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Charles Allen Politician

Charles Allen (son of Joseph Allen and grandnephew of Samuel Adams), was a United States Representative from Massachusetts.He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on August 9, 1797; he attended the Leicester Academy (1809–1811) and Yale College (1811–1812) and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1818 and commenced practice in New Braintree; he returned to Worcester in 1824 and continued the practice of law.Allen was a Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1830, 1833, 1835, and 1840); he served in the Massachusetts State Senate (1836–1837). He was a member of the Northeastern Boundary Commission in 1842; a judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1842–1845) and a delegate to the Whig National Convention at Philadelphia in 1848. He was elected as the Free-Soil Party candidate to Congress (March 4, 1849 - March 3, 1853) and did not seek renomination in 1852. In 1849 he edited the Boston " Whig," afterward called the "Republican."After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law in Worcester. He was a member of the state's constitutional convention in 1853. He was Chief Justice of the Sufolk County Superior Court (1859–1867)'He was a delegate to the peace convention held at Washington, D.C. in 1861, in an effort to devise a means to prevent the impending Civil War.Charles Allen died in Worcester on August 6, 1869, three days before his 72nd birthday; he was interred in the Rural Cemetery.