Edmund G. Ross

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Image:Edmund G. Ross - Brady-Handy.jpg Edmund Gibson Ross (December 7, 1826 – May 8, 1907) was a politician who represented the state of Kansas during the American Civil War and later the New Mexico Territory.

Ross was born in Ashland, Ohio. He worked in the newspaper business, first in Ohio, then in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Topeka, Kansas.

After the death of James H. Lane in 1866, Ross was appointed to the United States Senate. Ross is 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. They also claim that Ross used his vote as a means to receive favors from Johnson. Others claim Ross cast his vote because he genuinely believed that Johnson had the right to fire Edwin M. Stanton, since he had been hired during the Lincoln Administration. Ross lost his bid for re-election in 1870. From 1885 to 1889, he served as governor of New Mexico Territory.

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

[edit] External links

• Works by Edmund G. Ross at Project Gutenberg
• One telling of Ross' vote for acquittal
• Andrew Johnson: Saved by a Scoundrel

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