George F. Edmunds

George Franklin Edmunds
United States Senator from Vermont
In office April 3, 1866 – November 1, 1891
Preceded by	Solomon Foot
Succeeded by	Redfield Proctor
Personal details
Born	(1828-02-01)February 1, 1828 Richmond, Vermont, U.S.
Died	February 27, 1919(1919-02-27) (aged 91) Pasadena, California, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Susan Marsh Edmunds
Profession	Politician, Lawyer

George Franklin Edmunds (February 1, 1828 – February 27, 1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont from 1866 to 1891.

Born in Richmond, Vermont, Edmunds attended common schools and was privately tutored as a child. After being admitted to the bar in 1849, he started a law practice in Burlington, Vermont. He became active in politics when he was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives which he served as a member of from 1854 to 1859, also serving as Speaker for three of those years. He then moved on to the Vermont Senate of which he served as President pro tempore from 1861 to 1862.

George Franklin Edmunds

After the death of U.S. Senator Solomon Foot in March 1866, Edmunds was appointed to take his place starting in April, a seat in which he would remain in until November 1891, being reelected in 1868, 1874, 1880 and 1886. His selection was more than a matter of chance. Having served on the state senate's judiciary committee with Paul Dillingham, he had impressed the latter strongly, and in 1866, Dillingham, as governor, had the power of appointment. The governor had at first considered giving the place to former Governor J. Gregory Smith, but Smith had obligations that kept him from accepting immediately. Another consideration helped Edmunds: under the unofficial "Mountain Rule", senators had to come from opposite sides of the mountain range that ran down the state, and, with the other senator from east of it, a Burlington man like Edmunds filled the requirement for a western senator.

In the Senate, he took an active part in the attempt to impeach President Andrew Johnson in 1868. He was influential in providing for the electoral commission to decide the disputed presidential election of 1876 and served as one of the commissioners, voting for Republicans Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. At the Republican National Conventions of 1880 and 1884, he was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. He was the author of the Edmunds Act for the suppression of polygamy in Utah and of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 to limit monopolies in the United States. Edmunds served as President pro tempore of the Senate from 1883 to 1885, was chairman of the Republican Conference of the Senate from 1885 to 1891, chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions from 1869 to 1873, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1872 to 1879 and again from 1881 to 1891, chairman of the Senate Committee on Private Land Claims from 1879 to 1881 and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1881.

Edmunds was, as one reporter called him, "the lion of the law of the Senate. His position is understood to be that once a lawyer, always a lawyer." That meant that even during Congressional sessions, he carried on a lucrative law practice in the local courts and continued to hold retainers from railroad corporations, even while railroad legislation was under consideration. The Vermont Central Railroad paid him a thousand dollars a year, and other clients even more. Estimates in the 1880s put his wealth at somewhere above $200,000. But his real specialty came in constitutional law. He was the Senate's master of technical language. Somebody once asked a Vermont congressman to describe his colleague. "Oh, Edmunds is a man that can see a fly on a barn-door four miles away without ever seeing the barn," the congressman explained. His colleagues felt the sting of his criticisms, and some of them thought him far better at saying no to things than offering positive alternatives. The presiding officer of the senate joked that he could always make Edmunds vote nay on any question, simply by putting it in the New England way: "Contrary-minded will say no," because Edmunds was always contrary-minded. One friend trying to interest him in a presidential bid pleaded, "But, Edmunds, think how much fun you would have vetoing bills."

He made a fierce opponent in debate and took special delight in goading southern senators into blurting out statements that would embarrass the Democratic party. To those southerners opposed to any federal role in protecting blacks' right to vote, Edmunds seemed the epitome of Yankee evil. One southern correspondent in 1880 wrote, "When I look at that man sitting almost alone in the Senate, isolated in his gloom of hate and bitterness, stern, silent, watchful, suspicious and pitiless, I am reminded of the worst types of Puritan character... You see the impress of the purer persecuting spirit that burned witches, drove out Roger Williams, hounded Jonathan Edwards for doing his sacred duty, maligned Jefferson, and like a toad squatted at the ear of the Constitution it had failed to pervert."At the same time, he was widely admired. One Democrat with no reason to appreciate him, wrote a colleague that among all the Republicans, "Edmunds made the most impression upon me. I couldn't help admiring his clear and incisive way of putting a question, although it appeared to me that his manner is occasionally very irritating. This manner of his is very much that of a lawyer employed as counsel in a case, who therefore makes ex parte statements, and thinks it fair to make all manner of allegations." His closest friend in the chamber, indeed, was the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Allen G. Thurman of Ohio, himself a careful student of constitutional law. At any rate, they drank together; Edmunds' fondness for alcoholic stimulants was an open secret among reporters.

Civil service reformers ranked Edmunds as one of their own. In 1884, Republicans looking for a clean man to put up for the presidency against President Chester Alan Arthur and former Senator James G. Blaine, hoped to build a groundswell for the Vermont senator. Revelations about Edmunds' own questionable railroad dealings made him a less available choice. After Blaine's nomination, Edmunds, as a loyal Republican, could not join many of his followers in supporting the Democratic ticket instead, but his coolness was noticeable, so much so that in 1886, when Blaine and Edmunds both attended ex-President Arthur's funeral and Edmunds extended his hand, Blaine refused to take it.

Edmunds resigned from the Senate in 1891 in order to start a law practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but there were other factors that made him do so. One newspaper later alleged that the passage of the Sherman silver-purchase act angered him and alienated him from his party so much that he chose not to continue in the Senate. But another story had it that with the admission of a dozen senators from the far west, he felt as though the chamber no longer had the respect for tradition that he preferred. "Sworn in yesterday and haranguing the Senate to-day," he reportedly commented, as the member from Idaho held the floor. "Well, I guess it's about time for me to quit." The disrespect was mutual. When Edmunds tried to upbraid a South Dakota senator, the latter shouted, "if there is to be any more of this bossing, enough Senators from the new States will go over to the Democrats and we'll reorganize the Senate, and you'll have to pack up your whiskey jug and get out of the Judiciary room." He did return to Washington to argue before the Supreme Court, and on one occasion a railroad president sent down liquor that, as his successor wrote back, would "furnish the Senator inspiration for his legal argument before the Supreme Court and ... sustain some of the Senators during the session..."He later retired to Pasadena, California where he died on February 27, 1919. He was buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Burlington with his wife, Susan Marsh, who died in 1916. George F. Edmunds Middle School, one of two middle schools in Burlington, was named in his honor. Mount Rainier's Edmunds Glacier and, despite the spelling, the town of Edmonds, Washington is named for him.

See also

• Edmunds–Tucker Act

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• George F. Edmunds at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• George F. Edmunds at Find A Grave

Political offices
Preceded by George W. Grandey	Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives 1857–1860	Succeeded by Augustus P. Hunton
United States Senate
Preceded by Solomon Foot	United States Senator (Class 1) from Vermont April 3, 1866 – November 1, 1891 Served alongside: Luke P. Poland and Justin S. Morrill	Succeeded by Redfield Proctor
Political offices
Preceded by David Davis	President pro tempore of the United States Senate March 4, 1883 – March 4, 1885	Succeeded by John Sherman
Preceded by John Sherman	Chairman of the Republican Conference of the United States Senate 1885 – 1891
Honorary titles
Preceded by William Sprague	Most Senior Living U.S. Senator (Sitting or Former) September 11, 1915 – February 27, 1919	Succeeded by Cornelius Cole