Samuel C. Pomeroy

Infobox Senator
name=Samuel Clarke Pomeroy

---

width=200px
jr/sr and state=Junior Senator, Kansas
party=Republican
term=April 4, 1861 – March 3, 1873
preceded="(none)"
succeeded=John J. Ingalls
date of birth=birth date|1816|1|3|mf=y
place of birth=Southampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
date of death=death date and age|1891|8|27|1816|1|3|mf=y
place of death=Whitinsville, Massachusetts, U.S.
spouse=
religion=
profession=Politician, Teacher, Railroad President
footnotes=

Samuel Clarke Pomeroy (January 3, 1816 – August 27, 1891) was a Republican Senator from Kansas in the mid-19th century, serving in the United States Senate during the American Civil War.cite web| url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000423| title=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present| accessmonthday=July 5 | accessyear=2005| ] He also was the mayor of Atchison, Kansas, from 1858 to 1859, the second president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad 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. [cite book|author=Waters, Lawrence Leslie| year=1950| title=Steel Trails to Santa Fe| publisher=University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas| ]

Bribery Charges

During the Kansas senatorial election of 1873, it was alleged that Senator Pomeroy paid $7,000 to Mr. A. M. York, a Kansas state senator, to secure his vote for reelection to the Senate by the Kansas State Legislature."Senate Journal." 42nd Cong., 3rd sess. [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=109/llcg109.db&recNum=545 1214] - [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=109/llcg109.db&recNum=546 1215] .] York publicly disclosed the alleged bribe was an attempt to pin a bribery charge against the senator. [cite|title=200 Notable Days: Senate Stories 1787-2002|author=Richard A. Baker|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|date=2006 Page 106] Pomeroy ultimately lost the election 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 was never disputed by witnesses, 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. 3 March 1873. [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=110/llcg110.db&recNum=532 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 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.

References