Edmund G. Ross, U.S. Senator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_G._Ross

Edmund Gibson Ross (December 7, 1826 – May 8, 1907) was a politician who represented the state of Kansas after the American Civil War and was later governor of the New Mexico Territory. His vote against convicting of 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, Ross 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.

Biography

Ross was born in Ashland, Ohio, and attended high school in Sandusky, Ohio. He worked in the newspaper business, first in Sandusky, Ohio, then in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Topeka, Kansas. After the suicide of James H. Lane in 1866, Ross was appointed and then elected to the United States Senate as a member of the Republican Party.

He was a Union army veteran and hero. A captain in the Eleventh Kansas Infantry, and later when the regiment became mounted cavalry, Ross had two horses shot out from under him during the skirmishing before the Battle of Westport.

Ross is best known for casting the decisive vote which acquitted Andrew Johnson during his 1868 Presidential Impeachment trial. Some people have claimed that Ross voted against the conviction due to concerns about his colleague Samuel C. Pomeroy receiving patronage from Benjamin Wade, and as a means to receive patronage favors from Johnson. Significant evidence exists to suggest Ross was bribed. Others claim Ross cast his vote because he genuinely believed that Johnson had the right to replace 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 Colonel in the civil war, Thomas Ewing Jr., an ardent Johnson supporter at the time. 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 impeachment. “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.”

Upon retirement from the Senate, Ross went back into the newspaper business briefly, launching a publication in Coffeyville, Kansas. From 1885 to 1889, he served as governor of New Mexico Territory, appointed by President Grover Cleveland. In 1896, Ross published book History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

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 and Theodore Sorensen in commemoration of past acts of political courage in Congress. However, this volume makes significant errors in its coverage of Ross.

Ross, Edmund G.,

Journalist and United States senator, was born at Ashland, Ohio, Dec. 7, 1826. He attended the common schools until he was eleven years old, when he was apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office of the Huron Commercial-Advertiser. He completed his apprenticeship at Sandusky, Ohio, and then spent several years traveling as a journeyman printer. On his return to Sandusky in Oct., 1878, he married Fannie M. Lathrop and went to Milwaukee, Wis., where he was engaged in newspaper work. The sacking of Lawrence, Kan., in May, 1856, aroused a storm of indignation throughout the northern states. A meeting was held at Milwaukee and a fund of $3,000 was raised to arm and equip a party of free-state men for Kansas. This party came overland under the leadership of Mr. Ross and upon arrival at Topeka at once took the field with the anti-slavery forces. After the invaders had been driven out, Mr. Ross entered into partnership with his brother in the publication of the Kansas Tribune at Topeka. He took an active interest in politics, was a member of the Wyandotte constitutional convention in 1859, and at the close of the convention began the publication of the Kansas State Record at Topeka, which paper was devoted to the interests of the Republican party and was influential in turning the tide of public opinion toward the adoption of the new constitution. In 1860 his paper aided in calling a territorial convention to plan a scheme for securing a practical railroad system for the anticipated State of Kansas. This was the beginning of the agitation that has given Kansas her efficient railroad service of the present day. He assisted in raising the Eleventh Kansas infantry in 1862, and at the organization of the regiment was elected captain of a company. Subsequently Gov. Carney appointed him major of the regiment, when it was changed from infantry to cavalry. He was present with his command in all the battles in which it was engaged. In 1865, Gov. Crawford appointed him aide-de-camp with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At the close of the war he became editor of the Kansas Tribune at Lawrence. On July 25, 1866, Gov. Crawford appointed him United States Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Gen. James H. Lane, and at the following session of the legislature he was elected for the unexpired term. He was one of the young Republican members of the Senate, and up to the time of the impeachment proceedings against President Johnson was always in accord with his party. In that celebrated case he incurred the lasting displeasure of some of the president's enemies by casting the deciding vote against impeachment. His action was denounced by a partisan press, his friends turned against him, he was ostracized and insulted, and it was not until years afterward, when sectional feeling had died away to some extent, that Mr. Ross was accorded justice. The Chicago Times of Aug. 25, 1889, says: "Though the Republican senators, who disappointed the Republican managers of their two-thirds vote and thus saved Johnson and the country, lost their place in consequence, as soon as their time expired and never since, except in the case of Ross, have had public employment, not one of them, it is safe to say, regrets his course. It was judicious, courageous and disinterested. These men saved the country from the commission of a colossal blunder." 

F. H. Hodder, of the University of Kansas, wrote to the Nation on May 13, 1907: "No man was ever more foully abused, yet he bore personal abuse and retirement to private life, alike with patience and without bitterness. If the people of Kansas wish to atone for the injury they did Mr. Ross during his lifetime they can scarcely do better than place his statue in the capitol at Washington, in the hall reserved for notable men of the states. Such a statue would commemorate an heroic act, a valiant soldier and an honest man."

William Carruth, also of the University of Kansas, says: "It goes hard with us to admit that he was wiser than the majority of us. . . . Major Ross returned to his state, faced obloquy and slander, and earned the living of a poor but honest man, with the same silent endurance with which he met the stress of the great impeachment trial."

Foster D. Coburn, secretary of the Kansas state board of agriculture, said on May 13, 1910: "For the vote cast by Senator Ross against the conviction of President Andrew Johnson, I was, at the time bitter and indignant beyond expression. Now, forty-odd years after, I am firmly of the opinion that Senator Ross acted with a lofty patriotism, regardless of what he knew must be the ruinous consequences to himself."

Mr. Ross was one of the Liberal Republican leaders in Kansas in 1872 who opposed the nomination of Grant and favored Horace Greeley for the presidency. On his retirement from the senate he began to publish a paper at Coffeyville, but a cyclone destroyed his office and he became associated with the Spirit of Kansas and the Standard of Lawrence. In 1882 he went to New Mexico and for a time edited a paper at Albuquerque. He was appointed governor of the territory by President Cleveland in 1885, which position he held for four years. Mr. Ross continued to live in Albuquerque until his death on May 9, 1907.

Birth: Dec. 7, 1826

Death: May 8, 1907

Newspaper publisher ("Kansas Tribune," 1856-1858, and "Kansas State Record," 1859-1861). U.S. Senator for the state of Kansas (July 19, 1866-March 3, 1871) who is credited by some as having cast the vote that saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment; Territorial Governor of New Mexico (May 1885-1889); secretary, Bureau of Immigration (1894-1896).

Cause of death: pneumonia

Burial:
Fairview Memorial Park

Albuquerque

Bernalillo County

New Mexico, USA

Plot: Section 5, Lot 29 E 1/2