{{Short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | birth_name = Chauncey Langdon Knapp | name = Chauncey L. Knapp | image = Chauncey L. Knapp.jpg | caption = Chauncey L. Knapp, Congressman from Massachusetts. 1859. <!-- --> | state = [[Massachusetts]] | district = [[Massachusetts's 8th congressional district|8th]] | term_start = March 4, 1855 | term_end = March 3, 1859 | preceded = [[Tappan Wentworth]] | succeeded = [[Charles R. Train]] | office2 = [[Secretary of State of Vermont]] | term_start2 = 1836 | term_end2 = 1841 | governor2 = [[Silas H. Jennison]] | preceded2 = [[Timothy Merrill]] | succeeded2 = [[James McMillan Shafter]] <!-- --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1809|02|26}} | birth_place = [[Berlin, Vermont]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1898|05|31|1809|02|26}} | death_place = [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], U.S. | party = [[Anti-Masonic Party]]<br/>[[Liberty Party (1840s)|Liberty Party]]<br/>[[Know Nothing|American Party]]<br/>[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] | spouse = Fanny Carter | children = | profession = Newspaper editor | resting_place = [[Lowell Cemetery (Lowell, Massachusetts)|Lowell Cemetery]] }}
'''Chauncey Langdon Knapp''' (February 26, 1809 – May 31, 1898) was an American newspaperman and politician who served two terms as a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. representative]] from [[Massachusetts]] from 1855 to 1859.
==Biography== Chauncey Langdon Knapp was born in [[Berlin, Vermont]], February 26, 1809. He was trained as a printer, and became a newspaperman in [[Montpelier, Vermont|Montpelier]]. For a number of years, he was co-proprietor and editor of the ''State Journal'', Vermont's main [[Anti-Masonic Party]] newspaper.<ref>National Endowment for the Humanities, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, [http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/essays/598/ Vermont State Journal], retrieved January 4, 2014</ref> Interested in politics, he served as [[Secretary of State of Vermont]] from 1836 to 1843.
=== Career === In 1843, he visited [[Lowell, Massachusetts]], and met poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]], at the time editor of Lowell's ''Middlesex Standard'' (the voice of the Anti-slavery Movement and the [[Liberty Party (1840s)|Liberty Party]]). Whittier invited Knapp to stay in Lowell, take over as editor, and continue the fight against slavery and for social reform in Lowell. Knapp accepted and he eventually moved from editor of the ''Middlesex Standard'' to editor of the ''Lowell Citizen and News''. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Liberty Party candidate in 1846 and as a member of the [[Free Soil Party]] in 1848. Knapp was appointed Clerk of the [[Massachusetts State Senate]] in 1851.
=== Congress === In 1854, Knapp ran as an anti-slavery candidate and was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]]. He was identified with the [[Know Nothing|American Party]] (the only major party with an anti-slavery plank) while serving in the [[34th United States Congress|Thirty-fourth]] Congress.
When the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] was formed with an anti-slavery plank, Knapp joined it. He was again overwhelmingly elected to the [[35th United States Congress|Thirty-fifth]] Congress (March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1859).
During the heated slavery debates in Congress, Senator [[Charles Sumner]] of Massachusetts was severely beaten by Congressman [[Preston Brooks]] of South Carolina on May 22, 1856. In response, Congressmen Knapp delivered his first address on the floor of the House, a speech in which he said his constituents viewed the attack as an "audacious blow hurled at the great right of free opinion. . .the primal element and safeguard of constitutional liberty."<ref>''Appendix to the Congressional Globe'', 34th Congress, 1st sess., Washington: John C. Rives, 1856, p. 910, July 12, 1856</ref>
== Later career == In 1859, Knapp left Congress and became editor of the ''Lowell Daily Citizen'' from 1859-1882.
==Death and burial== He died in Lowell on May 31, 1898, and is buried in the Lowell Cemetery.
Knapp Avenue leading from Rogers Street into the [[Lowell Cemetery (Lowell, Massachusetts)|Lowell Cemetery]] is named for him.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{CongBio|K000280}} *{{Find a Grave|7500929}} *[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/knapp.html Chauncey Langdon Knapp] at [http://politicalgraveyard.com/ ''The Political Graveyard''] *Vermont Historical Society, [https://books.google.com/books?id=UFgSAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22knapp%2C+chauncey+langdon%22&pg=PA120 Vermonters in Congress], 1921, pages 120-121
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=[[Timothy Merrill]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State of Vermont]]|years=1836–1841}} {{s-aft|after=[[Alvah Sabin]]}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=8 | before=[[Tappan Wentworth]] | after=[[Charles R. Train]] | years=1855–1859}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Knapp, Chauncey Langdon}} [[Category:1809 births]] [[Category:1898 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]] [[Category:People from Berlin, Vermont]] [[Category:Politicians from Lowell, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Anti-Masonic Party politicians from Vermont]] [[Category:Secretaries of state of Vermont]] [[Category:Massachusetts Free Soilers]] [[Category:Massachusetts Libertyites]] [[Category:Know-Nothing United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:Burials at Lowell Cemetery (Lowell, Massachusetts)]]