Pomeroy, Samuel Clark,
pioneer and United States senator, was born at Southampton, Mass., Jan. 3,
1816; was educated at Amherst College, and in 1840 became an enthusiastic
opponent of slavery. He was present when President Pierce signed the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and remarked to the president: “Your victory is but an
adjournment of the question from the halls of legislation at Washington to the
prairies of the freedom-loving West, and there, sir, we shall beat you.” To
assist in carrying out his prophecy he left Boston in Aug., 1854, with 200
people bound for Kansas, and upon arriving in the territory located at
Atchison. He canvassed the Eastern states in the interest of the free-state
cause; was one of a party arrested by Col. Cooke on the Nebraska river in Oct.,
1856, but was released by Gov. Geary upon his arrival at Topeka; was a member
of the Osawatomie convention in May, 1859, that organized the Republican party
in Kansas, and served on the first state executive committee of that party. In
connection with his management of the aid committee for the relief of the
people of Kansas in the great drought of 1860 he was charged with irregular
conduct, but was exonerated in March, 1861, by a committee composed of W. W.
Guthrie, F. P. Baker and C. B. Lines. On April 4, 1861, he was elected one of
the first United States senators from Kansas, and was reƫlected in 1867. During
the troubles over the Cherokee Neutral Lands many of the people of the state
lost confidence in Mr. Pomeroy, and in 1873 he was defeated for reƫlection to
the senate by John J. Ingalls. It was in connection with this [s]enatorial
election that State Senator A. N. York of Montgomery county made his
sensational charges of bribery against Senator Pomeroy. The charges were
investigated by a committee of the United States senate and also by a joint
committee of the Kansas legislature. On March 3, 1873, a majority of the former
committee reported that “the whole transaction, whatever view be taken of it,
is the result of a concerted plot to defeat Mr. Pomeroy.” Three days later the
committee of the state legislature reported Mr. Pomeroy "guilty of the
crime of bribery, and attempting to corrupt, by offers of money, members of the
legislature.” He was arraigned for trial before Judge Morton at Topeka on June
8, 1874, but a change of venue was taken to Osage county. After several delays
and continuances the case was dismissed on March 12, 1875. On Oct. 11, 1873,
while the political opposition to Mr. Pomeroy was at its height he was shot by
Martin F. Conway in Washington, the bullet entering the right breast, inflicting
a painful but not serious wound. Conway claimed that Pomeroy had ruined himself
and his family. After the bribery case against him was dismissed Mr. Pomeroy
returned to the East and died at Whitinsville, Mass., Aug. 27, 1891.
SOURCE: Frank W. Blackmar, Editor, A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, Volume 2, p. 485-6
No comments:
Post a Comment