Editing Nathaniel P. Banks (section)

==Early life==

[[File:Major General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks of General Staff U.S. Volunteers Infantry Regiment in uniform, with his wife Mary Theodosia Palmer Banks, who holds an open book) - Henry F. Warren, LCCN2017659650.jpg|thumb|left|Major General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks of General Staff U.S. Volunteers Infantry Regiment in uniform, with his wife, Mary Theodosia Palmer Banks. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, [[Library of Congress]]]]

Nathaniel Prentice Banks was born at [[Waltham, Massachusetts]], the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks Sr. and Rebecca Greenwood Banks, on January 30, 1816. His father worked in the [[textile mill]] of the [[Boston Manufacturing Company]], eventually becoming a foreman.{{Sfn|Hollandsworth|1998|p=3}} Banks went to local schools until the age of fourteen, at which point the family's financial demands compelled him to take a mill job. He started as a [[bobbin boy]], responsible for replacing [[bobbin]]s full of thread with empty ones,{{Sfn|Hollandsworth|1998|p=4}} working in the mills of Waltham and [[Lowell, Massachusetts|Lowell]].{{Sfn|Harrington|1948|p=3}} Because of this role he became known as Bobbin Boy Banks, a nickname he carried throughout his life.{{Sfn|Reef|2009|p=327}} He was at one time apprenticed as a mechanic alongside [[Elias Howe]], a cousin who later had the first patent for a sewing machine with a lockstitch design.{{Sfn|Rosenberg|2004|p=41}}

Recognizing the value of education, Banks continued to read, sometimes walking to [[Boston]] on his days off to visit the [[Boston Athenæum|Atheneum Library]]. He attended company-sponsored lectures by luminaries of the day including [[Daniel Webster]] and other orators. He formed a debate club with other mill workers to improve their oratorical skills, and took up acting. He became involved in the local [[Temperance movement in the United States|temperance movement]]; speaking at its events brought him to the attention of [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] leaders, who asked him to speak at campaign events during the 1840 elections. He honed his oratorical and political skills by emulating [[Robert Rantoul Jr.]], a Democratic Congressman who also had humble beginnings.{{Sfn|Hollandsworth|1998|pp=5&ndash;8}}  His personal good looks, voice, and flair for presentation were all assets that he used to gain advantage in the political sphere, and he deliberately sought to present himself with a more aristocratic bearing than was suggested by his humble beginnings.{{Sfn|Harrington|1948|p=4}}

Banks's success as a speaker convinced him to quit the mill. He first worked as an editor for two short-lived political newspapers; after they failed he ran for a seat in the state legislature in 1844, but lost. He then applied for a job to Rantoul, who had been appointed Collector of the [[Port of Boston]], a patronage position.{{Sfn|Hollandsworth|1998|pp=8&ndash;9}}  Banks's job, which he held until political changes forced him out in 1849,{{Sfn|Harrington|1948|p=8}} gave him sufficient security that he was able to marry Mary Theodosia Palmer, an ex-factory employee he had been courting for some time.{{Sfn|Banks|2005|pp=9&ndash;25}} Banks again ran for the state legislature in 1847, but was unsuccessful.{{Sfn|Hollandsworth|1998|p=10}}