Francis Granger

He was then elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the 24th Congress serving from March 4, 1835 to March 3, 1837.[2]

In 1836, the Whig Party was unable to settle on one set of candidates for its Presidential ticket. Granger was a regional Vice-Presidential nominee for the northern and border states on the same ticket as William Henry Harrison, though in Massachusetts he was on the Whig ticket headed by Daniel Webster. Though Democrat Martin Van Buren secured enough votes in the Electoral College to win the presidency, Virginia's 23 electors refused to vote for his running mate Richard M. Johnson, who had then lacked only one vote. As a result, votes were split among Johnson, Granger, John Tyler and William Smith with none getting the majority. This triggered a contingent election, the only contingent vice presidential election by the Senate in history, under the Twelfth Amendment with the U.S. Senate deciding between the top two vote-getters Johnson and Granger.[1] As the 25th Congress consisted of 35 Democrats and 17 Whigs, Granger could not hope to be elected and was defeated by Johnson 33-16.

In the general election of the same year, Granger was also running as a Whig candidate for election to the 25th Congress, but failed in that bid as well.[2] He was re-elected to Congress as a Whig to the 26th and 27th Congresses serving from March 4, 1839 to March 5, 1841.[2]

In 1841, Granger was appointed Postmaster General in the Cabinet of President William Henry Harrison and served from March 6 to September 18, 1841,[1] the day when almost all Whig Cabinet members left the government of new President John Tyler on the instruction of their party leader Henry Clay. Following that event, he was again elected to the Congress in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative John Greig. He served from November 27, 1841 to March 3, 1843 and was not a candidate for reelection in 1842.[1]

A supporter of the Compromise of 1850, Granger led the pro-Fillmore group which became known as the Silver Gray Whigs after Granger's own silver hair. This faction would remain in conflict with the anti-Compromise Sewardites until the collapse of the Whig Party in the state in 1855.

Chairman of the Whig National Executive Committee from 1856 to 1860, Granger joined in the call for the convention of the Constitutional Union Party that was held in May 1860. He was then a member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C. in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war.