Samuel D. McEnery explained

Samuel Douglas McEnery
Jr/Sr:United States Senator
State:Louisiana
Term Start:March 4, 1897
Term End:June 28, 1910
Predecessor:Newton C. Blanchard
Successor:John Thornton
Order2:30th
Office2:Governor of Louisiana
Term Start2:October 16, 1881
Term End2:May 20, 1888
Lieutenant2:W.A. Robertson
George L. Walton
Clay Knobloch
Predecessor2:Louis A. Wiltz
Successor2:Francis T. Nicholls
Order3:16th
Office3:Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana
Term Start3:January 14, 1880
Term End3:October 16, 1881
Governor3:Louis A. Wiltz
Predecessor3:Louis A. Wiltz
Successor3:W. A. Robertson
Birth Date:28 May 1837
Birth Place:Monroe, Louisiana
Death Place:New Orleans, Louisiana
Party:Democratic
Signature:Signature of Samuel Douglas McEnery (1837–1910).png
Alma Mater:Spring Hill College
United States Naval Academy
University of Virginia
State and National Law School (New York)

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.

Early life

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

In 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

McEnery died on June 28, 1910, in New Orleans and was interred there at Metairie Cemetery.[5]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. After Edwin Edwards, Catholics Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Bobby Jindal, and John Bel Edwards were elected governors.
  2. Web site: 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 . 2 July 2023 . 41 . 9 November 1903.
  3. 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., .
  4. Web site: Landry . Stuart O. . History of the Boston Club . HathiTrust . 21 August 2024 . en . 1841.
  5. See the Louisiana Secretary of State's "Samuel Douglas McEnery" site for McEnery's religious affiliation, date of death, and other information.