The Unlikely Election and Service of John Inscho Mitchell, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1881-1887

Abstract

John Inscho Mitchell was a little known progressive Pennsylvania politician who represented the State in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate between 1877 and 1887. His reluctance to continue serving in Washington after four years in the House did not prevent the Pennsylvania legislature from appointing him to the U.S. Senate in 1881 as a compromise candidate on the thirty-fifth ballot.