Barringer, Daniel M.

Born: 1806-07-30 Cabarrus County, North Carolina

Died: 1873-09-01 Surry County, North Carolina

Barringer studied at University of North Carolina and graduated in 1826. He studied law in Hillsboro, earned admittance to the bar, and started a practice in Concord in 1829. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1829, serving until 1834, and was reelected in 1840 and 1842. Barringer was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1835. In 1843, he won election, as a Whig, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving three terms (1843-49). During his third term in Congress, he shared a desk with Abraham Lincoln, with whom he became good friends. He married Elizabeth Wethered in 1848, and had five children. Barringer was appointed minister to Spain in 1849, a position he held until 1853. He returned to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1854. He joined the Washington Peace Conference in 1861, in an effort to prevent the impending war.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 623; Gravestone, Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore City, MD; Thomas E. Jeffrey, "Barringer, Daniel Moreau," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 2:236-37.