George Hunt Pendleton (July 19, 1825–November 24, 1889) was a Representative and a Senator from Ohio. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Pendleton was the son of Nathanael Greene Pendleton and attended the local schools and Cincinnati College and the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Pendelton studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1847 and commenced practice in Cincinnati.

He was a member of the Ohio Senate from 1854 to 1856. In 1854 he ran unsuccessfully for the Thirty-fourth United States Congress. Three years later he was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress and also succeeded in being reelected to the three following Congresses (March 4, 1857 to March 3, 1865), but in 1864 he failed to be elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress.

He was one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1862 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against West H. Humphreys, United States judge for several districts of Tennessee. He ran in the 1864 U.S. presidential elections for Vice President, together with George McClellan. Their opponents were Abraham Lincoln (President) and Andrew Johnson (Vice President).

Pendleton also failed to be elected to the Fortieth Congress and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1869.

In 1869 he became president of the Kentucky Central Railroad and kept this position until he was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1879. He served six years in the Senate from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1885 but was unsuccessful for renomination.

From 1881 to 1885 he was Chairman of the Democratic Conference. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Germany in 1885, and served until his death in Brussels, Belgium. He is interred in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Bibliography

• American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Mach, Thomas S. "George Hunt Pendleton, The Ohio Idea and Political Continuity in Reconstruction America." Ohio History 108 (Summer-Autumn 1999): 125-144.
• Bloss, George M.D., "Life and Speeches of George H. Pendleton." Cincinnati: Miami Printing & Publishing Co., 1868.
• Mach, Thomas Stuart. "'Gentleman George' Hunt Pendleton: A Study in Political Continuity." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Akron, 1996.
• ___. "George Hunt Pendleton, The Ohio Idea and Political Continuity in Reconstruction America." Ohio History 108 (Summer-Autumn 1999): 125-144.
• This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.