Edmund G. Ross

Listen to this article
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Edmund Ross" redirects here. For Trinidadian musician, see Edmundo Ros.

Edmund Gibson Ross
Governor of New Mexico Territory
In office
May 5, 1885 – May 14, 1889
Appointed byGrover Cleveland
Preceded byLionel Allen Sheldon
Succeeded byL. Bradford Prince
Personal details
Born(1826-12-07)December 7, 1826
11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Edmund Gibson Ross (December 7, 1826 – May 8, 1907) was an American politician who represented Kansas after the American Civil War and was later governor of the New Mexico Territory. His vote against convicting President Andrew Johnson of "high crimes and misdemeanors" allowed Johnson to stay in office by the margin of one vote. As the seventh of seven Republican U.S. Senators to break with his party, he proved to be the person whose decision would result in conviction or acquittal. When he chose the latter, the vote of 35–19 in favor of Johnson's conviction failed to reach the required two-thirds vote. Ross lost his bid for re-election two years later.

Early life

Ross was born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he worked on first the Milwaukee Free Democrat and then the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel.[1]: 1–2  In 1854, Ross was one of several Milwaukee residents who came to the aid of Joshua Glover, an escaped slave who had been recaptured and was being held at the local jail.[2]: 22  The group stormed the jail, freed Glover, and enabled his escape to Canada.[2]: 1–2  At the founding of the Republican Party, Ross' anti-slavery leanings caused him to join the new organization.[1]

Early career

An opponent of slavery, during the 1850s dispute over whether to admit Kansas to the union as a free state or a slave state, Ross moved to

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and was one of its chief promoters.[1] In 1859, Ross was elected a delegate to the Kansas constitutional convention of 1859 to 1861.[1]

Military service

A supporter of the

Second Battle of Lexington, Battle of Little Blue River, Second Battle of Independence, Battle of Byram's Ford, Battle of Westport, Battle of Mine Creek, and Battle of Platte Bridge Station/Battle of Red Buttes. He was promoted to major
during the war and was mustered out after the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865.

United States Senator

After the war, Ross returned to Kansas to continue his newspaper career and was editor of the Kansas Tribune from 1865 to 1866.

James H. Lane.[1] The state legislature subsequently elected him to complete Lane's term, and he served from July 19, 1866, to March 3, 1871.[1]
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the term which began on March 4, 1871. During his Senate service, Ross served as chairman of the Committee on Enrolled Bills (Fortieth Congress) and the Committee on Engrossed Bills (Forty-first Congress).

Andrew Johnson impeachment

Illustration published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper of Senator Ross casting his vote against conviction on the eleventh article of impeachment during the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson

Ross is best known for casting the decisive vote which acquitted

Edwin M. Stanton, since he had been appointed during the Lincoln Administration. Still others give voice to the opinion that, though the Kansas Senator did believe Johnson guilty of breaking the Tenure of Office Act, he did not believe that offense worthy of impeachment. Kansas newspapers thought clearly that Ross voted against his radical leanings in supporting Johnson because of the influence of his old Civil War colonel, Thomas Ewing Jr., an ardent Johnson supporter at the time.[3] Later in life, Ewing wrote Ross that he felt Ross was "preeminent for courage" among men—not only for his physical courage in battle but also for opposing Johnson's conviction. "In making [that] decision, you knew perfectly well that it could consign you to private life and the vehement denunciation of almost all your party friends."[4] However, there is significant evidence that suggests Ross was bribed, although a subsequent House of Representatives investigation found no proof.[5]

Edmund G. Ross is one of eight U.S. Senators featured in Profiles in Courage, the 1956 Pulitzer Prize-winning history co-written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy in commemoration of past acts of political courage in Congress.

Later career

Upon retirement from the Senate, Ross went back into the newspaper business briefly, launching a publication in Coffeyville, Kansas.[6] He left the Republican Party after 1872 and was affiliated with the Democrats.[1] In 1880, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of Kansas. A trip to New Mexico in 1882 had a positive effect on his health and he moved there permanently.[1] He studied law and passed the bar, afterwards practicing in Albuquerque and beginning work on a history of the Johnson impeachment.[1]

From 1885 to 1889, Ross served as governor of New Mexico Territory, appointed by President Grover Cleveland.[1] He served as secretary of the New Mexico Bureau of Immigration from 1894 to 1896. In 1896, he published his book History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.[7] Time caused Kansans to look on Ross more favorably with respect to his role in the Johnson impeachment. In 1907, General Hugh Cameron of Lawrence visited Ross in New Mexico and brought testimonials from many citizens of Kansas.[1]

Death

Ross died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 8, 1907. He was interred at Fairview Memorial Park Cemetery in Albuquerque.[8]

Family

In 1848, Ross married Fannie Lathrop (1827–1899) in Sandusky, Ohio.[1] Their children included Lillian, Arthur, Pitt, Flynt, Edmundie, Kay and Fannie.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cade, Leslie A. (1991). "Biographical Note, Edmund G. Ross". Edmund G. Ross Collection, Manuscript Collection No. 491. Topeka: Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8263-5374-0 – via Google Books
    .
  3. ISBN 978-0-8262-1806-3
    . See the discussion at pp. 292–299.
  4. ^ Thomas Ewing Jr. to Ross, July 16, 1894, Thomas Ewing Jr. Papers, Kansas State Historical Society.
  5. ASIN B0027G6X7E
    .
  6. ^ Ross, Edmund G. – KS-Cyclopedia – 1912 Archived June 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Ross, Edmund G. (1896). History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868. Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Mexican Printing Co. p. 1 – via HathiTrust.
  8. ISBN 978-1936744657. Archived from the original
    on July 21, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2018.

Further reading

External links

Listen to this article (2 minutes)
Spoken Wikipedia icon
Audio help · More spoken articles
)
Party political offices
Preceded by
Governor of Kansas
1880
 Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by
James H. Lane
 U.S. senator (Class 2) from Kansas
July 19, 1866 – March 3, 1871
Served alongside: Samuel C. Pomeroy 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Governor of New Mexico Territory

1885–1889 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edmund_G._Ross&oldid=1224645777"