George Ashmun

George Ashmun

George Ashmun (born December 25, 1804 in Blandford , Hampden County , Massachusetts , †  July 16, 1870 in Springfield , Massachusetts) was an American politician . Between 1845 and 1851 he represented the state of Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives .

Career

George Ashmun was the son of US Senator Eli P. Ashmun (1770-1819). In 1807 he moved to Northampton with his parents , where he attended public schools. He then studied at Yale College until 1823 . After a subsequent law degree and his admission as a lawyer in 1828, he began to work in Springfield in this profession. In the 1830s he became a member of the Whig Party . Between 1833 and 1841 he was a member of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts on several occasions , as its speaker he served in 1841; he followed Robert Charles Winthrop . In 1838 and 1839 he was also a member of the State Senate .

In the congressional election of 1844 , Ashmun was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the sixth constituency of Massachusetts , where he succeeded Osmyn Baker on March 4, 1845 . After two re-elections, he was able to complete three legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1851 . These were shaped by the events of the Mexican-American War . Thereafter, the discussion of slavery also determined the work of Congress. In 1850 Ashmun renounced another congressional candidacy.

After his time in the US House of Representatives, he practiced again as a lawyer in Springfield. He joined the Republican Party, founded in 1854, and acted as chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago in May 1860 , on which Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a candidate for president. Ashmun also got into the railroad business and became a director of the Union Pacific Railroad . In 1866 he was a delegate to the National Union Convention in Philadelphia . He died in Springfield on July 16, 1870.

Web links

• George Ashmun in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• George Ashmun in the database of Find a Grave (English)