Amasa Walker was an American economist and United States Representative, and was the father of Francis Amasa Walker. He was a frequent contributor to periodical literature, especially on financial subjects, on which his authority was regarded as of the highest. His principal work was Science of Wealth (1866), a manual of political economy which attained a high degree of popularity.
Background
Amasa Walker moved with his parents to North Brookfield, Massachusetts, and attended the district school. In 1814 he entered commercial life. In 1825 he formed with Charles G. Carleton the firm of Carleton and Walker, of Boston, but in 1827 he went into business independently.
He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1836. 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. He retired from commercial life in 1840.
In 1842–1848 he lectured on political economy at Oberlin College, in 1853–1860 he was an examiner on political economy at 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 was a delegate to the first International Peace Congress in London of 1843, and he served at the Paris Congress in 1849.
Walker died in North Brookfield on October 29, 1875. His interment was in Maple Street Cemetery.
Career
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 with Charles G. Carleton the firm of Carleton and Walker, of Boston, Massachusetts, but in 1827 he went into business independently.
In 1840 he withdrew permanently from commercial affairs, and in 1842 he went to Oberlin, Ohio, on account of his great interest in the college there, and gave lectures on political economy at that institution until 1848.
After serving in the legislature, he became the Free-soil and Democratic candidate for speaker, and in 1849 was chosen to the Massachusetts senate, where he introduced a plan for a sealed-ballot law, which was enacted in 1851, and carried a bill providing that Webster's Dictionary should be introduced into the common schools of Massachusetts.
He was elected secretary of state in 1851, re-elected in 1852, and in 1853 was chosen a member of the convention for revising the state constitution, becoming the chairman of the committee on suffrage.
In 1853 he was chosen a member of the convention for revising the state constitution, becoming the chairman of the committee on suffrage. In 1860 he was chosen a member of the electoral college of Massachusetts, and cast his ballot for Abraham Lincoln.