Swartwout, Samuel

Born: 1783-11-17 Poughkeepsie, New York

Died: 1856-11-21 New York, New York

Flourished: New York

Collector of the Port of New York during the Jackson and Van Buren administrations, who allegedly embezzled over $1 million and fled the country in 1839. Abraham Lincoln and other Whigs during the 1840 presidential campaign cited Swartwout as typical of the corruption plaguing the Van Buren administration.

Daniel Walker Howe, What God Hath Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 334; Genealogical Record of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (New York: Saint Nicholas Society, 1905), 157; Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America from March 4, 1829, to March 3, 1837, Inclusive (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887), 4:84; Handbook of Texas Online, B. R. Brunson, "Swartwout, Samuel," accessed March 19, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsw03; Speech of Mr. Lincoln, at a Political Discussion, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, December 1839, at Springfield, Illinois.