Gorham was born in
Danbury, Connecticut on May 29, 1812. He was raised in
Oneonta, New York and trained for a business career. In 1836, Gorham moved to
Marshall, Michigan where he was a merchant. In 1840, he started a bank, which he operated privately until 1865. That year he incorporated the institution as the First National Bank of Marshall, and he served as president until retiring in 1898. Originally a
Democrat and later a
Whig, Gorham was one of the founders of the Republican party when it was organized in the mid-1850s. In 1855, he was appointed Major General and commander of one of three divisions in the state militia, and in 1859 he was elected to one term in the
Michigan State Senate where he represented the
13th district. Gorham used both positions to recruit, train, and reorganize the militia in anticipation of the Civil War. He was a Delegate to the Republican National Conventions of
1864 and
1868, and served as a
Presidential elector from Michigan in 1868, casting votes for the ticket of
Ulysses S. Grant and
Schuyler Colfax. An anti-slavery activist and participant in the
Underground Railroad, Gorham was one of the principals in the
Crosswhite Affair, in which several people from
Kentucky attempted to capture an African American family in Marshall and return them to slavery in Kentucky. More than 200 people from Marshall, led by Gorham, prevented this. The affair was the subject of several criminal and civil court cases, including the
Giltner v. Gorham et al. federal case of June, 1848. It was one of the events that led to passage of the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. From 1870 to 1875 Gorham served as
Minister to the Netherlands. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior from March, 1876 to April, 1877, afterwards returning to his banking interests in Marshall. ==Family==