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— Ch. 1 · A Son Of Boston —
Francis Amasa Walker.
~7 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Francis Amasa Walker entered the world on the 2nd of July 1840, in a prominent family home in Boston. His father was Amasa Walker, an economist and politician who had run for mayor of the city in 1837. The Walkers lived next door to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., making Francis and Oliver Jr. playmates during their early childhood years. In 1843, the family moved from Boston to North Brookfield, Massachusetts, where they remained for many years.
Walker began his formal education at age seven, studying Latin at various private and public schools in Brookfield. He attended Leicester Academy when he was twelve and completed his college preparation by fourteen. A year of studying Greek and Latin under Lucy Stone followed before he entered Amherst College at fifteen. Although he planned to transfer to Harvard after one year, his father insisted he stay at Amherst due to his youth. Walker fell ill during his first year and dropped back a year behind his class of 1859.
He graduated from Amherst in 1860 as Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in law. After graduation, he joined the law firm of Charles Devens and George Frisbie Hoar in Worcester, Massachusetts. This legal background would later inform his approach to economic theory and statistical analysis.
The Wounded Officer
As tensions rose over the winter of 1860, 61, Walker equipped himself and drilled with the 3rd Battalion of Rifles in Worcester and New York. His father objected to Francis mobilizing with the first wave of volunteers, though his older brother Robert served in the 34th Massachusetts Infantry. Walker lobbied Governor John Albion Andrew and Adjutant General William Schouler for a commission as second lieutenant under Devens's command of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry.
In July 1861, following his twenty-first birthday and the First Battle of Bull Run, Walker secured his father's consent to join the war effort. He assumed an appointment as sergeant major on the 1st of August 1861, before being reassigned as assistant adjutant general to brigadier general Darius N. Couch and promoted to captain by September 14. Walker remained in Washington, D.C., over the winter of 1861, 62 and did not see combat until May 1862 at the Battle of Williamsburg.
During the summer of 1862, he served in the Army of the Potomac under major general George B. McClellan at the Battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles of the Peninsula Campaign. On the 1st of January 1863, Walker was promoted to lieutenant colonel. At the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, his left hand and wrist were shattered, and his neck was lacerated by an exploding shell. A record from the 1880 census indicated that Walker had a compound fracture of the metacarpal bones of his left hand resulting in permanent extension of his hand.
When was Francis Amasa Walker born and where did he grow up?
Francis Amasa Walker entered the world on the 2nd of July 1840, in a prominent family home in Boston. The Walkers lived next door to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., making Francis and Oliver Jr. playmates during their early childhood years before moving to North Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1843.
What military role did Francis Amasa Walker serve in during the Civil War?
Walker assumed an appointment as sergeant major on the 1st of August 1861, before being reassigned as assistant adjutant general to brigadier general Darius N. Couch and promoted to captain by September 14. He remained in Washington, D.C., over the winter of 1861, 62 and did not see combat until May 1862 at the Battle of Williamsburg.
How did Francis Amasa Walker contribute to the 1870 census results?
The 1870 census proceeded under rules governing previous collections, which Walker deemed inefficient and unscientific while lacking authority to determine personnel or methods. This work culminated in publication of the first Statistical Atlas of the United States, which won praise from the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and earned a first-class medal from the International Geographical Congress.
Why is Francis Amasa Walker known for his views on immigration and Native Americans?
Walker was strong believer in social Darwinism, eugenics, and immigration restriction with theories foundational for modern American nativist movement. His reputation declined in 21st century due to espousal of racist views in general and on Native Americans in particular leading to removal of his bronze bust from MIT in 2022.
What major academic positions did Francis Amasa Walker hold after the Civil War?
Walker served as professor of political economy at Yale before accepting appointment as president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June 1881. He formally elected by MIT Corporation the 25th of May 1881, resigning from Yale in June and 1880 census in November to lead the institution until his death in 1897.
In January 1869, while his editorial career was moving forward, Walker secured an appointment as chief of the United States Bureau of Statistics and deputy special commissioner of Internal Revenue. Secretary of the Interior Jacob D. Cox notified him on January 29 that he was being nominated as superintendent of the 1870 census. After Senate confirmation, Walker sought to strike a moderate, reformist position, but proposed reform legislation failed to pass.
