Samuel D. McEnery

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Samuel Douglas McEnery

| image = Samuel Douglas McEnery cph.3b20800.jpg

| 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 = {{birth date|1837|5|28}}

| birth_place = Monroe, Louisiana

| death_date = {{death date and age|1910|6|28|1837|5|28}}

| 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

File:Mrs Samuel D. McEnery.jpg

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.After Edwin Edwards, Catholics Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Bobby Jindal, and John Bel Edwards were elected governors.

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.{{cite web |title=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 |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/SERIALSET-04562_00_00-001-0001-0000 |website=GovInfo.gov |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=2 July 2023 |page=41 |date=9 November 1903}} 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.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}}. He was a member of The Boston Club of New Orleans.{{cite web |last1=Landry |first1=Stuart O. |title=History of the Boston Club |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu09362126&seq=335 |website=HathiTrust |access-date=21 August 2024 |language=en |date=1841}}

Death

McEnery died on June 28, 1910, in New Orleans and was interred there at Metairie Cemetery.See the Louisiana Secretary of State's "[http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/387/Default.aspx Samuel Douglas McEnery"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080221042202/http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/387/Default.aspx |date=2008-02-21 }} site for McEnery's religious affiliation, date of death, and other information.

Notes

External links

{{Commons category-inline}}
{{CongBio|M000429|name=McENERY, Samuel Douglas|inline=1}} Retrieved on 2008-10-19
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080221042202/http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/387/Default.aspx State of Louisiana - Biography]
[http://la-cemeteries.com/Governors/McEnery,%20Samuel%20Douglas/McEnery,%20Samuel%20Douglas.shtml Cemetery Memorial] by La-Cemeteries
{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=McEnery, Samuel Douglas|notaref=x|year=1900 |short=x}}
[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t9m32ww1j;view=1up;seq=7 Samuel D. McEnery, Late a Senator from Louisiana]. US Government Printing Office. 1911.
[http://hnoc.minisisinc.com/thnoc/catalog/3/9963 John and Samuel McEnery Papers] at [https://www.hnoc.org/ The Historic New Orleans Collection]