Editing Henry Adoniram Swift

{{Short description|American politician (1823–1869)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= Henry Adoniram Swift
|image=HenrySwift.jpg
|order= 3rd
|office= Governor of Minnesota
|term_start= July 10, 1863
|term_end= January 11, 1864
|lieutenant= ''Vacant''
|predecessor= [[Alexander Ramsey]]
|successor= [[Stephen Miller (Minnesota governor)|Stephen Miller]]
|order2= 3rd
|office2= Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota
|term2= March 4, 1863 – July 10, 1863
|governor2= Alexander Ramsey
|predecessor2= [[Ignatius L. Donnelly]]
|successor2= [[Charles D. Sherwood]]
|birth_date= {{birth date|1823|3|23|mf=y}}
|birth_place= [[Ravenna, Ohio]], U.S.
|death_date= {{death date and age|1869|2|25|1823|3|23|mf=y}}
|death_place= [[St. Peter, Minnesota]], U.S.
|party= [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|profession= lawyer, businessperson, abolitionist
|spouse= Ruth Livingston
|religion=
|footnotes=
}}
'''Henry Adoniram Swift''' (March 23, 1823{{spaced ndash}}February 25, 1869) was an American [[politician]] who was the [[List of governors of Minnesota|third Governor of Minnesota]]. He served as governor from July 10, 1863 to January 11, 1864 after serving as the [[List of Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota|third Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota]] when Governor [[Alexander Ramsey]] resigned to enter the [[United States Congress]]. Prior to that he had served in the [[Minnesota Senate]].  Swift was a [[United States Republican Party|Republican]].

Described by peers as gentle, self-effacing, and ambivalent toward politics, Henry Swift was Minnesota's third governor for less than a year, completing the second term of [[Alexander Ramsey]], who had been elected [[United States Senator]]. With little time or apparent inclination to effect major change, this un-elected governor concentrated on assuring the welfare of [[American Civil War|Civil War]] veterans.

After graduation with honors from [[Western Reserve Academy|Western Reserve College]] in his native [[Ohio]], Swift tutored the children of a slave owner in [[Mississippi]], an experience that reinforced his commitment to abolition. He returned to Ohio, earned a law degree, and began a career in business and government service.

He and his family journeyed to [[Minnesota]] in 1853, settling first in [[St. Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]] then [[St. Peter, Minnesota|St. Peter]]. With his partners in the St. Peter Land Company, he campaigned, unsuccessfully, to relocate the state capital in their burgeoning Minnesota River town.

Swift left his commercial enterprises in 1861 for the state senate seat that propelled him into the governorship. Later he served two more terms in the senate and was a reluctant candidate for the U.S. Senate. "I shall be ten times happier with my family in St. Peter than as Senator at Washington," he declared characteristically upon learning he had lost the Republican senatorial nomination in 1865. Four years later, he succumbed to typhoid fever at age 45.

[[Swift County, Minnesota]] was named after him in 1870.<ref>{{cite book|last=Upham|first=Warren|title=Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origin and Historic Significance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShcLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA539|year=1920|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society|page=539}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090707044145/http://www.mnhs.org/people/governors/gov/gov_05.htm Biographical information] and his [http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/gov017.xml  gubernatorial records] are available for research use at the [http://www.mnhs.org Minnesota Historical Society.]
*[http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.asp?ID=15034 Minnesota Legislators Past and Present]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota|Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota]]|years=1863–1863|before=[[Ignatius L. Donnelly]]|after=[[Charles D. Sherwood]]}}
{{succession box|title=[[List of Governors of Minnesota|Governor of Minnesota]]|years=1863–1864|before=[[Alexander Ramsey]]|after=[[Stephen Miller (Minnesota governor)|Stephen Miller]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Minnesota}}
{{MNLieutenantGovernors}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swift, Henry Adoniram}}
[[Category:1823 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Ravenna, Ohio]]
[[Category:Republican Party governors of Minnesota]]
[[Category:Lieutenant governors of Minnesota]]
[[Category:People of Minnesota in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Republican Party Minnesota state senators]]
[[Category:Union (American Civil War) state governors]]
[[Category:19th-century American politicians]]
[[Category:People from St. Peter, Minnesota]]