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Biography of Zachariah ChandlerName: Zachariah ChandlerBirth Date: December 10, 1813 Death Date: November 1, 1879 Place of Birth: Bedford Township, New Hampshire, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: senator, political leader Zachariah Chandler A U.S. senator during the Civil War and Reconstruction, Zachariah Chandler (1813-1879) was a leading Republican and helped shape Reconstruction policy toward the South.Zachariah Chandler was born on Dec. 10, 1813, on a farm in Bedford Township, N.H. After attending district schools, he joined the tide of westward migration from New England and settled in the frontier city of Detroit in 1833. He opened a general store, and by shrewd investments of his profits in banking, commercial enterprises, and land he became one of the richest men in the state.Chandler entered politics as a Whig, served as mayor of Detroit in 1851-1852, but was defeated for the governorship. Increasingly hostile to the expansion of slavery, in 1854 he helped found the Michigan Republican party. Three years later the state legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. In Washington he emerged as one of the foremost members of the Republican faction known …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…Senate. President Grant appointed him secretary of the interior in 1875, and he did much to clean up this notoriously corrupt department. As chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1876-1877, he played a key role in the victory of Rutherford B. Hayes in the disputed 1876 presidential election. Chandler was again elected to the Senate in February 1879 but served only a few months before his death on November 1. Further Reading There is no satisfactory biography of Chandler. The staff of the Detroit Post and Tribune compiled and published the laudatory Zachariah Chandler: An Outline Sketch of His Life and Public Services (1880) after his death. For hostile views of Chandler and other Radical Republicans see Claude Bowers, The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln (1929), and T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and the Radicals (1941). A sympathetic interpretation, reflecting the trend of recent scholarship, is in Hans Trefousse, The Radical Republicans: Lincoln's Vanguard for Racial Justice (1969). |