US Congressman. He represented Massachusetts' 9th District in the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses, serving from 1853 to 1857. As a Free Soil politician, he was one of the six signers of Salmon P. Chase's manifesto "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" (1854), which argued strongly against passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Chase called it "an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves". The screed was published natiowide and proved inflammatory to those on both sides of the slavery issue. De Witt was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, and spent most of his life as a textile manufacturer and bank president in Oxford. He was a member of the State House of Representatives from 1830 to 1836, and served four non-consecutive terms in the State Senate (1842, 1844, 1850, 1851). For his second US Congressional term De Witt switched to the nativist American ("Know-Nothing") Party, but their influence was short-lived and he was defeated for reelection in 1856. He then returned to his business interests in Oxford.
US Congressman. He represented Massachusetts' 9th District in the Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses, serving from 1853 to 1857. As a Free Soil politician, he was one of the six signers of Salmon P. Chase's manifesto "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" (1854), which argued strongly against passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Chase called it "an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves". The screed was published natiowide and proved inflammatory to those on both sides of the slavery issue. De Witt was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, and spent most of his life as a textile manufacturer and bank president in Oxford. He was a member of the State House of Representatives from 1830 to 1836, and served four non-consecutive terms in the State Senate (1842, 1844, 1850, 1851). For his second US Congressional term De Witt switched to the nativist American ("Know-Nothing") Party, but their influence was short-lived and he was defeated for reelection in 1856. He then returned to his business interests in Oxford.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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