The 1870 census proceeded under rules governing previous collections, which Walker deemed inefficient and unscientific. He lacked authority to determine personnel, methods, or timing, all regularly manipulated by local political interests. The census posed challenges of post-war reconstruction and would be the first to fully count emancipated African Americans. It completed several months behind schedule to much popular criticism, leading indirectly to deterioration in Walker's health during spring 1871.
Walker took leave to travel to England with Samuel Bowles in summer 1871 to recuperate. He continued working on the 1870 census for several years, culminating in publication of the first Statistical Atlas of the United States. This work was unprecedented in its use of visual statistics and maps to report census results. The Atlas won praise from the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and earned a first-class medal from the International Geographical Congress.
Wages And Rent
As professor of political economy at Yale, Walker's first major scholarly contribution was The Wages Question published in 1876. This treatise set out to debunk the wage-fund doctrine and address radical proposals regarding obligations between employer and employed. His theory of wage distribution later became known as residual theory, setting stage for contributions by John Bates Clark on marginal productivity theory.
Despite advocacy for profit sharing and expansion of educational opportunities using trade and industrial schools, Walker remained an avowed opponent of nascent socialist movement. He published critiques of Edward Bellamy's popular novel Looking Backward. Beginning in 1879, Walker engaged in public debate over economic rents, land, money, and taxes with political economist Henry George.
Walker published Land and Its Rent in 1883 based on lectures delivered at Harvard as criticism of George's 1879 Progress and Poverty. Walker argued primary cause of economic depressions was not land speculation but rather constriction of money supply. He also criticized George's assumptions that technical progress was always labor saving and whether land held for speculation was unproductive or inefficient.
The Indian Question
Upon return to United States in fall 1871, Walker declined offer to join The New York Times editorial board with annual salary of $8,000. He accepted appointment from Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano to become United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Appointment permitted Walker to maintain federal responsibilities as census superintendent despite appropriations ending for position. It offered political opportunity to improve administration following scandal involving Commissioner Ely S. Parker.
Walker served briefly as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, resigning the 26th of December 1872, to take faculty position at Yale University. During service he collected demographic information on native tribes and history of conflict and treaties, publishing book titled The Indian Question in 1874. More than half book dedicated to appendix with descriptions of over 100 tribes including 300,000 natives, majority living on existing government reservations.
The Indian Question weighed reservation system against full assimilation and United States citizenship. Walker argued reservation system failing due to illegal incursions into native lands but countered immediate full assimilation damages native culture, quality of life, and dignity. He concluded assimilation must be ultimate end goal requiring protection under shell of reservation system.
Building MIT
Walker first offered presidency of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June 1880 by founder William Barton Rogers after financial stability severely weakened by Panic of 1873. Rogers followed up January and February 1881 requesting commitment, and Walker accepted early May. He formally elected by MIT Corporation the 25th of May 1881, resigning from Yale in June and 1880 census in November.
During era MIT faced direct financial competition with Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University. Given choice funding technological research at Harvard, many potential benefactors indifferent or hostile to adolescent MIT. In 1870 and 1878, overtures from Harvard president Charles William Eliot for consolidation rejected or disrupted by Rogers. Despite tenure at Sheffield analogous to Lawrence, Walker remained committed to MIT's independence from any larger institution.
Several new programs launched under Walker's tenure including electrical engineering in 1882, chemical engineering in 1888, sanitary engineering in 1889, geology in 1890, and naval architecture in 1893. Between appointment in 1881 and death in 1897, enrollment quadrupled from 302 to 1,198 students.
A Contested Legacy
Walker was strong believer in social Darwinism, eugenics, and immigration restriction. According to historian Mae Ngai, Walker's theories and writings foundational for modern American nativist movement. He believed United States possessed natural character and teleology to which immigration external and unnatural. His assumption resonated with conventional views about America's providential mission and general march of progress yet rooted in profoundly conservative viewpoint composition of nation should never change.
In 1896 he repeated concerns in article titled Restriction of Immigration in Atlantic Monthly arguing immigrants from Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russian Empire were vast masses of peasantry degraded below utmost conceptions. Walker argued immigration to United States would entail race-suicide for Anglo-Saxons. He also argued unrestricted immigration major reason behind nineteenth-century Native American fertility decline.
Walker's reputation declined in 21st century due to espousal of racist views in general and on Native Americans in particular. A bronze bust of Walker removed from pedestal and relocated to MIT Museum in 2022 accompanied by description calling them appalling. The Francis A. Walker Medal awarded annually beginning 1947 until discontinued 1982 after creation Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.