Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/467

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JACOB H. GALLINGER
359

when he resigned the position. He was again elected chairman in 1895, in 1900 and in 1902.

In 1884 Doctor Gallinger was elected a member of the forty-ninth Congress of the United States; and in order to devote his entire time to his new political duties he discontinued his medical practice. After serving his first term he was reelected to the fiftieth Congress, but declined renomination to the fifty-first. He was chairman of the delegation from his state to the Republican national convention of 1888, where he made a speech seconding the nomination of Benjamin Harrison as the party's candidate for president of the United States. Two years later he was elected United States senator to succeed Henry W. Blair, and he took his seat March 4, 1891. He was re-elected in 1897, by a unanimous vote of the Republican members of the legislature and by the votes of the five Democratic members. In 1903 he was again reelected by the unanimous votes of the Republicans with the votes of three Democrats. Senator Gallinger has the distinction of being the only man in the history of his state who has been elected United States senator for three full terms.

In the National legislature he has served on the committees on the District of Columbia, Appropriations, Commerce, Manufactures, Naval Affairs, and Ventilation, and Acoustics. As chairman of the senate committee on the District of Columbia he is a most active factor in the local government of the national capital, which is under the direct supervision of congress. His present term of service will expire March 3, 1909.

In 1900 Senator Gallinger was chairman of the New Hampshire delegation to the Republican national convention, held in Philadelphia; which convention renominated President McKinley. He is a member of the Republican national committee. In a review of his public career he has been described as "a political manager of great ability and shrewdness; a ready and graceful writer; and a speaker of much power and influence."

In 1860 he was married to Mary Anna Bailey of Salisbury, New Hampshire. His home is in Concord, New Hampshire.