John Leverett
Engraved portrait of Leverett in his military uniform (artist unknown)
Governor of Acadia (military)
In office 1654–1657
Preceded by	Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour
Succeeded by	Sir Thomas Temple (as proprietor of Nova Scotia)
19th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
In office 1673–1679
Preceded by	Richard Bellingham
Succeeded by	Simon Bradstreet
Personal details
Born	baptized 7 July 1616 Boston, Lincolnshire, England
Died	16 March 1679 (aged 62–63) Massachusetts Bay Colony
Religion	Puritanism
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Parliament army Massachusetts Bay Colony militia
Years of service	1644–1648 (Parliament army) 1649–1673 (Massachusetts militia)
Rank	Captain (Parliament army) Major-general (Massachusetts militia)
Commands	Massachusetts militia
Battles/wars	English Civil War

John Leverett (baptized 7 July 1616 – 16 March 1678/9^[1]) was an English colonial magistrate, merchant, soldier and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born in England, he came to Massachusetts as a teenager. He was a leading merchant in the colony, and served in its military. In the 1640s he went back to England to fight in the English Civil War.

He was opposed to the strict Puritan religious orthodoxy in the colony. He also believed the colonial government was not within the power of the English crown and government, a politically hardline position that contributed to the eventual revocation of the colonial charter in 1684. His business and military activities were sometimes intermingled, leading some in the colony to view him unfavorably. However, he was popular with his troops, and was repeatedly elected governor of the colony from 1673 until his death in 1679. He oversaw the colonial actions in King Philip's War, and expanded the colony's territories by purchasing land claims in present-day Maine.

Early life[link]

John Leverett was baptized 7 July 1616 at St Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire.^[2] His father, Thomas Leverett, was a close associate of John Cotton, the church's Puritan pastor, and served as one of the church's elders.^[3] Nothing is known of his mother, Anne Fisher, beyond that she bore her husband 16 children.^[4] Of John Leverett's youth nothing is known prior to the family's departure for the New World in 1633.^[5] By the early 1630s Leverett's father was an alderman in Boston, and had acquired, in partnership with John Beauchamp of the Plymouth Council for New England, a grant now known as the Waldo Patent for land in what is now the state of Maine.^[6] When the family arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony it settled in the capital, also called Boston. In 1640 Leverett was made a freeman and joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.^[7] Leverett married Hannah Hudson in 1639. She bore him a son, Hudson, in 1640, and died in 1643.^[8][9]

The Artillery Company was a focal point in the colony for people who disagreed with the orthodoxy of the colony's Puritan leaders. Many of its leading members, Leverett among them, opposed the colonial crackdowns on religious dissenters.^[10] Its members also engaged in trade. Leverett frequently partnered with Edward Gibbons and Major General Robert Sedgwick in trading ventures.^[11] He was, for example, part owner with Gibbons of a ship lost off the Virginia coast.^[12] The mixture of military leadership and commercial enterprise sometimes led to conflicts of interest. In the 1640s, Gibbons convinced Governor John Winthrop to allow Massachusetts volunteers to assist French Acadian Governor Charles de la Tour in his dispute with Charles de Menou d'Aulnay. Gibbons had negotiated exclusive trading privileges with la Tour in exchange for this help,^[13] and Leverett was also able to secure preferential trading privileges with the French.^[14]

Leverett was a popular leader of the colonial militia, something that resulted in an unusual situation caused by the colony's militia laws. The colony had voted to limit the size of its militia companies, and restricted their officers to hold only one post. In 1652, when Leverett was captain of a Suffolk County company of horse, he was also elected as a captain of one of the Boston infantry companies.^[15] The colonial magistrates refused to grant him an exemption from the rule, and he was required to give up the Boston post.^[16]

English Civil War[link]

In about 1644 Leverett went to England, where he fought in the Parliamentary cause for Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War. He had a military command in the cavalry of Thomas Rainsborough, where he supposedly served with distinction.^[17] He returned home in 1645, but may have gone back to England in the following years.^[18] He married Robert Sedgwick's daughter Sarah in 1645. The couple had 12 children, of whom only six survived to adulthood.^[9]

