Arthur Pue Gorman was a United States Senator. He served from 1881 to 1899 and from 1903 to 1906.
Background
Arthur Pue Gorman was born on March 11, 1839, at Woodstock, Howard County, Maryland. He was the son of Peter and Elizabeth A. (Brown) Gorman.
His grandfather, John Gorman, emigrated from Ireland to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1800 and removed to Old Town, Baltimore County, Maryland, as a cattle drover. His other grandfather, John R. Brown, belonged to a well-known colonial Maryland family.
When Gorman was six years old his parents moved to a place near Laurel, which they called “Fairview. ” Here his father, a contractor, furnished granite for public buildings and for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
Career
In 1852, Arthur was appointed a page in the House of Representatives. He attracted the attention of Stephen A. Douglas, who secured his transfer to the Senate chamber and took him into his own household as friend and private secretary.
Gorman accompanied Douglas on the famous Lincoln debate tour. Advanced to messenger, assistant doorkeeper, and assistant postmaster, he finally became postmaster of the Senate.
After the Civil War, in the controversy between the Senate and President Johnson, Gorman’s sympathies were with the President, and he lost his position as Senate postmaster in 1866. Johnson rewarded him, however, with an appointment as collector of internal revenue.
In this office Gorman was successful in collecting $150, 000 arrears, and made something of a name for himself. Removed in 1869 by the new administration, he was elected in that same year to the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served until 1875, being speaker during the last two years.
At the close of the legislative session of 1872, he was appointed president of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company, of which he had been a director since 1869, and this new position, one of great political influence, enabled him to secure his hold upon the Democratic party in Maryland.
Elected state senator in 1875 and re-elected in 1877 and 1879, he was elected United States senator in 1880, to succeed William Pinkney Whyte. He was reelected in 1886 and in 1892.
When the federal elections measure (Force Bill) was under consideration in 1890, the Democrats were in a hopeless minority.
Gorman secured the aid of the Silver Republicans to defeat the bill in return for Democratic support of the free coinage measure, for which achievement he was given a silver service bought by popular subscription of persons all over the state.
Although he was opposed to Cleveland’s renomination and was himself prominently mentioned as a presidential possibility in the National Democratic Convention of 1892, once the candidate had been chosen Gorman became head of the committee that managed the campaign.
During his third term as senator, he took a leading part in recasting the Wilson Tariff Bill. The Senate amendments, for which he was largely responsible, placed coal, sugar, and iron ore on the duty list, whereas the President had favored free raw materials.
Representative Wilson, the author of the original bill, read to the House a letter from Cleveland referring to “the abandonment of Democratic principle” exhibited in the Senate’s action. To this letter Gorman replied by a speech in the Senate, in the course of which he made a personal attack upon the President.
During his last two terms Gorman was the outstanding Democratic leader and chairman of the caucus. The Republican victories of 1895 and 1896 were followed by his defeat in 1898, but the triumph of his enemies was of short duration, for on March 4, 1903, he began his fourth term as senator and was immediately chosen caucus chairman and minority leader.
His last public service was as state director of the Washington Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, when he made a report which led to the sale of the state’s stock.
Death came to him at his Washington residence from a sudden heart attack after an illness of almost six months.
Achievements
Gorman is known as a prominent leader of the Democratic Party. As chairman of the National Executive Committee in 1884, Gorman successfully conducted Cleveland’s campaign and in recognition of his services was practically given the distribution of federal patronage in Maryland during Cleveland’s first term.
The repair ship USS Tutuila was originally named SS Arthur P. Gorman in August 1943.
Politics
In 1880, Arthur was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate, serving until 1899.
Personality
Hardly any one in public life had more devoted friends or more implacable enemies as Gorman.
Connections
Gorman married Mrs. Hattie (Donagan) Schwartz, daughter of Dr. James Donagan of Reading, Pennsylvania. They had six children.
