Stephen B. Packard

Who was Stephen B. Packard?

Stephen Bennett Packard, a native of Maine, emerged as an important Republican politician in Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction. He was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1876.

A captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Packard was appointed United States marshal in New Orleans in 1871 during the administration of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. He emerged as a leader of what was called the "Customhouse Ring", a faction of the Republican Party opposed to Governor Henry Clay Warmoth. By 1872 Warmoth had allied with anti-Grant Republicans and some Democrats, supporting election of Democratic candidate John McEnery.

In 1872, Packard directed the successful gubernatorial campaign of Republican William Pitt Kellogg. Packard supported the impeachment of outgoing Governor Warmoth. A Returning Board appointed by Warmoth certified McEnery as victor, but the Republicans, outraged by election violence and fraud, appointed their own Returning Board. Both parties claimed victory. The legislature impeached Warmoth as governor, on charges of having sold the election. Packard obtained federal recognition of the African American P.B.S.