Leverett's time in England brought him to a belief in the need for more religious tolerance.^[19] He would pursue the idea politically, often in the face of opposition from the conservative Puritan leadership of Massachusetts that opposed religious views that did not accord with their narrow views.^[20] He specifically opposed the Cambridge Platform describing New England church orthodoxy, and opposed punishments of nonconforming individuals when he sat as a deputy in the Massachusetts general court (the colonial legislature).^[19] John Winthrop, in writing about the 1648 synod that adopted the platform, noted that those "who came lately from England" were strongly opposed to its resolutions.^[21]

Massachusetts politics[link]

Leverett became active in local politics after becoming a freeman in 1640. In 1642 Leverett and Edward Hutchinson were sent as diplomatic envoys to negotiate with the Narragansett chief Miantonomoh amid concerns that all of the local Indian tribes were conspiring to wage war on the English colonists. Miantonomoh came to Boston and convinced Governor Winthrop that the rumors they had heard were groundless.^[22] Leverett would be called on for diplomatic missions in future administrations as well.^[12]

Following his return from England, he resumed his political activities. He was elected as one of Boston's two representatives in the colony's general court in 1651, and served a brief stint as Speaker of the House.^[23] Throughout the 1650s and 1660s he served five terms on the general court.^[24]

Governor John Endecott

Governor John Endecott in 1652 sent a survey party to determine the colony's northern boundary, which was specified by the charter to be 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Merrimack River. This survey party discovered (incorrectly) that the northern limit of the Merrimack was near what is now known as Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.^[25] An east-west boundary at this latitude was found to include a number small settlements in what is now southern Maine.^[26] Endecott sent Leverett as one of several commissioners to negotiate the inclusion of these settlements into the colonial government, which resulted in the eventual formation of York County, Massachusetts.^[24] Leverett became interested in developing more land in Maine as result of this and other official visits, and invested in a significant amount of land there, over and above the lands inherited from his father.^[27]

In 1655 he was formally appointed as the Massachusetts colony's agent in England. It is unclear, given the overlap with his governance in Acadia, when he actually went to England, but he served in this capacity until 1662.^[28] During the 1650s when Cromwell was Lord Protector the colony benefited from the relationship he had cultivated with Cromwell during the civil war. In particular, Cromwell took no steps to enforce the 1651 Navigation Act against the colony's merchants,^[29] and also overlooked complaints about the colony's repressive tactics against religious nonconformists.^[28] The latter occurred despite Leverett's personal opposition to the colony's extreme stance on religion.^[30] A common claim that Leverett was knighted by Charles II^[31] lacks a solid foundation in the documentary record.^[32]

Military rule of Acadia[link]

In 1651 England and the Netherlands went to war. Word of this arrived in the New World in 1652,^[33] and rumors flew around the English colonies of New England that the Dutch in New Amsterdam were conspiring with all of the region's Indians to make war against them.^[34] Leverett and Robert Sedgwick both saw a significant benefit for their trading operations if the Dutch could be eliminated as competitors, and lobbied for military action against New Amsterdam, although religious moderates like Simon Bradstreet were opposed to it.^[35] New Amsterdam's Director-General Peter Stuyvesant invited a delegation from New England colonies to New Amsterdam to discuss the matter. Leverett was one of the commissioners sent in 1653; he took careful note of the colony's defenses while he was there.^[34] The New Haven Colony petitioned the Commonwealth government of Oliver Cromwell for assistance against the Dutch threat,^[36] a position supported by Leverett, who went to England with Sedgwick in 1653 to press the colonial case for war.^[37]

Oliver Cromwell, with whom Leverett had good relations

Cromwell responded by giving Sedgwick a commission as military commander of the New England coast, and sent him and Leverett with several ships and some troops to make war on the Dutch. The fleet was to be augmented by a force of 500 New Englanders under Leverett's command. By the time the New England force was raised in 1654, peace had been made between the English and Dutch. Sedgwick took advantage of his commission to act instead against the French in neighboring Acadia, which was home to privateers who preyed on English shipping. He captured the principal Acadian ports of Port Royal and Fort Pentagouet in July 1654.^[38] Sedgwick gave military command of the province to Leverett. Leverett governed Nova Scotia for three years, turning command over to Sir Thomas Temple in May 1657.^[39] During this time he and Sedgwick enforced a virtual trade monopoly on French Acadia for their benefit, leading some in the colony to view Leverett as a predatory opportunist.^[40] Leverett funded much of the cost of the occupation himself, and then petitioned Cromwell's government for reimbursement. Although Cromwell authorized payment, he made it contingent on the colony performing an audit of Leverett's finances, which never took place.^[41] Leverett was consequently still petitioning for compensation after the Restoration (1660).^[39]

