Joshua Adams Lowell

Joshua Adams Lowell (March 20, 1801 – March 13, 1874) was a United States Representative from Maine and a member of the Democratic Party who served two terms in Congress in the late 1830s and early 1840s. He was born in Thomaston, then in Massachusetts (now in the state of Maine), on March 20, 1801, during the period when Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. His early years were spent in this coastal community, where he was educated in the local common schools that formed the foundation of his later professional and political life.

Lowell’s formal education took place in the common schools of his native region, institutions in which he not only studied but also later taught. His experience as a schoolteacher reflected both the limited but practical educational opportunities available in rural New England in the early nineteenth century and his own commitment to self-improvement and public service. Through independent study and apprenticeship, he prepared for the legal profession, following the then-common practice of “reading law” rather than attending a formal law school.

After completing his legal studies, Lowell was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in East Machias, Maine. East Machias, located in Washington County in the eastern part of the state, became his long-term home and professional base. As a lawyer, he established himself in the community and entered public life, gaining the confidence of local citizens. His legal practice and growing reputation led naturally into elective office at the state level.

Lowell was elected a member of the Maine House of Representatives, where he participated in the legislative affairs of the young state, which had been admitted to the Union in 1820. His service in the state legislature helped to elevate his profile within the Democratic Party and provided him with experience in lawmaking and public administration. This state-level service formed the immediate prelude to his election to national office.

In 1838, Lowell was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth Congress and was subsequently re-elected to the Twenty-seventh Congress, serving from March 4, 1839, to March 3, 1843, as a United States Representative from Maine. His tenure in Congress coincided with a significant period in American history marked by debates over economic policy, federal expenditures, and the role of the national government. During the Twenty-seventh Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department, a position that placed him in oversight of spending and administrative practices in one of the federal government’s most extensive and important departments. As a Democratic representative, he contributed to the legislative process and represented the interests of his Maine constituents over the course of his two terms.

Lowell chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1842, thereby concluding his congressional career at the end of his second term in March 1843. Following his departure from national office, he returned to East Machias and resumed the practice of law. In his later years he continued to be a respected figure in his community, identified with both his legal work and his prior public service at the state and federal levels.

Joshua Adams Lowell died in East Machias, Maine, on March 13, 1874, just one week before his seventy-third birthday. He was interred in the Village Cemetery in East Machias. His career reflected the trajectory of many nineteenth-century New England lawyers who combined local legal practice with periods of legislative service, and his work in Congress, particularly his chairmanship of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department, placed him within the broader development of federal institutions in the antebellum United States.