James Allison

James Allison Jr. was a nineteenth-century American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. He was born in 1772, during the early years of the newly independent United States, and came of age as the nation’s political institutions were taking shape. Although detailed records of his early life and family background are limited, his subsequent legal and political career indicates that he received a substantial education for the period, likely through a combination of formal schooling and legal apprenticeship, which was the common path to the bar in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Allison pursued the study of law and established himself as an attorney in Pennsylvania. In this capacity he would have been engaged in the broad range of civil and criminal matters that confronted a growing state in the early republic, including property disputes, commercial transactions, and questions arising under both state and emerging federal law. His professional standing at the bar and his participation in local civic affairs helped to build the reputation and connections that later supported his entry into national politics.

As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, Allison Jr. took his place in Congress during a period marked by intense debates over federal power, economic policy, and the expansion of the United States. Serving in the House placed him at the center of legislative deliberations on issues such as internal improvements, trade, and the balance between state and federal authority. While specific details of his committee assignments and legislative initiatives are not extensively documented in the surviving record, his role as a representative from Pennsylvania meant that he was involved in advancing the interests of a key industrializing and agricultural state at a formative time in American political development.

Allison’s congressional service formed the most prominent part of his public career, but like many legislators of his era, he appears to have continued his legal work alongside or following his time in office. His experience in Congress would have enhanced his stature within the legal community and among his constituents, reinforcing his position as a respected public figure in Pennsylvania. His career thus reflects the pattern of early American politicians who moved between law practice and legislative service, contributing to both local and national governance.

James Allison Jr. died in 1854, having lived through the first decades of the United States under the Constitution and witnessed the country’s expansion and growing sectional tensions. His life and service as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania place him among the generation of early national legislators who helped to shape the institutional and political foundations of the federal government in the first half of the nineteenth century.