Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (January 3, 1816 – August 27, 1891) was a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

senator from

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

in the mid-19th century. He served in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Pomeroy also served in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

. A Republican, he also was the mayor of

Atchison, Kansas Atchison is a city in, and the county seat of, Atchison County, Kansas, United States, along the Missouri River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,885. The city is named in honor of US Senator ...

, from 1858 to 1859, the second president of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

, and the first president to oversee any of the railroad's construction and operations. Pomeroy succeeded Cyrus K. Holliday as president of the railroad on January 13, 1864.

Career

Early life

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

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

. Pomeroy opposed the politics of slavery, and in 1854 he became an affiliate of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. That fall, he led a group of settlers to Kansas to help found the city of Lawrence.

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 Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

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 African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

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 The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

over the incumbent,

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

. 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.

1870s

On December 18, 1871, at the urging of

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (September 7, 1829 – December 22, 1887) was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union A ...

and after learning of the findings of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871, Pomeroy introduced the Act of Dedication bill into the Senate that ultimately led to the creation of

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

. 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 The Anti-Masonic Party was the earliest Third party (United States), third party in the United States. Formally a Single-issue politics, single-issue party, it strongly opposed Freemasonry in the United States. It was active from the late 1820s, ...

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 The Kansas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. It is a bicameral assembly, composed of the lower Kansas House of Representatives, with 125 state representatives, and the upper Kansas Senate, with 40 state sena ...

.''Senate Journal.'' 42nd Cong., 3rd sess
1214

1215
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," and urged the creation of a special committee to investigate the allegations. The payment of the $7,000 (~$ in ) was never disputed by

witness In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...

es, but instead of being a bribe it was described to the committee as a payment meant to be passed along to a second individual as seed money to start a national bank.''Senate Journal.'' 42nd Cong., 3rd sess. March 3, 1873
2161
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. Senator Allen G. Thurman of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

disagreed with the special committee's findings, stating his belief in Pomeroy's guilt and calling attempts to explain the payment as something other than a bribe as "so improbable, especially in view of the circumstances attending the senatorial election, that reliance cannot be placed upon them." However, Thurman chose not to pursue the matter further, as March 3 coincided with Senator Pomeroy's last day in office. This whole matter was alluded to in detail in the satire The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

and Charles Dudley Warner, in which the prominent character Senator Dillworth is based on Pomeroy."Afterword" by Greg Camfield to the Oxford University Press edition of ''The Gilded Age'', p.15.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pomeroy, Samuel C. 1816 births 1891 deaths People from Southampton, Massachusetts American people of English descent Kansas Republicans Republican Party United States senators from Kansas Radical Republicans Republican Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Mayors of places in Kansas 19th-century American railroad executives Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway presidents People from Atchison, Kansas Politically motivated migrations People of the American colonization movement Amherst College alumni People of Kansas in the American Civil War Union (American Civil War) political leaders American shooting survivors 19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court 19th-century United States senators Anti-Masonic Party politicians from Massachusetts