (1789-1851) was born at Francestown (NH). He graduated from Dartmouth College (Class of 1809) and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1812.

Woodbury served as Clerk of the State Senate (1816), then was appointed Associate Justice of State Superior Court (served 1817-1823). In 1823 he was elected Governor, and reelected a year later. In 1825 Woodbury was Speaker of the House and elected to a term in the U.S. Senate (served 1825-1831).

As a U.S. Senator Woodbury was a Jackson Democrat, and President Jackson appointed Woodbury Secretary of the Navy (served 1831-1834) and then Secretary of the Treasury (served 1834-1841). In the latter position Woodbury fought with success to end The Bank of the United States; like Jackson he favored an independent treasury system and "hard money." The financial Panic of 1837 was a legacy of Woodbury's tenure, as was the collapse of speculative land prices.

In the 1844 presidential election Woodbury and the Jackson Democrats supported the Democrats' nomination of James K. Polk. Polk was inaugurated President March 4, 1845, and he promptly named Woodbury an Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. Woodbury was regarded as the Democrats' likely nominee in the 1852 presidential election, but he died before the convention.

Location: State House, Second Floor, Corridor, West Face, Beginning at Room 208
Portrait copied by T. Lawson from original by Charles Bird King. Gift to the State, 1874