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The1857 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held in the10th Wisconsin Legislature onJanuary 23, 1857. Incumbent Democratic U.S. senatorHenry Dodge did not run for re-election. FormerWisconsin circuit court judgeJames R. Doolittle was elected United States senator on the first ballot.[1]
At the start of the 1857 term, Republicans held large majorities in both chambers of theWisconsin Legislature, so had more than enough votes to elect a Republican United States senator. The main drama of the election was in the Republican legislative caucuses as they parsed through Republican candidates and selected the former judge, James R. Doolittle, as their nominee.
Prior to the caucus, Timothy Howe was identified as the candidate with the most support in the Republican caucus, with Holton and Doolittle each not far behind. TheWisconsin State Journal at the time reported that supporters of Holton attempted to advance his cause by suggesting that Howe and Doolittle were not sufficiently loyal to the abolitionist cause because they had been supportive of compromise positions before theKansas–Nebraska Act. TheJournal speculated that these attacks likely backfired on Holton since, they presumed, the vast majority of Wisconsin Republicans had a political evolution similar to that of Howe and Doolittle.[2]
The Republicans met in caucus from January 19 through January 21 to select a nominee from the several candidates seeking the office. As predicted, on the first day, the leading candidates were Timothy Howe, James Doolittle, and Edward Holton, each with support of about a quarter of the caucus. After two ballots on January 19, the caucus broke and reconvened on January 20. They took eight more votes on January 20, with Howe's support growing from 29 votes to 36, and Holton and Doolittle fading. A fourth candidate,J. Allen Barber, began to grow in support toward the end of the day.[3]
On January 21, Holton withdrew from the race and endorsed Barber. Barber's support initially swelled, but never matched Holton's. Much of his support eventually went over to Doolittle, who surged ahead of Howe on the 4th ballot of the day (14th overall). On the 6th ballot of the day, Doolittle was nominated with a bare majority of 41 of 81 votes cast.[4]
The10th Wisconsin Legislature met in joint session on January 23, 1857, to elect a U.S. senator. The voting was mostly along party lines, with 9 Democrats and 1 Republican absent. Republican Assembly speakerWyman Spooner declined to vote for the Republican nominee, instead voting for judgeDavid Taylor. Republican state representativeJared F. Ostrander attempted to abstain from voting; after he was told that he could not abstain, he voted for "Jack Frost", probably a joke about the winter weather occurring at the time of the vote.[1]
A minor controversy occurred after the vote but before the reading of the results, whenFrederick W. Horn attempted to introduce papers relating to the eligibility of Doolittle to serve as U.S. senator. The eligibility question largely hinged on whether Wisconsin law allowed former judges to serve in other partisan offices, and was similar to the eligibility argument brought against Illinois U.S. senatorLyman Trumbull a year earlier. The Republican majority strongly opposed the reading of the papers. The president of the joint session, lieutenant governorArthur MacArthur Sr., attempted to have the papers read anyway, but the chief clerk,William Henry Brisbane, ignored his request because he believed he could not act in his official capacity against the vote of the majority of the convention.[5][6]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | James R. Doolittle | 79[a] | 67.52% | ||
| Democratic | Charles Dunn | 34[b] | 30.77% | ||
| Republican | David Taylor | 1[c] | 0.85% | ||
| "Jack Frost" | 1[d] | 0.85% | |||
| Absent | 10 | ||||
| Majority | 59 | 50.42% | |||
| Total votes | 117 | 100.0% | |||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | |||||
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