Appointed by Theodore Roosevelt Preceded by Arthur P. Gorman Succeeded by Isidor Rayner Preceded by Martin V. Montgomery Party Republican Party | Appointed by Benjamin Harrison Education Dickinson College Preceded by Arthur P. Gorman Name Louis McComas | |
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Preceded by Martin Ferdinand Morris Role Member of the U.S. Congress Died November 10, 1907, Washington, D.C., United States | ||
Louis Emory McComas (October 28, 1846 – November 10, 1907), a Republican, was a member of the U.S. Congress from the sixth district of Maryland from 1883 to 1891, and a member of the United States Senate from 1899 to 1905, each time representing the State of Maryland. In later life, he served as a United States federal judge. His granddaughter, Katharine Byron, and great-grandson, Goodloe Byron, also represented Maryland in the U.S. Congress.
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Early life, education, and career
McComas was born near Hagerstown, Maryland. He attended St. James College in Maryland and, in 1866, graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1868, after studying law, McComas was admitted to the bar and began practice in Hagerstown, where he was a communicant at Saint John's Church.
Political and judicial career
In 1876, McComas was defeated in his bid for a seat in the Forty-fifth Congress, but after nearly a decade out of politics, McComas was elected in 1882 to the Forty-eighth and to the three succeeding Congresses. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress.
Following his tenure in Congress, McComas served as secretary of the Republican National Committee in 1892. On November 17, 1892, he received a recess appointment from President Benjamin Harrison as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to a seat vacated by Martin V. Montgomery. Formally nominated on December 6, 1892, McComas was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 25, 1893, and received his commission the same day. He served in that capacity until 1899, and during this tenure also served as a professor of international law at Georgetown University in the District.
McComas was elected to the United States Senate in 1898. While senator, he served as chairman of the Committee on Organization, Conduct, and Expenditures of Executive Departments (Fifty-sixth Congress) and as a member of the Committee on Education and Labor (Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth Congresses).
McComas did not run for a second term in the Senate after receiving a recess appointment from President Theodore Roosevelt as a justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 26, 1905, to a seat vacated by Martin F. Morris. Formally nominated on December 5, 1905, McComas was confirmed by the United States Senate, and received his commission, on December 6, 1905. He served in that position until his death in Washington, D.C. in 1907, and is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery (Maryland) in Hagerstown.