Benjamin F. Harwood was an American lawyer and politician from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Life

He lived in Dansville

Dansville, Livingston County, New York

Dansville is a village in the town of North Dansville in the eastern part of Livingston County, New York, United States. As of the census, the village population was 4,832. The village is named after Daniel Faulkner, an early settler. Interstate 390 passes next to the west side of the village.-...

, Livingston County, New York

Livingston County, New York

As of the census of 2000, there were 64,328 people, 22,150 households, and 15,349 families residing in the county. The population density was 102 people per square mile . There were 24,023 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...

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In 1853

New York state election, 1853

The 1853 New York state election was held on November 8, 1853, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer, two Judges of the New York Court of Appeals, a Canal Commissioner, an Inspector of State Prisons and the Clerk of the...

, he was elected on the Whig ticket Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals

Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals

The Clerk of the New York Court of Appeals was one of the statewide elected officials in New York from 1847 to 1870. He was also ex officio a clerk of the New York Supreme Court. The office was created by the New York State Constitution of 1846...

, being in office from 1854 until his death.

He died a few days after the Court of Appeals declared Governor Myron H. Clark

Myron H. Clark

Myron Holley Clark was an American politician from the U.S. state of New York.- Biography :Clark was born in Naples, Ontario County, New York on October 23, 1806...

's prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

 law to be void. Harwood suffered from alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 himself, and felt the decision "to be his death warrant."

Sources

• The Annals of Albany by Joel Munsell (page 333)
• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (page 348; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• Report of the Executive Committee of the American Temperance Union (1856; page 16)