John James Ingalls
|John James Ingalls|
|President pro tempore of the United States Senate|
February 26, 1887 – March 2, 1891
|Preceded by||John Sherman|
|Succeeded by||Charles F. Manderson|
|United States Senator|
March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1891
|Preceded by||Samuel C. Pomeroy|
|Succeeded by||William A. Peffer|
|Member of the Kansas Senate|
|Born||December 29, 1833|
|Died||August 16, 1900 (aged 66)|
Las Vegas, New Mexico
John James Ingalls (December 29, 1833 – August 16, 1900) was an American Republican politician who served as a United States senator from Kansas. Ingalls is credited with suggesting the state motto and designing the state seal.
Life and career
John James Ingalls was born in Middleton, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1833. He graduated from Williams College in 1855. Foreshadowing his later reputation as a wit, his commencement oration, entitled "Mummy Life," was a satire of college life. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1857. Moving to Kansas Territory, Ingalls settled in Atchison in 1860. He joined the anti-slavery forces and worked to make Kansas a free state. He was a member of the Wyandotte constitutional convention in 1859 and is reputed to have coined the state motto, Ad Astra per Aspera.
When Kansas was admitted to the Union in 1861, he became secretary of the first state Senate and state senator in 1862. During the Civil War he served as judge advocate in the Kansas militia. As an editor of the Atchison newspaper, Freedom's Champion, for three years, he won a national reputation for a series of magazine articles. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1873, succeeding Samuel C. Pomeroy, Ingalls served for 18 years. He supported labor and agriculture against monopolies. He also favored the Interstate Commerce Act and the Pendleton Civil Service Act. Ingalls rejected the nomination of James Campbell Matthews to the recorder of deeds in 1886. Ingalls claimed that his rejection was because of Matthews' non-residency of Washington, D.C.; however, journalists argued that his rejection was racially based.
In 1887 Ingalls was elected President pro tempore of the Senate. Praised throughout his life for his keen sarcasm and quick wit, John James Ingalls died in Las Vegas, New Mexico on August 16, 1900. He was buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Atchison.
- "The Senate Gives Reasons for Rejecting the Nomination of Matthews." The New York Times. February 8, 1886.
- "John James Ingalls". Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- Biles, Jan. "Amelia's monument about to take flight". Cjonline.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
- The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Harper Collins, 2016, page 175
|Wikiquote has quotations related to: John James Ingalls|
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to John James Ingalls.|
- United States Congress. "John James Ingalls (id: I000012)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Works by or about John James Ingalls at Internet Archive
- Works by John James Ingalls at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Samuel C. Pomeroy
| U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Kansas
Served alongside: Alexander Caldwell, Robert Crozier, James M. Harvey, Preston B. Plumb
William A. Peffer
| President pro tempore of the United States Senate
February 26, 1887 – March 2, 1891
Charles F. Manderson