Barnabas Bidwell

U.S. Congressperson

1763 – 1833

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Who was Barnabas Bidwell?

Barnabas Bidwell was an author, teacher, and politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, active in Massachusetts and Upper Canada. Educated at Yale, he practiced law in western Massachusetts and served as treasurer of Berkshire County. He served in the state legislature as representative and senator, in the United States Congress as spokesman for the administration of Thomas Jefferson where he was effective in defending administration positions and passing important legislation, and was the state attorney general from 1807 to 1810, when exaggerated press accounts of irregularities in the Berkshire County books halted his political career and prompted his flight to Upper Canada. Bidwell later paid the $63.18 plus fines that he attributed to a Berkshire County clerk while he was away on duties in Boston. Nonetheless, the controversy, exaggerated in the press by his Federalist Party enemies effectively scuppered his potential appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Canada he won a seat in the provincial assembly, but was denied on account that he had held office in the United States.

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Born
Aug 23, 1763
Monterey
Children
Nationality
  • United States of America
  • Canada
Profession
Education
  • Yale University
  • Yale College
  • Doctor of law, Brown University
Lived in
  • Lennox and Addington County
Died
Jul 27, 1833
Loyalist, Ontario

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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