Military command and governorship[link]

From 1663 to 1673 he held the rank of major-general of the Massachusetts militia,^[42] and was repeatedly elected as a deputy to the general court or to the council of assistants.^[30] During this time he oversaw the strengthening of Boston's defenses.^[43] He was also again sent to the colonial settlements of New Hampshire and southern Maine, where some colonists had objected to Massachusetts rule and arrested colonial officials.^[23]

Following the restoration of Charles II to the throne, all of England's colonies came under his scrutiny. In 1665 Charles sent four commissioners to Massachusetts. They were instructed to gain the colony's agreement to terms demanded by Charles in a letter he sent to the colonial government in 1662, in which he instructed the colony to adopt more tolerant religious laws, and to enforce the Navigation Acts.^[44] The arrival of the commissioners was of some concern to the government, and Leverett was placed on a committee to draft a petition to the king demanding the commission's recall. The document they drafted characterized the commissioners as "agents of evil sent to Massachusetts to subvert its charter and destroy its independence."^[45]

Engraving depicting the capture of the Wampanoag fort at Mount Hope in 1675 during King Philip's War

Leverett served as deputy governor under governor Richard Bellingham in 1671–1672, and succeeded to his position after the governor's death.^[46] His tenure as governor was chiefly notable because of King Philip's War, and the rising threats to the colonial charter that culminated in its revocation in 1684. The colony angered the king by purchasing the claims of Sir Ferdinando Gorges to portions of Maine in 1677, a territory Charles had intended to acquire for his son, the Duke of Monmouth.^[47][48] Edward Randolph, sent by Charles to report on the New England colonies, reported in 1676 that Leverett believed the colony to be beyond the crown's reach: "He freely declared to me that the laws made by your Majesty and your Parliament obligeth them in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony".^[49]

Although Leverett favored religious tolerance, there were still many in the colony who did not. Baptists were able to openly begin worship in Boston during his tenure, but he has also been criticized by Quaker historians for harsh anti-Quaker laws passed in 1677.^[50] (The Baptists' time in Boston did not last — they were thrown out in 1680 after Simon Bradstreet became governor.)^[51]

Death and legacy[link]

Leverett died in office, reportedly from complications of kidney stones, on 16 March 1678/9, and was interred at the King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston.^[52][53] His descendants include his grandson John, the seventh President of Harvard College, and Leverett Saltonstall, a 19th century governor of Massachusetts.^[54] Leverett, Massachusetts is named for his grandson.^[55]

Cotton Mather wrote of Leverett that he was "one to whom the affections of the freemen were signalised his quick advances through the lesser stages of honor and office, unto the highest in the country; and one whose courage had been as much recommended by martial actions abroad in his younger years, as his wisdom and justice were now at home in his elder."^[56]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Breen, Louise A (2001). Transgressing the Bounds: Subversive Enterprises Among the Puritan Elite in Massachusetts, 1630–1692. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513800-9. OCLC 213296589. 
• Bridgeman, Thomas (1856). The Pilgrims of Boston and their Descendants. New York: D. Appleton and Company. pp. 43–44. http://books.google.com/books?id=oPQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover. Retrieved 29 April 2009. 
• Hall, Michael Garibaldi (1960). Edward Randolph and the American Colonies. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. OCLC 181784. 
• Hill, Hamilton Andrews (1895). The Trade and Commerce of Boston, 1630 to 1890. Boston, MA: Damrell and Upham. OCLC 7676661. http://books.google.com/books?id=ajUaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover. 
• Holifield, E. Brooks (June 1969). "On Toleration in Massachusetts". Church History (American Society of Church History) 38 (Volume 38, No. 2): 188–200. DOI:10.2307/3162706. JSTOR 3162706. 
• Klein, Milton (2006). The Empire State: A History of New York. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-8991-4. OCLC 65285709. 
• Leverett, Charles Edward (1856). A Memoir Biographical and Genealogical, of Sir John Leverett, Knt., Governor of Massachusetts, 1673–79. Boston, MA: Crosby, Nichols. OCLC 7387840. http://books.google.com/books?id=dfgOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
• Lucas, Paul (January 1967). "Colony or Commonwealth: Massachusetts Bay, 1661–1666". The William and Mary Quarterly (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture) 24 (Third Series, Volume 24, No. 1): 88–107. DOI:10.2307/1920563. JSTOR 1920563. 
• Martin, John Frederick (1991). Profits in the Wilderness: Entrepreneurship and the Founding of New England Towns in the Seventeenth Century. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2001-8. OCLC 231347624. 
• Mayo, Lawrence Shaw (1936). John Endecott. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. OCLC 1601746. 
• Moore, Jacob Bailey (1851). Lives of the Governors of New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. Boston: C. D. Strong. OCLC 11362972. http://books.google.com/books?id=0ssDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA367#v=onepage&f=false. 
• Moore, Susan Hardman (2007). Pilgrims: New World Settlers & the Call of Home. New Haven, CT. ISBN 978-0-300-11718-9. OCLC 122337947. 
• Nason, Elias (1874). A Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts. Boston, MA: B. B. Russell. OCLC 1728892. http://books.google.com/books?id=TIc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA293#v=onepage&f=false. 
• Report of its Heraldic Committee on the Subject: Was Gov. Leverett a Knight?. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1881. OCLC 558014968. http://books.google.com/books?id=3yYAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA13#v=onepage&f=false. 
• Roberts, Oliver Ayers (1895). History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Volume 1. Boston, MA: A. Mudge and son. OCLC 1394719. http://books.google.com/?id=CWUUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover. 

