Kevin McCarthy is the shortest-serving chairman since 1875: Michael C. Kerr, the first Democrat after the Civil War, died after 258 days in office

Kevin McCarthy has become the shortest-serving chairman in nearly 150 years after being sensationally ousted amid a bitter civil war in the Republican Party.

A motion to vacate the speaker’s chair passed on a 216-210 vote Tuesday, with eight Republicans joining Democrats to succeed the House leader.

If McCarthy is looking for consolation, he can compare his 269-day tenure to that of Michael C. Kerr in 1875.

He was the first Democrat to serve as Speaker after the Civil War and died in office.

The record for the shortest time as Speaker is held by Theodore Pomeroy, who was Speaker for only one day, on March 3, 1869.

Unlike McCarthy, however, Pomeroy agreed to the short term, having already announced his plans to retire on March 4.

He was therefore approved without challenge to take over from Rep. Schuyler Colfax (R-Ind.), who had to resign to become Ulysses S. Grant’s vice president.

McCarthy is swarmed by reporters after a vote to oust him from the speaker’s chair

Prior to McCarthy, the last motion to unseat the Speaker was on March 19, 1910, when Speaker Joseph G. Cannon (R-Ill.) faced an insurrection that was ultimately unsuccessful but paved the way for a Democratic takeover.

Pomeroy, a Republican, was first elected to the House in 1861 and would later become chairman of the Committee on Post Office Expenditures and the Committee on Banking and Currency.

He was in every respect a sympathetic member of the House of Representatives.

After taking office, he gave a speech in which he thanked colleagues “for the kind personal attention involved in my unanimous election to this most honorable office.”

Pomeroy was called the youngest member in the room by a Washington correspondent, who described him as “small in stature, with sharp black eyes, a singularly expressive countenance, and somehow almost as clever as chain lightning, at least when dealing with lesser law.” Democracy.’

The representative for the 25th Congressional District was “one of the most energetic and effective debaters in the House of Representatives.”

After leaving Congress, Pomeroy became the first vice president and general counsel of a company that would eventually become American Express.

He briefly returned to politics as mayor of his hometown of Auburn, New York, where he served from 1875 to 1876, and then as a member of the New York Senate in 1878 and 1879.

He finally retired in 1879 and continued to live in Auburn until his death in 1905.

Pomeroy had five children by his wife Elizabeth Leitch Watson.

Kevin McCarthy has been sensationally ousted as Speaker of the House of Representatives in a historic vote sparked by a tumultuous civil war in the Republican Party.

Harriet Tubman, the famous abolitionist, was a close family friend who helped care for the Pomeroy children.

She attended his funeral and it was reported that only her flowers and letter were placed on his coffin and buried with him.

Pomeroy’s descendants include his grandchild Janet Pomeroy Avery (1891–1969), who married John Foster Dulles (1888–1959), the United States Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration.

His great-grandson is Avery Dulles (1918 – 2008), who converted to Catholicism and would become America’s first cardinal.