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The1869 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held in the22nd Wisconsin Legislature onJanuary 27, 1869. Incumbent Republican U.S. senatorJames R. Doolittle did not run for re-election. Prominent attorneyMatthew H. Carpenter was electedUnited States senator on the first ballot.[1]
At the start of the 1869 term, Republicans held substantial majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature, so had more than enough votes to elect a RepublicanUnited States senator. The main drama of the election was in the Republican legislative caucuses as they parsed through Republican candidates and selected the prominent attorney, Matthew H. Carpenter, as their nominee.
Prior to the caucus, several candidate names were floated for the nomination, but the two candidates with the largest apparent base of support were Matthew Carpenter and Cadwallader Washburn. Washburn's allies asserted that he was a more loyal and reliable Republican, as Carpenter had been a Democrat and had written disparagingly about some of Lincoln's policies prior to endorsing and campaigning for Lincoln in 1864.[2] The caucus met on the evening of January 19, 1869. Washburn led the initial informal ballot with 30 votes to Carpenter's 29, with 28 votes going to other candidates. Through the first three formal polls, Washburn and Carpenter remained nearly tied, with Carpenter at 35 and Washburn at 36 on the third formal ballot. On the fourth ballot, support broke toward Carpenter, and he won the nomination on the fifth ballot, receiving 44 of 87 votes.[3]
The22nd Wisconsin Legislature met in joint session on January 27, 1869, to elect a U.S. senator. The voting went almost exactly along party lines, with one Republican and four Democrats absent.Matthew H. Carpenter received the votes of all other Republican legislators, winning the election.[1]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Matthew H. Carpenter | 86[a] | 67.19% | ||
| Democratic | George B. Smith | 41[b] | 32.03% | ||
| Democratic | William Pitt Lynde | 1[c] | 0.78% | ||
| Absent | 5 | ||||
| Majority | 65 | 50.78% | |||
| Total votes | 128 | 96.24% | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
