Representative Archibald McAllister

Archibald McAllister (October 12, 1813 – July 18, 1883) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania who served one term in Congress from 1863 to 1865. He was born at Fort Hunter, Pennsylvania, near present-day Harrisburg, and was part of a politically and socially prominent family. He was the grandson of John Andre Hanna and the paternal nephew of George Washington McAllister, the owner of Strathy Hall. Growing up in central Pennsylvania, he attended the common schools before pursuing higher education.

McAllister continued his studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an institution that educated many future lawyers, public officials, and civic leaders in the state. After his education, he remained in Pennsylvania and became involved in business and industry rather than entering the legal profession or another learned field. In 1842 he moved to Blair County, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the manufacture of charcoal iron at Springfield Furnace, Pennsylvania, an important enterprise in the region’s early industrial economy.

By the early 1860s, McAllister had established himself as a figure of some standing in his community, which helped pave the way for his entry into national politics. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress and served as a Representative from Pennsylvania in the United States Congress from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1865. His single term in office coincided with a critical phase of the American Civil War, and he participated in the legislative process during this significant period in American history, representing the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents in the House of Representatives.

During his congressional service, McAllister took a notable position on one of the defining issues of the era. Although a Democrat, he supported the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery. In the congressional debate on the amendment, McAllister justified his stance by arguing that destroying what he called “the corner-stone of the Southern Confederacy” was the only path to peace, reflecting his belief that the eradication of slavery was essential to restoring the Union and ending the conflict. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1864 and thus concluded his service in Congress after a single term.

After leaving Congress in 1865, McAllister returned to private life and resumed the manufacture of iron, continuing his involvement in the industry that had defined his pre-congressional career. He lived out his later years in Pennsylvania, remaining associated with the industrial and civic life of his region. Archibald McAllister died in Royer, Pennsylvania, on July 18, 1883. He was interred in Mountain Cemetery, leaving a legacy as a mid-19th-century Pennsylvania industrialist and a Civil War–era congressman who broke with many in his party to support the constitutional abolition of slavery.