GRANGER, FRANCIS ( 1792-1868 ) . An American politician, born at Suffield, Conn.. the son of Gideon Granger (q.v.). He graduated at Yale in 1811, and in 1814 began the practice of law with his father in Canandaigua, N. Y. In 1825 he was elected from Ontario County to the State Legislature, and with William H. Seward, Thurlow Weed, and others, took a prominent part in the Anti-Masonic movement. In 1826 he was reelected to the Legislature, and in 1827 was a delegate to the famous protaCtionist convention at Harrisburg„, Pa. In 1828 he was nominated by the Anti-Masonic Party for Governor, but de clined, as he had accepted the nomination of the Adams Democrats .for Lieutenant-Governor on their ticket. He was one of the most active pro moters of the new Whig Party in 1834, and in the State convention of that year was one of its candidates for the nomination as Governor, which, however, was secured by Seward. In the fall of the same year he was nominated and elected to Congress. Granger was reelected to the Twenty sixth Congress in 1838, and in March, 1841, en tered Harrison's Cabinet as Postmaster-General, the office his father had held under Jefferson and Madison. He was confirmed after some objection
on the part of the Southern Senators, who sus pected him of anti-slavery proclivities; but after Harrison's death and the break between Tyler and the Whigs, he resigned. He again served in Con gress in 1841-42, but at the end of his term retired, and never again held public office. Ile con tinued to take an active interest in politics, how ever, supported Webster in his stand on the compromise measures of 1850, and headed the revolt in the Whig convention at Syracuse, N. Y., in that year, the participators in which are said to have taken their name of 'Silver Grays' (q.v.) from the flowing white locks of Granger and some of his conservative companions. He was in sym pathy with the Know-Nothing movement in 1853 56, and is said to have advised its leaders; but he never supported it openly. In 1861 he was a member of the Peace Convention at Washing ton.