John Conness

John Conness

John Conness (born September 22, 1821 in County Galway , United Kingdom , †  January 10, 1909 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American politician of Irish descent who represented the state of California in the US Senate .

In 1833, John Conness emigrated to America as a youth. There he completed an apprenticeship as a piano maker in New York before moving to California in 1849, where he worked in mining and trading in the following years. His political career began in 1853 when he was elected to the California House of Representatives for one term; from 1860 to 1861 he was again a member of this parliamentary chamber. Within the Democratic Party , he was part of the anti- slavery group. As their representative he applied in 1859 against John G. Downey in vain for the office of lieutenant governor ; two years later was defeated in the election forGovernor to Republican Leland Stanford .

For the Democrats, Conness was finally elected to the US Senate, where he assumed his mandate from March 4, 1863. During his six-year tenure, he moved first to the Unionists and finally to the Republicans. In the Senate, among other things, he acted as chairman of the mining committee . Conness enjoyed great respect from President Abraham Lincoln , who referred to him as "one of our senators of high standing"; at his funeral on April 19, 1865, the senator was one of the pallbearers.

After the end of his political career, John Conness retired in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain , where he died in 1909. At this point he was the oldest surviving former senator.

Web links

• John Conness in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• John Conness in the database of Find a Grave (English)