{{short description|American politician (1799–1875)}} {{more footnotes needed|date=August 2016}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Amasa Walker | image = Amasa Walker.png | state = [[Massachusetts]] | district = [[Massachusetts's 9th congressional district|9th]] | term_start = December 1, 1862 | term_end = March 3, 1863 | preceded = [[Goldsmith Bailey]] | succeeded = [[William B. Washburn]] | order1 = 11th | office1 = Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | term_start1 = 1851 | term_end1 = 1853 | preceded1 = [[William B. Calhoun]] | succeeded1 = [[Ephraim M. Wright]] | office2 = [[Massachusetts State Senate]] | term_start2 = January 1850 | term_end2 = January 1851 | preceded2 = | succeeded2 = | office3 = [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] | term_start3 = January 1850 | term_end3 = January 1850 | preceded3 = | succeeded3 = | term_start4 = January 1860 | term_end4 = January 1861 | preceded4 = | succeeded4 = | birth_date = May 4, 1799 | birth_place = [[Woodstock, Connecticut]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1875|10|29|1799|05|04}} | death_place = [[North Brookfield, Massachusetts]] | party = [[Anti-Masonic Party|Anti-Masonic]]<br>[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (before 1844)<br>[[Liberty Party (1840s)|Liberty Party]] (1844–48)<br>[[Free Soil Party]] (1848–56)<br>[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (after 1856) | signature = Appletons' Walker Amasa signature.png }} '''Amasa Walker''' (May 4, 1799 – October 29, 1875) was an American economist and [[United States Representative]]. He was the father of [[Francis Amasa Walker]].
==Biography== {{unreferenced section|date=April 2017}} He moved with his parents to [[North Brookfield, Massachusetts]], and attended the district school. In 1814 he entered commercial life, and in 1820 formed a partnership with Allen Newell in North Brookfield, but three years later withdrew to become the agent of the Methuen Manufacturing Company. In 1825 he formed the firm of Carleton and Walker, of Boston, with Charles G. Carleton, but in 1827 he went into business independently.
He was the unsuccessful [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] nominee for [[mayor of Boston]] in the [[1837 Boston mayoral election]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Boston City Elections |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/589882846 |url-access=subscription |via=Newspapers.com |publisher=Fall River Monitor |agency=Boston Patriot |access-date=18 April 2023 |language=en |date=December 16, 1837}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Catalogue of the City Councils of Boston, 1822-1908, Roxbury, 1846-1867, Charlestown, 1847-1873 and of the Selectmen of Boston, 1634-1822: Also of Various Other Town and Municipal Officers |date=1909 |publisher=City of Boston Printing Department |page=50 |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=n_BMAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA50 |access-date=7 April 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
He was a delegate to the 1836 [[Democratic National Convention]]. In 1839, he became president of the Boston Temperance Society, the first total abstinence association in that city, and in 1839 he advocated a continuous railway between Boston and the [[Mississippi River]]. In 1840 he retired from commercial life and went into academia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Walker, Amasa {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/walker-amasa |access-date=2024-02-19 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
In 1842–1848, he lectured on [[political economy]] at [[Oberlin College]].<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Walker, Francis Amasa|display=Walker, Francis Amasa s.v.|volume=28|page=270}}</ref> In 1853–1860, he was an examiner on political economy at [[Harvard University|Harvard]], and in 1859–1869 lecturer on political economy at [[Amherst College]]. The degree of [[LL.D.]] was conferred on him by Amherst in 1867.
He was a frequent contributor to periodical literature, especially on financial subjects. His principal work, ''Science of Wealth, a Manual of Political Economy'', was published in 1866. Other works were ''Nature and Uses of Money and Mixed Currency'' (Boston, 1857) and, with William B. Calhoun and Charles L. Flint, ''Transactions of the Agricultural Societies of Massachusetts'' (7 vols., 1848–1854). In 1857, he began the publication of a series of articles on political economy in ''Hunt's Merchant's Magazine''.
He was active in the anti-slavery movement, and in 1848 he was one of the founders of the [[Free Soil Party]]. Walker served in the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] in 1849 and 1860, in the [[Massachusetts State Senate]] in 1850, as [[Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth]] 1851–1853, and in the [[United States House of Representatives]] 1862–1863, where he was elected as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to fill the vacancy caused by the death of [[Goldsmith Bailey]].
In 1853, he was chosen as a member of the convention for revising the state constitution, becoming the chairman of the committee on suffrage. In 1860, he was chosen as a member of the [[United States electoral college|electoral college]] of Massachusetts and cast his ballot for [[Abraham Lincoln]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} Walker was a delegate to the first [[International Peace Congress]] in London of 1843, and he served at the Paris Congress in 1849.<ref name="EB1911"/>
==Books== *''The Science of Wealth: A Manual of Political Economy. Embracing the Laws of Trade, Currency, and Finance'', Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown & Co. (1866).
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{CongBio|W000045}} * {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Walker, Amasa|year=1905}} *{{Appletons'|wstitle=Walker, Amasa|year=1900}}
==External links== * {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Walker, Amasa |short=x}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before = [[William B. Calhoun]] | title =11th [[Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth]] | years=1851–1853| after =[[Ephraim M. Wright]]| }} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=9 | before=[[Goldsmith Bailey]] | after=[[William B. Washburn]] | years= 1862–1863}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Amasa}} [[Category:Secretaries of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts]] [[Category:Massachusetts state senators]] [[Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives]] [[Category:Massachusetts Jacksonians]] [[Category:Massachusetts Libertyites]] [[Category:Massachusetts Free Soilers]] [[Category:Harvard University staff]] [[Category:Oberlin College faculty]] [[Category:American economics writers]] [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:People from Woodstock, Connecticut]] [[Category:People from North Brookfield, Massachusetts]] [[Category:1799 births]] [[Category:1875 deaths]] [[Category:Massachusetts Democrats]] [[Category:Abolitionists from Boston]] [[Category:American temperance activists]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]]