Abbott Lawrence

Abbott Lawrence (painting by Chester Harding , circa 1842)

Abbott Lawrence (born December 16, 1792 in Groton , Middlesex County , Massachusetts , †  August 18, 1855 in Boston , Massachusetts) was an American politician . Between 1835 and 1840 he represented the state of Massachusetts twice in the US House of Representatives . He was also US envoy to the UK .

Career

Abbott Lawrence attended Groton Academy . He later became a dealer and importer of goods in Boston with his brother. After that, the brothers also worked in textile production. In the 1820s he joined the movement against future President Andrew Jackson and became a member of the short-lived National Republican Party and later the Whig Party, founded in 1835 . In 1831 he was on the Boston City Council.

In the congressional election of 1834 , Lawrence was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the first constituency of Massachusetts , where he succeeded Benjamin Gorham on March 4, 1835 . Since he renounced another candidacy in 1836, he could only complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1837 . Two years later he was re-elected to Congress in the first district of his state in the 1838 elections. There he replaced Richard Fletcher on March 4, 1839 , who had been his successor two years earlier. Lawrence served his mandate until his resignation on September 18, 1840.

In 1842 Lawrence was one of the negotiators in establishing the border with Canada in the northeastern United States. In May 1844 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention in Baltimore . In the same year he supported the ultimately unsuccessful presidential campaign of Henry Clay . In 1847 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Between 1849 and 1852 Abbott Lawrence was the successor of George Bancroft as the American envoy in London . He then resumed his previous activities in Boston. He also founded the Lawrence Scientific School, affiliated with Harvard University . He died in Boston on August 18, 1855 and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge .

Web links

Commons : Abbott Lawrence  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Wikisource: Entry on Abbott Lawrence in the New International Encyclopædia  - Sources and full texts (English)

• Abbott Lawrence in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Abbott Lawrence in the database of Find a Grave (English)