{{Short description|American politician (1794–1877)}} {{infobox officeholder |name=Gorham Parks |state=Maine |district={{ushr|ME|8|8th}} |term_start=March 4, 1833 |term_end=March 3, 1837 |preceded=''New district'' |successor=Thomas Davee |birth_date={{birth date|1794|5|27}} |birth_place=Westfield, Massachusetts, U.S. |death_date={{death date and age|1877|11|23|1794|5|27}} |death_place=New York City, U.S. |resting_place=Green-Wood Cemetery, New York City, U.S. |party=Democratic |other_party=Jacksonian |alma_mater=Harvard University |occupation=Politician, lawyer }} <!-- This article was automatically created by User:polbot from http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000074. The prose may be stilted, and there may be grammatical and Wikification errors. Please improve in any way you see fit. -->'''Gorham Parks''' (May 27, 1794 – November 23, 1877) was a U.S. Representative from Maine, and a Democratic Party candidate for Maine Governor.
Born in Westfield, Massachusetts, Parks attended the common schools and graduated from Harvard University in 1813, where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1819 and began his practice in Bangor, Maine in 1823.
Parks was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth United States Congresses (March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1837). He was a local leader of the Loco-foco or radical faction of the Democratic Party, which was anti-bank, anti-paper money, and anti-monopoly. He was opposed locally by Bangor's "Bank Junto", or conservative Democrats, which included Samuel Veazie, William Emerson, John Hodgdon, and Thomas A. Hill.<ref>John Christopher Arndt, "The Solid Men of Bangor" (PhD dissertation, U. of Maine, 1987), pp. 190–192</ref>
In 1837 Parks was the Democratic candidate for Maine governor. The election was unusual in that Parks' opponent, Edward Kent of the Whig Party, lived in the same city (Bangor) and both were Harvard graduates. In one of the closest gubernatorial races in Maine history, Parks lost by less than a thousand votes (with about 70,000 cast).<ref>''Lewiston Evening Journal'', Sept. 5, 1873, p. 2</ref>
Parks was subsequently appointed United States Marshal for the District of Maine (1838–1841), and then United States Attorney for Maine (1843–1845). He ended his political career as United States Consul at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (1845–1849), a post later occupied by his former opponent Edward Kent
Parks died in Bay Ridge, New York, November 23, 1877, and was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. His son, also Gorham Parks, became Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals, and died in Albany in 1897.
==References== <references/>
==External links== {{CongBio|P000074}}
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Robert P. Dunlap}} {{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Governor of Maine|years=1837}} {{s-aft|after=John Fairfield}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Maine | district=8 | before=New district | after=Thomas Davee | years=March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1837 }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Parks, Gorham}} Category:1794 births Category:1877 deaths Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Law enforcement officials from Maine Category:Politicians from Bangor, Maine Category:Maine Jacksonians Category:Maine lawyers Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery Category:People from Westfield, Massachusetts Category:19th-century United States Marshals Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Maine Category:United States attorneys for the District of Maine Category:19th-century United States representatives