Benjamin T. Frederick

Benjamin Todd Frederick (October 5, 1834 – November 3, 1903) was a miner, businessman, real estate agent, and (during the 1880s) a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa's 5th congressional district.

Born in Fredericktown, Ohio, he attended district schools, completed preparatory studies and later moved to Marshalltown, Iowa. He moved to Marysville, California, in 1857 and engaged in placer mining. He returned to Marshalltown in 1859 and engaged in the foundry and machine business from 1865 to 1888.

Frederick was a member of the Marshalltown City Council from 1874 to 1877, was a member of the school board for three terms.

In 1882 he was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House seat representing Iowa's 5th congressional district in the Forty-eighth Congress. In the immediate aftermath of a very close general election race, his Republican opponent, James "Tama Jim" Wilson, was certified by the State of Iowa as the winner, leading Frederick to file an election contest in the U.S. House. Although the House was controlled by Fredrick's own party, the contest was not resolved until the last hours of the second session. On the morning of inauguration day (March 4, 1885), Frederick was declared the winner of the 1882 race, and was seated minutes before the Forty-eighth Congress ended. Until that day, Republicans had successfully filibustered to prevent a vote by the House on the contest, until continuation of the filibuster would have prevented the House from acting in a popular bill to permit former President Ulysses S. Grant, then on the verge of death, to retire with the benefits of a general. Indeed, that was exactly what opponents of the Grant retirement bill had in mind. By drawing out debate on every contested election case as long as possible, they could prevent the bill from coming to a vote, where the pressure to vote in its favor would be irresistible. Well aware of this, Wilson rose amid intense silence. Since the rules could not be suspended to bring up the Grant bill until his own case had been determined, he announced, he resigned his claim to Frederick immediately. At that the House rose to its feet cheering. The Grant bill sailed through almost instantly.

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