George F. Edmunds

George F. Edmunds

George Franklin Edmunds (born February 1, 1828 in Richmond , Vermont , †  February 27, 1919 in Pasadena , California ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) who represented the state of Vermont in the US Senate .

George Edmunds attended public schools as a boy, but also received private tuition. After studying law , he was admitted to the bar in 1849 and opened a law firm in Burlington . Politically, he was first active in 1854 as a member of the House of Representatives from Vermont , where he remained until 1859; he was speaker of the chamber for three years . He then moved to the State Senate and was its pro tempore president from 1861 to 1862.

After the death of US Senator Solomon Foot in March 1866, George Edmunds was named his successor. He took the seat from April 3 and held it after several re-elections until November 1, 1891. During this time he was, among other things, a driving force in the impeachment against President Andrew Johnson in 1868. After the presidential election in 1876 , he was influential Member of the Senate Commission which, after the narrow and controversial result, made the decision in favor of the Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes . In 1880 and 1884 he was one of his party's applicants for the presidency. Edmunds was known for his legal and political knowledge as well as his liberal views.

With the Edmunds Act , he introduced a bill whose ratification made polygamy in Utah a criminal offense. Edmunds also worked on the Sherman Antitrust Act . From 1883 to 1885 he was President pro tempore of the Senate; from 1885 to 1891 he was the Republican Conference Chairman of the faction of his party. During his tenure in the Senate, he also served as chairman of the pension committee, the judiciary committee and the foreign affairs committee .

In 1891, George Edmunds resigned as a senator in order to resume his legal practice in Philadelphia . He later retired in Pasadena, where he died in 1919. While still alive, he was honored by naming the city of Edmonds in Washington State after him; however, the city founders misspelled his name.

Since 1895 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .

Web links

• George F. Edmunds in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• George F. Edmunds in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Edmonds: often dubbed Washington's "friendliest" city
2. ^ Member History: George Franklin Edmunds. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 27, 2018 .