A U.S. senator from Colorado is appointed secretary of the Interior, and there’s a scramble for the appointment to fill out his term. It’s happening now, and it happened in 1882-83, when Colorado could have taught modern Illinois a few lessons about corruption.
After the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881, his successor, Chester Arthur, wanted his own people in the Cabinet. So Interior Secretary Samuel J. Kirkwood was replaced, in April of 1882, by Sen. Henry Moore Teller of Colorado.
Before the adoption of the 17th Amendment in 1913, senators were selected by state legislatures. If the legislature was not in session at the time of the vacancy, the governor appointed someone to serve until the legislature convened.
So when Teller left the Senate, three Senate terms were involved. The first was a gubernatorial appointment to fill out Teller’s term from April 1882 until January 1883, when the legislature convened. The second was a legislative decision for the rest of Teller’s term, from January until a new Congress convened on March 4, 1883. The third, also chosen by the legislature, was for a new six-year term starting on March 4, 1883.
Three different men got those three different terms.
The General Assembly was dominated by Republicans before and after the 1882 general election, so it was certain the new senator would be a Republican.
Outgoing Gov. Frederick Pitkin wanted the Senate seat, and so did Lt. Gov. Horace A.W. Tabor, the Leadville silver baron who was in the middle of a nasty divorce from his first wife, Augusta. Rumor had it that Pitkin might resign, making Tabor governor, who would appoint Pitkin. But Tabor squelched that talk; he wasn’t going to assist a political rival. And Pitkin wasn’t about to appoint Tabor, either.
Pitkin surprised nearly everyone by appointing George Chilcott, a Pueblo rancher and lawyer, to serve in the U.S. Senate until the Colorado General Assembly met in January. Chilcott had no chance to be selected then, but the appointment boosted Pitkin’s popularity in southern Colorado, where he’d need support in his own Senate bid.
Tabor spent freely on legislative races in the 1882 election — $10,000 in Arapahoe County, $50,000 back home in Lake County — so as to get a legislature that would elect him to the U.S. Senate. When the legislature convened in January 1883, Tabor continued his free spending.
But there was the scandal of his divorce from Augusta and his notorious affair with Elizabeth McCourt “Baby” Doe. Despite Tabor’s generous financial support, the Republicans didn’t want a philanderer representing the state. After 96 votes in 11 days of Republican caucusing, Thomas Bowen got a majority and thus the six-year Senate term. Despite his shortage of “family values,” Tabor got the consolation prize: a five-week Senate term that lasted from Jan. 27 to March 3 of 1883.
Thus he was a U.S. senator when he married Baby Doe at an ostentatious ceremony on March 1, 1883, in Washington, D.C., with President Arthur and Henry Teller in the audience. Mrs. Teller, like most respectable women, refused to attend.
There’s much more to the story, but even in compressed form it has campaign donations, bribery, political horse-trading, potential bigamy and juicy sex. Colorado will doubtless do a better job this time around in filling a Senate seat vacated by an Interior appointment, but I’m sure it won’t be nearly as interesting as it was the first time.
Ed Quillen (ed@cozine.com) is a freelance writer, history buff, publisher of Colorado Central Magazine in Salida and frequent contributor to The Post.
