Samuel Douglas McEnery (May 28, 1837 – June 28, 1910) served as the 30th Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana, with service from 1881 until 1888. He was subsequently a U.S. senator from 1897 until 1910. He was the brother of John McEnery, one of the candidates in the contested 1872 election for governor.
Samuel Douglas McEnery | |
|---|---|
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| United States Senator from Louisiana | |
| In office March 4, 1897 – June 28, 1910 | |
| Preceded by | Newton C. Blanchard |
| Succeeded by | John Thornton |
| 30th Governor of Louisiana | |
| In office October 16, 1881 – May 20, 1888 | |
| Lieutenant | W.A. Robertson George L. Walton Clay Knobloch |
| Preceded by | Louis A. Wiltz |
| Succeeded by | Francis T. Nicholls |
| 16th Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana | |
| In office January 14, 1880 – October 16, 1881 | |
| Governor | Louis A. Wiltz |
| Preceded by | Louis A. Wiltz |
| Succeeded by | W. A. Robertson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 28, 1837 Monroe, Louisiana |
| Died | June 28, 1910 (aged 73) New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Spring Hill College United States Naval Academy University of Virginia State and National Law School (New York) |
| Signature | .png){kind=small} |
Early life
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McEnery was born in Monroe in Ouachita Parish in North Louisiana. He attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia. In 1859, McEnery graduated from the State and National Law School in Poughkeepsie, New York. McEnery served as a lieutenant in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.
Career
editIn 1866, McEnery began practicing law in Monroe. He became active in the Democratic Party, and served as its chairman in Ouachita Parish. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1879, and became Governor of Louisiana in 1881 after the death of Louis A. Wiltz. McEnery was elected to a full term as governor in 1884, but failed to be re-elected in 1888. McEnery's administration was weak because of the power wielded by the State Treasurer Edward A. Burke and the corrupt Louisiana State Lottery Company. Despite Louisiana's Roman Catholic plurality (and majority in Acadiana and many of the southern parishes of the state), McEnery was the last Catholic to be elected governor prior to Edwin Edwards in 1972.[1]
After losing the 1888 election, McEnery was appointed to serve as an associate justice in the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was elected to serve in the United States Senate in 1896, serving there until his death in 1910.[2] While in the Senate, McEnery served on the Committee of Corporations formed in the District of Columbia and the Committee of Transportation and Sale of Meat Products.[3] He was a member of The Boston Club of New Orleans.[4]
Death
editMcEnery died on June 28, 1910, in New Orleans and was interred there at Metairie Cemetery.[5]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ After Edwin Edwards, Catholics Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Bobby Jindal, and John Bel Edwards were elected governors.
- ^ "S. Doc. 58-1 - Fifty-eighth Congress. (Extraordinary session -- beginning November 9, 1903.) Official Congressional Directory for the use of the United States Congress. Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing by A.J. Halford. Special edition. Corrections made to November 5, 1903". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. November 9, 1903. p. 41. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
- ^ For McEnery's positions on the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, see Robert Harrison, Congress, Progressive Reform, and the New American State (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 77, 235, 253. ISBN 978-0-521-82789-8, ISBN 0-521-82789-2.
- ^ Landry, Stuart O. (1841). "History of the Boston Club". HathiTrust. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
- ^ See the Louisiana Secretary of State's "Samuel Douglas McEnery" Archived 2008-02-21 at the Wayback Machine site for McEnery's religious affiliation, date of death, and other information.
External links
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Media related to Samuel D. McEnery at Wikimedia Commons- United States Congress. "McENERY, Samuel Douglas (id: M000429)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-10-19
- State of Louisiana - Biography
- Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries
- . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
- Samuel D. McEnery, Late a Senator from Louisiana. US Government Printing Office. 1911.
- John and Samuel McEnery Papers at The Historic New Orleans Collection
