Samuel C. Pomeroy

Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (January 3, 1816 – August 27, 1891) was a United States senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century. He served in the United States Senate during the American Civil War. Pomeroy also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. A Republican, he also was the mayor of Atchison, Kansas, from 1858 to 1859,

Career

Early life

Samuel C. Pomeroy was born on January 3, 1816, at Southampton, Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College.

1860s

On April 4, 1861, the Kansas legislature elected Pomeroy (along with James Lane) to be one of Kansas's first federal senators. In 1863, during the Civil War, Pomeroy escorted Frederick Douglass to the War Department building to meet War Secretary Edwin Stanton. Afterwards, Douglass attended a meeting with President Abraham Lincoln.

In 1862, Pomeroy was a supporter of Linconia, a plan to resettle freed African Americans from the United States.

In 1864, Pomeroy was the chair of a committee supporting Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase for the Republican nomination for President of the United States over the incumbent, Abraham Lincoln. Pomeroy also spoke in support of Chase's candidacy in the Senate. The Pomeroy committee issued a confidential circular to leading Republicans in February 1864 attacking Lincoln, which had the unintended effect of galvanizing support for Lincoln and seriously damaging Chase's prospects. On October 11, 1873, Martin F. Conway fired three shots at Pomeroy on New York Avenue in Washington, D.C. One shot hitting his chest and deflecting off his breastbone.

1880s During the 1880 presidential election Pomeroy was John W. Phelps' running mate on the revived Anti-Masonic Party.

Bribery charges During the Kansas senatorial election of 1873, it was alleged that Senator Pomeroy paid $7,000 (~$ in ) to Mr. Alexander M. York, a Kansas state senator, to secure his vote for reelection to the Senate by the Kansas State Legislature. York publicly disclosed the alleged bribe was an attempt to pin a bribery charge against the senator. After 19 ballots in the Kansas Legislature, Pomeroy was ultimately defeated when insiders turned to John J. Ingalls.

Pomeroy took to the Senate floor on February 10, 1873, to deny the allegations as a "conspiracy ... for the purpose of accomplishing my defeat," The Special Committee on the Kansas Senatorial Election issued its report on March 3, 1873, which determined there was insufficient evidence to sustain the bribery charge, and instead was part of a "concerted plot" to defeat Senator Pomeroy.