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by Almorea. . 6 reads.

BARNHILL, Malcolm (1817 - 1898), senator, Secretary of the Treasury

Malcolm Barnhill was born on February 28, 1817, in Ellsburgh, the son of Herbert J. Barnhill (1789 - 1860), the city's youngest alderman, and Anna Sayville (1790 - 1866). When the elder Barnhill was elected mayor of Ellsbugh in 1822, his family moved into the mayoral residence of Fletcher Park, where his son spent his childhood surrounded by servants and tutors. In 1830, Barnhill senior was appointed commissioner of the Federal District. His son, having been educated at the First School in Ellsburgh, enrolled at Halliwell College to study law in 1835. He obtained a prestigious degree in 1841 and was called to the Adashawnee bar. He ran a private practice until 1844, when he became a clerk for the Adashawnee High Court, and in 1846 he was elected to a seat in the Adashawnee House of Representatives.

Barnhill served in the Adashawnee legislature until January 1851, when he resigned to become lieutenant governor under Governor John G. Peverel. He ran to succeed Peverel in the 1854 gubernatorial election, but failed to secure the endorsement of the powerful Commonwealth and Constitution Party and lost at the ballot box. Barnhill bought an estate at Nivenwood, in eastern Roonmore province, during the winter of 1855 and maintained it for the rest of his life. He enjoyed the life of a gentleman farmer, and after his father's death in 1860 he inherited over $500,000; Barnhill probably did not intend to enter the political arena again for some time. At the start of the War of Disunion in 1861, he was commissioned as a major in the 80th Adashawnee Infantry. After he was wounded at the battle of Meredith River in the last days of 1861, Barnhill was promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred to the Kingsford garrison, where he remained until 1864.

After his farming ventures sputtered and failed in 1867, Barnhill decided to enter politics once more. As a Majoritarian, he was elected to the Senate to represent Adashawnee in 1868. After taking his seat in the upper house, Barnhill became a staunch advocate for economic stimulus to the defeated rebel provinces. In 1870, he sponsored the Telegraph Act that overhauled and improved Almorea's telegraph lines. The following year, he joined a group of Federalists in suing the Esdaile administration before the Supreme Court. Barnhill joined the National Party in 1872 and was re-elected to the Senate that year. He won re-election again in 1876, and again in 1880. During the presidency of George C. McAdder, he was a supporter of the 1877 Silver Standard Act. In 1878, Barnhill joined the Federalist exodus from the National Party, earning him the dislike of McAdder and the party establishment. After beginning his fourth Senate term in 1881, Barnhill found himself "frozen out" by the administration of President Henry Callard.

In 1884, Barnhill became the chairman of the Federalist National Committee. In the legislative elections of that year, he won his fifth Senate term. During the Freyne administration, he saw a revival of his political influence. On June 1, 1887, Barnhill accepted the post of Secretary of the Treasury, and left the legislature for good. After the silver-dollar scandal of 1889, when President Freyne ordered the Treasury to immediately withdraw all silver dollars from circulation, Barnhill was put up as the administration's scapegoat. He was impeached by the Chamber of Representatives on September 25, 1889, and resigned three days later. Barnhill was the first treasury chief in Almorean history to be impeached, as well as the oldest person ever impeached by Congress, at the age of seventy-two.

After his disgrace in 1889, Barnhill retired to Nivenwood. He remained influential in Federalist circles, and spoke in favor of the Communist literature ban in 1892. A heavy drinker, Barnhill grew pallid and weak in his last years as a result of kidney damage. He appeared at the inauguration of William McKintail in February 1897, leaning heavily on a cane, but suffered a debilitating case of pneumonia later that year. Barnhill died at Nivenwood of nephritic syndrome on April 11, 1898, aged eighty.

Almorea

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