of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on March 12, 1866. Postbellum career McCook returned to Steubenville following the war and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He served as the U.S. assessor of internal revenue taxes from November 1865 until May 1873, when he moved to New York City, established a law practice, and entered politics. He was the founder and editor of the Daily Register (later known as the New York Law Journal). He served as president of the New York Law Publishing Company until his death. He became close friends with several leading Republicans, including former comrades in arms James Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Ohio Senator John Sherman. McCook was elected to the United States House of Representatives in the Forty-fifth Congress as a delegate from Lower Manhattan, and served from 1877 until 1883. He was defeated for a fourth term in the elections of 1882. Among his duties was serving on the House committee that oversaw military affairs. In December 1883, the Republican Caucus elected McCook as the Secretary of the United States Senate, a post he held until 1893 when the Democrats regained control of the Senate and replaced him with former Confederate general William Ruffin Cox. McCook adopted an employee merit system and resisted senators' strong and persistent pressures for patronage appointments. He modernized office procedures and instituted a program for preserving the Senate's historical archives. Mayor William L. Strong appointed McCook as city chamberlain of the city of New York and he served in that capacity from 1895 to 1898, as well as continuing to run his publishing company. He died in New York City on December 30, 1917, and was buried in Union Cemetery-Beatty Park in his native Steubenville. See also List of American Civil War brevet generals (Union) Notes References Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . External links Ohio Historical Society U.S. Senate biography of McCook Retrieved on 2008-12-27 1835 births 1917 deaths Union Army colonels People of Ohio in the American Civil War New York (state) lawyers Ohio lawyers American publishers (people) McCook family Politicians from Steubenville, Ohio Burials at Union Cemetery-Beatty Park Secretaries of the United States Senate Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) 19th-century