Barker Burnell

Barker Burnell ( born January 30, 1798 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, † June 15 1843 in Washington DC ) was an American politician. Between 1841 and 1843 he represented the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Barker Burnell attended the public schools of his home. After a subsequent study of law and qualifying as a lawyer, he began in Nantucket for 20 years to work in this profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career. In 1820, in the State of Maine was created as a result of the Missouri Compromise from the northern parts of Massachusetts, was Burnell delegate to an assembly for adjusting the constitution of Massachusetts to the new conditions. Between 1824 and 1825 he sat in the Massachusetts Senate. In the 1830s he joined the Whig party to. In December 1839 he was a delegate to the national convention.

In the congressional elections of 1840 Burnell was elected the eleventh electoral district of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of John Reed on March 4, 1841. After a re-election in the tenth district he could remain until his death on June 15, 1843 in Congress. This period was characterized by the tensions between President John Tyler and the Whigs. It was also at that time already been discussed about a possible annexation of the independent Republic of Texas since 1836 by Mexico. In the last months of his life Burnell could barely attend the meetings of the Congress due to tuberculosis disease. On the consequences of which he subsequently died.