{{Short description|American politician (1781–1847)}} {{for|a Scottish writer|William Romaine Paterson}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Benjamin Swift |image = BSwift.jpg |office = United States Senator<br/>from Vermont |jr/sr1 = |state1 = Vermont |term_start1 = March 4, 1833 |term_end1 = March 3, 1839 |preceded1 = Horatio Seymour |succeeded1 = Samuel S. Phelps |office2 = Member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's 4th congressional district |term_start2 = March 4, 1827 |term_end2 = March 3, 1831 |predecessor2 = Ezra Meech |successor2 = Heman Allen (of Milton) |office3 = Member of the Vermont House of Representatives from St. Albans |term_start3 = 1825 |term_end3 = 1827 |predecessor3 = Stephen Royce |successor3 = John Smith |birth_date = {{birth date|1781|4|3}} |birth_place = Amenia, New York, U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1847|11|11|1781|4|3}} |death_place = St. Albans, Vermont, U.S. |resting_place = Greenwood Cemetery<br>St. Albans, Vermont |parents = Job Swift<br>Mary Ann (Sedgwick) Swift |spouse = Rebecca Brown Swift |children = 9 |alma_mater = Litchfield Law School |profession = Politician<br>Lawyer<br>Banker<br>Farmer |party = Democratic-Republican<br>National Republican<br>Whig }}

'''Benjamin Swift''' (April 9, 1780&nbsp;– November 11, 1847) was an American lawyer, banker and politician from Vermont. He served as a United States representative and United States senator, and helped found the Whig Party.

==Early life== Swift was born in Amenia, New York, the son of Job Swift and Mary Ann (Sedgwick) Swift.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url= http://records.ancestry.com/benjamin_swift_records.ashx?pid=16621377|title=Benjamin Swift|publisher = Ancestry.com.|accessdate= May 6, 2014}}</ref> In 1786, at the age of five, he moved with his father to Bennington in the Vermont Republic. He attended the common schools in Bennington before attending Litchfield Law School in 1801.<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url= http://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/2519|title=Benjamin Swift|publisher =Litchfield Historical Society.|accessdate= May 6, 2014}}</ref> He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1806. He began the practice of law in Bennigton before moving to Manchester to practice law. In 1809 he moved to St. Albans to practice law. He also engaged in banking and farming in the area.

==Political career== He held various political positions in Vermont, and was elected to the Vermont State House in 1825.<ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Middlebury College|title=Catalogue of Officers and Students of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont|date=1917|publisher=The College|page=xiv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TapBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR13 }}</ref> He served in the State House until 1827. He was then elected to serve Vermont as a National Republican Party candidate in the United States House of Representatives. He served in the Twentieth and the Twenty-first Congresses from March 4, 1827, to March 3, 1831.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|last=Herringshaw|first=Thomas William|title=Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century|date=1904|publisher=American Publishers' Association|page=910|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xxg7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA910 }}</ref> While in Congress, he was on the executive committee of the Congressional Temperance Society.<ref>{{cite book|last=American Temperance Union|title=Journal of the American Temperance Union, Volumes 1-4|date=1837|publisher=The Union|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xc9OAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA36 }}</ref> He declined renomination.

In 1833 he was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the United States Senate, serving from March 4, 1833, to March 3, 1839.<ref>{{cite book|last=U.S. Government Printing Office|title=United States Congressional Serial Set|date=1913|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatescon24conggoog/page/n1041 1039]|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatescon24conggoog }}</ref> While in the Senate, Swift was a strong opponent of President Andrew Jackson and helped found the Whig Party.<ref name=":1" /> Swift was not renominated for a second term in the Senate and returned to St. Albans where he continued to work as a lawyer and farmer until his death. He died on November 11, 1847, in St. Albans, Vermont<ref name=":3" /> and is interred in Greenwood Cemetery in St. Albans.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://voca58.org/cemeteries/fpcat.php?input=Congressman|title=Prominent People Buried in Vermont |publisher = Vermont Old Cemetery Association.|accessdate= May 6, 2014}}</ref>

==Family life== Swift married Rebecca Brown on October 26, 1809.<ref name=":2" /> They were the parents of nine children: Charles Henry, Cordelia, William, Catherine Sedgwick, Alfred Brown, Jane Harriet, George Sedgwick, Caroline, and Charles Benjamin.<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * Smith, Worthington. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_DTLHxqQTSoC A Discourse, Delivered November 17, 1847, at the Interment of the Hon. Benjamin Swift, Late a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont]''. St. Albans, VT: E.B. Whiting, 1848.

==External links==<!-- for current and future use if material is uploaded --> * {{CongBio|S001116}} * {{Find a Grave|6890580}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Vermont | district=4 | before=Ezra Meech | after=Heman Allen (of Milton) | years=March 4, 1827 &ndash; March 3, 1831 (obsolete district) }} {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box | state=Vermont | class=1 | before=Horatio Seymour | after=Samuel S. Phelps | alongside=Samuel Prentiss | years=March 4, 1833 &ndash; March 3, 1839 }} {{s-end}}

{{USSenVT}} {{United States representatives from Vermont}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, Benjamin}} Category:1780 births Category:1847 deaths Category:People from Amenia, New York Category:Vermont Democratic-Republicans Category:National Republican Party United States representatives from Vermont Category:National Republican Party United States senators from Vermont Category:Vermont National Republicans Category:Vermont Whigs Category:Whig Party United States senators from Vermont Category:Members of the Vermont House of Representatives Category:Bankers from Vermont Category:Farmers from Vermont Category:Politicians from Bennington, Vermont Category:Politicians from St. Albans, Vermont Category:Vermont lawyers Category:Litchfield Law School alumni Category:Burials at Greenwood Cemetery (St. Albans, Vermont) Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:United States representatives from Vermont Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:19th-century United States senators Category:19th-century members of the Vermont General Assembly