Benjamin Wade
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Benjamin Franklin "Bluff" Wade (October 27, 1800 – March 2, 1878) was a U.S. lawyer and United States Senator. In the Senate, he was associated with the "Radical Republicans" of that time.
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[edit] Early Life
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Benjamin Wade's first job was as a laborer on the Erie Canal. He also taught school before studying law in Ohio. After being admitted to the bar in 1828, he began practicing law in Jefferson, Ohio.
Wade formed a partnership with Joshua Giddings, a prominent anti-slavery figure. As a member of the Whig Party, Wade was elected to the Ohio State Senate, serving two two-year terms between 1837 and 1842. Between 1847 and 1851, Wade was a judge in an Ohio court.
After the decline of the Whigs' power, Wade joined the Republican Party, and in 1851 he was elected by his legislature to the United States Senate. There, he associated with such eventual Radical Republicans as Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. He fought against the controversial Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He was one of the most radical politicians in America at that time, supporting women's suffrage, trade union rights, and equality for African-Americans. He was also critical of capitalism.
[edit] Civil War
In July 1861, Wade, along with other politicians, witnessed the defeat of the Union Army at the 1st Battle of Bull Run. There, he was almost captured by the Confederate Army. After arriving back at Washington, he was one of those who led the attack on the supposed incompetence of the leadership of the Union Army. From 1861 to 1862 he was chairman of the important Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, and in 1862, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, was instrumental in abolishing slavery in the Federal Territories.
During the American Civil War, Wade was highly critical of President Abraham Lincoln; in a September 1861 letter, he privately wrote that Lincoln's views on slavery "could only come of one born of poor white trash and educated in a slave State." He was especially angry when Lincoln was slow to recruit African-Americans into the armies.
Wade was also critical of Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan; in 1864, he and Henry Winter Davis sponsored a bill that would run the South, when conquered, their way. The Wade-Davis Bill mandated that there be a fifty-percent White male Iron-Clad Loyalty Oath, Black male suffrage, and Military Governors that were to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. It passed in the lower chamber on May 4, 1864 by a margin of 73 ayes to 59 nays; in the upper chamber on July 2, 1864 it passed by a similar percentage of 18 ayes to 14 nays and was brought to Lincoln's desk. Tradition has it that Zachariah Chandler asked him directly if 'he plan on signing it or no?’ and Lincoln replied, ‘it was put before him with too little time to be signed in that way’ and on July 4, 1864, he vetoed it. President Lincoln refused to sign it, later stating that he didn't want to be held to one Reconstruction policy.[citation needed]
[edit] Impeachment of Johnson
Wade, along with most other Radical Republicans, was highly critical of President Andrew Johnson (who became President after Lincoln's assassination). At the beginning of the 40th Congress, Wade became the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, which meant that he was next in line for the presidency (as Johnson had no vice president).
After many fallouts with the Republican-dominated Congress, the Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Johnson (who had been a Democrat). Although most senators believed that Johnson was guilty of the charges, they did not want the extremely radical Wade to become president. One newspaper wrote, "Andrew Johnson is innocent because Ben Wade is guilty of being his successor." [citation needed]
According to John Roy Lynch (R-MS, 1873-76, 1881-82), one of the twenty-two African Americans elected to Congress from the South, during Reconstruction (1861-1901) in his book "Facts Concerning Reconstruction.":
"It was believed by many at the time that some of the [moderate] Republican Senators that voted for acquittal [of Andrew Johnson] did so chiefly on account of their antipathy to the man who would succeed to the presidency in the event of the conviction of the [sitting] president. This man was Senator Benjamin Wade, of Ohio, President pro tempore of the U. S. Senate who as the law then stood, would have succeeded to the presidency in the event of a vacancy in the office from any cause. Senator Wade was an able man … He was a strong party man. He had no patience with those who claimed to be [Radical] Republicans and yet refused to abide by the decision of the majority of the party organization [as did Grimes, Johnson, Lincoln, Pratt, and Trumbull] … the sort of active and aggressive man that would be likely to make for himself enemies of men in his own organization who were afraid of his great power and influence, and jealous of him as a political rival. That some of his senatorial Republican associates should feel that the best service they could render their country would be to do all in their power to prevent such a man from being elevated to the Presidency … for while they knew he was an able man, they also knew that, according to his convictions of party duty and party obligations, he firmly believed he who served his party best served his country best…that he would have given the country an able administration is concurrent opinion of those who knew him best." [citation needed]
In 1868, then-presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant was urged by his fellow Republicans to choose Wade as his vice presidential running mate; but he refused, instead choosing another radical (Schuyler Colfax). After being defeated in the 1868 elections, Wade returned to his Ohio law practice. He died on March 2, 1878, in Jefferson, Ohio.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by: Thomas Ewing |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Ohio 1851 – 1869 |
Succeeded by: Allen G. Thurman |
| Preceded by: Lafayette S. Foster |
President pro tempore of the United States Senate March 2, 1867 – March 3, 1869 |
Succeeded by: Henry B. Anthony |