External links[link]

• official Massachusetts state biography

v t e Governors of Massachusetts Colony (1629–1686) Endecott Winthrop T. Dudley Haynes Vane Winthrop T. Dudley Bellingham Winthrop Endecott T. Dudley Winthrop Endecott T. Dudley Endecott Bellingham Endecott Bellingham Leverett Bradstreet Dominion (1686–1689) J. Dudley Andros Bradstreet Province (1692–1776) W. Phips Stoughton Bellomont Stoughton Governor's Council J. Dudley Governor's Council J. Dudley Tailer Shute Dummer Burnet Dummer Tailer Belcher Shirley S. Phips Shirley S. Phips Governor's Council Pownall Hutchinson Bernard Hutchinson Gage Commonwealth (since 1776) Hancock Cushing Bowdoin Hancock Adams Sumner Gill Governor's Council Strong Sullivan Lincoln, Sr. Gore Gerry Strong Brooks Eustis Morton Lincoln, Jr. Davis Armstrong Everett Morton Davis Morton Briggs Boutwell Clifford E. Washburn Gardner Banks Andrew Bullock Claflin W. Washburn Talbot Gaston Rice Talbot Long Butler Robinson Ames Brackett Russell Greenhalge Wolcott Crane Bates Douglas Guild Draper Foss Walsh McCall Coolidge Cox Fuller Allen Ely Curley Hurley Saltonstall Tobin Bradford Dever Herter Furcolo Volpe Peabody Volpe Sargent Dukakis King Dukakis Weld Cellucci Swift Romney Patrick Italics indicate acting officeholders

v t e Governors of Acadia Governors Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just Charles de Biencourt de Saint-Just William Alexander William Alexander the Younger Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour Isaac de Razilly Charles de Menou d'Aulnay Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour John Leverett Nicolas Denys William Crowne Thomas Temple Emmanuel Le Borgne Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle-Isle Hector d'Andigné de Grandfontaine Jacques de Chambly John Rhoades Cornelius Van Steenwyk Pierre de Joybert de Soulanges et de Marson Michel Leneuf de la Vallière de Beaubassin François-Marie Perrot Louis-Alexandre des Friches de Menneval Charles La Tourasse Joseph Robineau de Villebon Claude-Sébastien de Villieu Daniel d'Auger de Subercase Simon-Pierre Denys de Bonaventure Jacques-François de Monbeton de Brouillan Related articles New France (1627–1760) Acadia Newfoundland (1610–1949) Northwest Territories (1869–1905) Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, and British Columbia (1849–1871) Book:Governors of Acadia Category:Governors of Acadia Portal:Acadia

Flynt Leverett (born March 6, 1958 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. and a professor at the Pennsylvania State University School of International Affairs. From March 2002 to March 2003, he served as the senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council. Prior to serving on the NSC, he was a counterterrorism expert on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and before that he served as a CIA senior analyst for eight years. Since leaving government service, Leverett served as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy before becoming the director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation.

