Aaron Augustus Sargent (28 September 1827 – 14 August 1887) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-CA) from 4 March 1861 to 3 March 1863 (succeeding Charles L. Scott and preceding William Higby) and from CA-2 from 4 March 1869 to 3 March 1873 (succeeding Higby and preceding Horace F. Page) and a US Senator from California from 4 March 1873 to 4 March 1879 (succeeding Cornelius Cole and preceding James T. Farley).
Biography[]
Aaron Augustus Sargent was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on 28 September 1827, and he worked as a printer in Philadelphia and as a congressional secretary in Washington DC before moving to California in 1849 and settling in Nevada City in 1850. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and served in the State Senate in 1856, in the US House of Representatives from 1861 to 1863 and from 1869 to 1873, and in the US Senate from 1873 to 1879. Sargent - a supporter of women's rights - introduced the 19th Amendment in January 1878, hoping to grant women the vote; however, he also supported the Chinese Exclusion Act. After leaving the Senate, he practiced law in San Francisco for three years, served as Ambassador to the German Empire for two years, and made a failed Senatorial bid in 1885. He died in 1887.