Aaron Augustus Sargent

Aaron Augustus Sargent

Aaron Augustus Sargent (born September 28, 1827 in Newburyport , Massachusetts , †  August 14, 1887 in San Francisco , California ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of California in both chambers of Congress .

Life

After attending public schools, Aaron Sargent apprenticed to a carpenter . He then worked as a printer in Philadelphia before he found a job as a secretary for a congressman in Washington, DC in 1847 . Two years later he moved to California, where he settled in Nevada City and became an editor for the Nevada Daily Journal ; later he bought the newspaper. In addition, Sargent was inducted into the state bar in 1854 and began practicing in Nevada City. In 1856 he became a district attorney in Nevada County .

Public offices

In the same year he was active as a member of the Senate of California for the first time politically. In 1860 he was elected for the first time for a two-year term in the US House of Representatives, in which he then moved in 1869 for four more years. In 1861 he was responsible for the first legislation introduced into Congress regarding the Pacific Railroad .

From 1873 to 1879, Aaron Sargent was one of the two US Senators for California. During this time he first chaired the Mining Committee ( Committee on Mines and Mining ), then later the Committee on Naval Affairs .

In January 1878, Sargent introduced a draft amendment to the United States Constitution in the Senate, which resulted in the introduction of women's suffrage . His wife, Ellen Clark Sargent, was a committed suffragette and friends with Susan B. Anthony , who was one of the leading members of the women's movement. The draft was rejected and regularly submitted without success for the next 40 years. It was not until 1920 that Sargent's draft became the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in an almost identical form .

Sargent returned to the end of his time in the Senate back to California and worked again as a lawyer in San Francisco, as before 1883-1885 Ambassador of the United States in the German Empire worked. He turned down the appointment as ambassador to Russia after the death of William H. Hunt ; instead, he reapplied for the Republican nomination for a Senate seat, but was defeated. Aaron Augustus Sargent died two years later in San Francisco.

Web links

• Aaron Augustus Sargent in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)