Charles Allen (politician)

Charles Allen

Charles Allen (born August 9, 1797 in Worcester , Massachusetts , †  August 6, 1869 there ) was an American politician . Between 1849 and 1853 he represented the state of Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Charles Allen was the son of Congressman Joseph Allen (1749-1827) and a great-nephew of Governor Samuel Adams (1722-1803). From 1809 to 1811 he attended the Leicester Academy . He then studied at Yale College until 1812 . After a subsequent law degree and his license to practice law in 1818, he began to work in New Braintree in this profession. In 1824 he moved his residence and his law firm to Worcester. Between 1830 and 1840 he was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives on several occasions . In 1836 and 1837 he was a member of the State Senate . In 1842, Allen joined theNortheastern Boundary Commission appointed. From 1842 to 1845 he also worked as an appeal judge. Allen was a member of the Whig Party , founded in the 1830s . In 1848 he took part as a delegate at their federal party convention in Philadelphia ; then he joined the Free Soil Party .

In the congressional election of 1848 Allen was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the fifth constituency of Massachusetts , where he succeeded Charles Hudson on March 4, 1849 . After re-election, he was able to complete two legislative terms in Congress until March 3, 1853 . These were shaped by the events leading up to the civil war . The main issue was slavery . In 1852 he decided not to run again for Congress.

After the end of his time in the US House of Representatives, Charles Allen practiced as a lawyer again. In 1853 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the Massachusetts Constitution . Between 1859 and 1869 he was presiding judge in Suffolk County Superior Court . In the spring of 1861 he was a member of a negotiating commission that unsuccessfully tried to prevent the outbreak of civil war in the federal capital, Washington. He died in Worcester on August 6, 1869.

Web links

• Charles Allen in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Charles Allen in the database of Find a Grave (English)