US Congressman. Elected to represent Pennsylvania's 4th District in the Thirty-Fourth Congress, he served from 1855 to 1857. The son of Congressman James Madison Broom and grandson of Jacob Broom, a signer of the US Constitution, he was raised in Philadelphia, where he studied law and became an attorney in 1832. His political fortunes rose and fell with those of the Native American Party (later the American Party), an anti-immigrant group that flourished in the decade before the Civil War; its members were derisively nicknamed the "Know-Nothings". Although he had no legislative experience, Broom was named their candidate for the 1852 Presidential election and won a seat in the US House in 1854. During his single term he was Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. He failed to secure the nomination for a second term in 1856 and was defeated in another congressional bid two years later, by which time the American Party had already lost most of its influence. (It would disband in 1860). Broom ended his days as a lawyer in Washington DC, where he died.
US Congressman. Elected to represent Pennsylvania's 4th District in the Thirty-Fourth Congress, he served from 1855 to 1857. The son of Congressman James Madison Broom and grandson of Jacob Broom, a signer of the US Constitution, he was raised in Philadelphia, where he studied law and became an attorney in 1832. His political fortunes rose and fell with those of the Native American Party (later the American Party), an anti-immigrant group that flourished in the decade before the Civil War; its members were derisively nicknamed the "Know-Nothings". Although he had no legislative experience, Broom was named their candidate for the 1852 Presidential election and won a seat in the US House in 1854. During his single term he was Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. He failed to secure the nomination for a second term in 1856 and was defeated in another congressional bid two years later, by which time the American Party had already lost most of its influence. (It would disband in 1860). Broom ended his days as a lawyer in Washington DC, where he died.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
Family Members
Advertisement
