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Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn (1783-1851), a Massachusetts militia officer during the War of 1812,  served as Collector of Customs at Boston from 1812-1829. Also a politician, he was elected to Congress and was nominated for Vice President of the United States by the Know Nothing Party in 1847 (then known as the Native American Party).  Born in Exeter, New Hampshire, he was the son of Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), a statesman and veteran of the American Revolution. H. A. S. Dearborn began his career as a lawyer and held various public offices and military commands during his life. He was Collector of Customs at Boston, 1812-1829, and in 1812 was appointed brigadier general in the Massachusetts militia, commanding volunteers at Boston Harbor defenses. Dearborn was a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820-1821, and a member of the Massachusetts legislature, 1829-1830, and the U.S. House of Representatives, 1831-1833. In 1835 he was appointed Adjutant General of Massachusetts, but was dismissed in 1843 for loaning state arms to the government of Rhode Island to suppress the Dorr Rebellion in 1842. Dearborn was the author of several non-fiction works and wrote extensively on political, horticultural and other topics for newspapers and periodicals. He collaborated with his father to transcribe and edit his Revolutionary War journals, wrote sketches of his father’s life and military career, and prepared materials for publication in the press on his behalf. A noted horticulturist and leader in the rural cemetery movement, Dearborn served as the first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, founded in 1829. He also helped found the New England Society for the Promotion of Manufactures and the Mechanical Arts, which existed from 1826 to 1868. In 1847 the Native American Party, later known as the American Party and popularly as the Know Nothing Party, nominated him to run for U.S. Vice President. H.A.S. Dearborn was Mayor of Roxbury from 1847 until his death in 1851.


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