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Senate Years of Service: 1866-1871 Party: Republican
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ROSS, Edmund Gibson, a Senator from Kansas; born in Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio, December 7,
1826; apprenticed as a printer in Sandusky, Ohio; moved to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1849 and was
connected with the Milwaukee Sentinel; moved to Topeka, Kans., in 1856, to lead the free state
movement; published the Topeka Tribune 1856-1858, and established the Kansas State Record
1859; member of the State constitutional convention 1859-1861; promoter and director of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway; during the Civil War entered the Union Army as a private in
1862 and was mustered out as major in 1865; editor of the Kansas Tribune 1865-1866; appointed
and subsequently elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the
death of James H. Lane and served from July 19, 1866, to March 3, 1871; unsuccessful candidate for
reelection; chairman, Committee on Enrolled Bills (Fortieth Congress), Committee on Engrossed Bills
(Forty-first Congress); his vote against conviction in the impeachment trial of President Andrew
Johnson in 1868 was considered one of the essential votes for the Presidents acquittal; affiliated with
the Democratic party after 1872; publisher of several newspapers 1871-1893; unsuccessful
Democratic candidate for Governor in 1880; moved to Albuquerque, N.Mex., in 1882; appointed
Governor of the Territory of New Mexico by President Grover Cleveland in 1885 and served four
years; died in Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, N.Mex., May 8, 1907; interment in Fairview
Cemetery.
Bibliography American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Plummer, Mark A. Profile in Courage? Edmund G.
Ross and the Impeachment Trial. Midwest Quarterly 27 (Autumn 1985): 30-48;
Ross, Edmund. History of the Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson. Sante Fe,
N.M.: New Mexican Printing Co., 1896.
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