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Walker (ROBERT JAMES an American)

ROBERT JAMES, an American financier; born In Northumberland, Pa., July 23, 1801; was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1819; practiced law in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1822-1826, and in the latter year removed to Mississippi. There he entered politics and was elected to the United States Senate in 1836 and 1840. While in the Senate he opposed the distribution of the surplus revenue, advocating, instead, its application to public defenses; introduced the celebrated "Homestead" bill; sustained the treaty for the suppression of the slave trade; and drafted and supported the resolution recognizing the independence of Texas. On the accession of James K. Polk to the presidency in 1845, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and continued in that office till March, 1849, during which period he prepared and carried through the tariff bill of 1846, various loan bills, the warehousing system, the Mexican tariff, and a bill to organize the Department of the Interior. Subsequently he was governor of Kansas, in which office he defeated the attempt to force corrupt measures on the territory; was actively clergy "imprisoned, banished, and sent occupied in the support of the National a-starving." He died in Exeter, about