John Lawson Burnett (January 20, 1854 – May 13, 1919) was an American lawyer and politician who served eleven terms as a U.S. representative from Alabama 1899 to 1919.
John L. Burnett | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 7th district | |
| In office March 4, 1899 – May 13, 1919 | |
| Preceded by | Milford W. Howard |
| Succeeded by | Lilius B. Rainey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Lawson Burnett January 20, 1854 |
| Died | May 13, 1919 (aged 65) |
| Resting place | Forest Cemetery |
Life
editBorn in Cedar Bluff, Alabama, Burnett attended the common schools of the county, Wesleyan Institute, Cave Spring, Georgia, and the local high school at Gaylesville, Alabama.
Studies and early politics
editHe studied law and graduated from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1876, he was admitted to the bar in Cherokee County, Alabama and commenced practice in Gadsden thereafter. He served in the State House of Representatives in 1884 and as member of the State senate in 1886.
Congress
editBurnett was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-sixth and to the ten succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1899, until his death.[1]
He served as chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Sixty-second through Sixty-fifth Congresses). On April 5, 1917, John Lawson Burnett was one of the 50 representatives who voted against declaring war on Germany (World War I).
He served as member of the United States Immigration Commission 1907-1910. In 1907, Congressman John L. Burnett called Syrians "the most undesirable of the undesirable peoples of Asia Minor".[2]
Death and burial
editJohn L. Burnett died in Gadsden, Alabama on May 13, 1919, and was interred in Forest Cemetery.
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 9 November 1903. p. 3. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
- ↑ Khater, Akram Fouad (2005). "Becoming "Syrian" in America: A Global Geography of Ethnicity and Nation". Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies. 14 (2): 299–331. doi:10.1353/dsp.0.0010.
External links
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This article incorporates public domain material from Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Federal government of the United States.