an American politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as U.S. Postmaster General. He began his career as a shoemaker and farmer, but then studied law in Buffalo, New York, alongside future U.S. President Millard Fillmore, and later served him as a law clerk and still later as a law partner. After passing the bar examination in 1832, he practiced law and held various elected offices in Buffalo and Erie County, New York. He was elected a member of the New York Legislature in 1846.
