Samuel D. McEnery

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.

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. 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. He was a member of The Boston Club of New Orleans.

Death

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

Notes

References

1. After Edwin Edwards, Catholics [[Kathleen Babineaux Blanco]], [[Bobby Jindal]], and [[John Bel Edwards]] were elected governors.
2. (9 November 1903). "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". U.S. Government Printing Office.
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. {{ISBN. 978-0-521-82789-8, {{ISBN. 0-521-82789-2.
4. (1841). "History of the Boston Club".
5. See the Louisiana Secretary of State's "[http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/387/Default.aspx Samuel Douglas McEnery"] {{webarchive. link. (2008-02-21 site for McEnery's religious affiliation, date of death, and other information.)