Op-ed controversy[link]

As a former national security official granted a security clearance, Leverett is required to seek prior approval of articles from the CIA's Publication Review Board. Such reviews are conducted as a precaution to prevent leaks of classified information.^[1]

On December 16, 2006 Leverett was denied permission to publish a 1,000 word opinion piece, co-written with his wife, Hillary Mann and based on his previously approved 35 page paper "Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran." The longer paper and its shorter piece are critical of the George W. Bush administration's refusal to engage in "comprehensive" negotiations with the government of Iran.^[2][3]

Leverett had intended to publish the shorter article in The New York Times. In a statement to the online publication Talking Points Memo, he disputed the official justification for the decision.

In the same statement, Leverett places the blame for quashing the op-ed piece on "White House staffers... working for Elliott Abrams and Meghan O'Sullivan, both politically appointed deputies to President Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley."

Publications[link]

• Leverett, Flynt (2006-12-14) (PDF). Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran. The Century Foundation. http://tcf.org/publications/internationalaffairs/leverett_diplomatic.pdf. Retrieved 2006-12-18. 

Video[link]

• Leverett, Flynt (2006-12-18). New America Foundation Discussion on Iran Issues (TV-Public Affairs). Washington, D.C.: C-SPAN. http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaId=HP-A-5648. 

Books[link]

• Inheriting Syria: Bashar's Trial By Fire a study of politics and policymaking in Syria, ISBN 0-8157-5203-2
• The Road Ahead: Middle East Policy in the Bush Administration's Second Term (edited by Leverett with contributions from Kenneth Pollack, James Steinberg, Shibley Telhami, and Martin Indyk), ISBN 0-8157-5205-9

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile at New America Foundation
• Bush Administration Guilty of Strategic Malpractice - Expert
• How Bush Bungled The War on Terror? Flynt Leverett in Democracy Now
• Biography at New American Foundation
• Publications on the Brookings Institute Website by Flynt L. Leverett
• The Story of Leverett and Mann by Our World in Balance
• Video (with mp3 available) of conversation with Leverett and David Frum on Bloggingheads.tv

John Kerry
United States Senator from Massachusetts
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2, 1985 Serving with Scott Brown
Preceded by	Paul Tsongas
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Incumbent
Assumed office January 6, 2009
Preceded by	Joe Biden
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
In office January 4, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Preceded by	Olympia Snowe
Succeeded by	Mary Landrieu
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Kit Bond
Succeeded by	Olympia Snowe
In office January 3, 2001 – January 20, 2001
Preceded by	Kit Bond
Succeeded by	Kit Bond
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
In office August 2, 1991 – January 2, 1993
66th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office March 6, 1983 – January 2, 1985
Governor	Michael Dukakis
Preceded by	Thomas P. O'Neill III
Succeeded by	Evelyn Murphy (1987)
Personal details
Born	John Forbes Kerry (1943-12-11) December 11, 1943 (age 68) Aurora, Colorado
Nationality	U.S. Citizen
Spouse(s)	Julia Thorne (1970–88, divorced) Teresa Heinz (1995–present)
Children	Alexandra Kerry Vanessa Kerry H. John Heinz IV (stepson) Andre Heinz (stepson) Christopher Heinz (stepson)
Residence	Boston, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Yale University (B.A.) Boston College (J.D.)
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature
Website	kerry.senate.gov
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1966–1978
Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	USS Gridley Coastal Squadron 1
Commands	PCF-44, PCF-94
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
Awards	Silver Star Bronze Star Purple Heart (3)

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior United States Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to then President George W. Bush.

The son of an Army Air Corps serviceman, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to graduate from Yale University class of 1966, where he majored in political science. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and, during 1968-1969, served a four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service he was awarded several combat medals that include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war. During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of "war crimes".

After graduating from Boston College Law School, Kerry worked as an Assistant District Attorney and co-founded a private firm. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985, where he worked on an early forerunner to the national Clean Air Act. He won a tight Democratic primary in 1984 for the U.S. Senate and was sworn in the following January. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he led a series of hearings from 1987 to 1989 which were a precursor to the Iran–Contra affair. He was an early backer of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but became a strong opponent of the subsequent war.

Kerry based his 2004 presidential campaign on opposition to the Iraq War. He and his running mate Senator John Edwards lost by 34 electoral votes. Since then, he has established the Keeping America's Promise PAC. He became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009, and in 2011 he was appointed to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.