1867 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania

1867 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania.
The 1867 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania, voted on by the state legislature, was held on January 15, 1867. Simon Cameron was elected to the Senate for the third time; he had been chosen in 1845 and in 1857. Cameron and Governor Andrew Curtin each led a faction of Republicans and had clashed as early as 1855. Cameron tried to block Curtin from the party nomination for governor in 1860, while Curtin attempted to get Cameron excluded from Abraham Lincoln's cabinet; each failed. With the Republicans holding a majority in the 1867 legislature, the battle was for the party's endorsement, which Thaddeus Stevens and Galusha Grow also sought. The party caucus chose Cameron, who then defeated incumbent Edgar Cowan, the Democratic Party nominee. Cowan never again held office; Curtin later served in Congress as a Democrat. Cameron remained in the Senate until he resigned in 1877 to allow his son to take the seat. The Cameron political machine dominated Pennsylvania politics for a half century.