Saturday, May 25, 2019

Samuel Clarke Pomeroy




Samuel Clarke Pomeroy, January 3, 1816 (Southampton, Mass.) – August 27, 1891 (Whitinsville, Mass.)

VP candidate for Anti-Masonic Party (aka American Party aka Anti-Secret Society Party aka National American Party) (1880)

Running mate with nominee: John W. Phelps (1813-1885)
Popular vote: 1,045 (0.01%)                       
Electoral vote: 0/369

The campaign:

The revised and resurrected version of the old Anti-Masonic Party called to "Expose, withstand, and remove secret societies, Freemasonry in particular and other anti-Christian movements, in order to save the churches of Christ from being depraved." They agreed with the Prohibition Party on the alcohol issue and with the Greenbacks on currency.

Apparently Pomeroy took no active part in the campaign.

The election results for the Phelps/Pomeroy ticket didn't exactly set the world on fire. In some states their popular vote was in the single digits.

Election history:
1852-1853 - Massachusetts House of Representatives
1856 - Republican Vice-Presidential nomination - defeated
1858-1859 - Mayor of Atchison, Kan.
1861-1873 - US Senator (Kan.) (Republican)
1868 - Republican Vice-Presidential nomination - defeated
1872 - US Senator (Kan.) (Republican) - defeated

Other occupations: teacher, speculator, newspaper publisher, President of Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad

Buried: Forest Hills Cemetery (Jamaica Plain, Mass.)

Notes:
Involved with the New England Emigrant Aid Company, bringing anti-slavery settlers to Kansas.
Buried in the same cemetery as e.e. cummings, Eugene O'Neill, and Anne Sexton.
Accused of bribery during his attempt to be re-elected to the US Senate. The case was never resolved in court.
Said to be the inspiration for Mark Twain's "Sen. Dilworthy" character in his book The Gilded Age  
 (published Dec. 1873)
Was nominated for President in 1884 by the American Prohibition Party (formerly known as the Anti-Masonic Party) but Pomeroy dropped out of the race and endorsed the Prohibition Party candidate John St. John.
Supported Salmon P. Chase over Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 Republican primary season.
Known as "Subsidy Pom"
Died from kidney disease.