James H. Duncan

James Henry Duncan ( born December 5, 1793 in Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts, † February 8, 1869 ) was an American politician. Between 1849 and 1853 he represented the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

James Duncan attended the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and then studied until 1812 at Harvard University. After a subsequent law degree in 1815 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he began to work in Haverhill in this profession. Duncan was also a member of the state militia of Massachusetts, in which he rose to the colonel. He also acted in the meantime as president of the Essex Agricultural Society. At the same time he embarked on a political career. In the years 1827, 1837, 1838 and 1857 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Between 1828 and 1831 he was a member of the State Senate. He was a member of the mid-1830s, founded the Whig Party. In December 1839 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention in Harrisburg, was nominated on the William Henry Harrison as their presidential candidate. In 1841 he was commissioner for bankruptcy proceedings ( Commissioner in Bankruptcy ).

In the congressional elections of 1848, Duncan was in the third electoral district of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Amos Abbott on March 4, 1849. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1853 two legislative sessions. These were dominated by discussions about slavery prior to the Civil War. After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives Duncan worked in the real estate industry. He died on 8 February 1869 in his hometown of Haverhill.