Walker, wauk'ur, AMASA (1799-1875), an American political economist, born in Woodstock, Conn. he engaged in commercial pursuits from 1814 to 1842, and thereafter for several years, he lectured on political economy in Oberlin College, later at Harvard and Amherst. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1848, became secretary of state of Massachusetts in 1851 and was elected to Congress in 1862. He was president of the Boston Temperance Society and was one of the founders of the Free-Soil party. In 1857 he published Nature and Uses of Money, and in 1866 The Science of Wealth appeared.