Birth and youth
Samuel Clark Pomeroy was born on 3rd January 1816 in Southampton, Massachusetts.
Pomeroy attended Amherst College in Massachusetts between 1836 -1838. He moved to the state of New York in 1838 and there he got involved in teaching a school.
Adult age
Pomeroy returned to Southampton, Massachusetts in 1842. He was viewed as an enthusiastic opponent of slavery. Pomeroy was present when President Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill.
Angered by this bill Pomeroy remarked President
“Your victory is but an adjournment of the question from the halls of legislation at Washington to the open prairies of the freedom-loving west and there sir we shall beat you,” at Massachusetts Pomeroy held various local offices, members, state house representatives’ organizers, and financial agents of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.
Life in Kansas
In 1954, Pomeroy left Boston for Kansas. With him, he had 200 people to assist him to carry his prophecy.
Pomeroy and his people crossed the line at Kansas City, bound for Lawrence but he settled at Atchison. He spent much of his time canvassing the eastern states for the free–state cause in Kansas. He became the mayor of Atchison in 1858 – 1859. He was also a member of the Free State convention at Lawrence and President of the relief committee during the famine in Kansas in 1860 and 1869.
Pomeroy was a member of the Osawatomie Convention that organized the Republican Party in Kansas and served on the first state executive committee of that party. Given 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.
Work in Senate
On April 4, 1861, Pomeroy was elected to the United State senate, upon the state of Kansas being admitted to the Union. He was re-elected in 1867. Many people lost confidence in Pomeroy because of the troubles of Cherokee Neutral Lands. This led to his defeat in 1873 by John Ingalls. At the Republican nominating convention for a third term, before which he was a candidate, senator A.M. York of Montgomery County denounced Mr. Pomeroy for bribery, and tuned over the $7,000 paid by the latter for his support, to the presiding officer.
The result was that John J. Ingalls received the almost unanimous vote of the convention, and Mr. Pomeroy 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.
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
After the bribery case against him was dismissed Mr. Pomeroy returned to the East and died at Whitinsville, Massachusetts, on August 27, 1891.
Samuel Clark Pomeroy a Republican from Kansas sat on the trial of President Andrew Johnson. Just like most republicans, Pomeroy was for the impeachment of President Johnson. Johnson was being charged with crimes committed in the office and misdemeanors. It can be said that ultimately Johnson survived the vote because of Pomeroy. This is evident from the saving vote of Edmund Ross. Ross a Republican senator from Kansas was expected to cast his vote against Johnson. Sensing that if Johnson is impeached his position will be taken over by Benjamin Wade of Ohio, he would grant Pomeroy the control over Kansas appointments a position that was held by Ross. His vote saved the President in return for many concessions.
Therefore Pomeroy’s position as an individual was for the impeachment of President Johnson but fearing his succession to patronage of Kansas if Johnson could have lost, Ross voted against impeachment which saved the President.
Bibliography
William E. Connelley, Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1997.
Plummer, Mark A. Biographical sketch of “Pomeroy, Samuel Clarke.” In American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Treawell, William E. “The Gilded Age in Kansas.” Kansas Historical Quarterly 2002.