49 Facts About Zachariah Chandler

Zachariah Chandler was an American businessman, politician, and one of the founders of the Republican Party, whose radical wing he dominated as a lifelong abolitionist.

Zachariah Chandler was born in Bedford, New Hampshire, on December 10,1813.

Zachariah Chandler's father was Samuel Chandler and his mother was Margaret Orr.

In Detroit, Zachariah Chandler opened a general store and through trade, banking, and land speculation became one of the wealthiest men in the state of Michigan.

On December 10,1844, Zachariah Chandler married Letitia Grace Douglas, a native of Baltimore, who moved to New York.

Zachariah Chandler's and Letitia's grandchildren included Frederick Hale, who was a long-serving US Senator from Maine, and Zachariah Chandler Hale, who served as a US diplomat in Rome.

From his youth, Zachariah Chandler had been strongly opposed to slavery, and hoped that the Northern Whig party would be able to stop Southern slave power from spreading slavery into the Western Territories.

Zachariah Chandler financially supported the Detroit Underground Railroad, which helped fugitive or runaway slaves find safe haven.

In 1848 Zachariah Chandler began his political career by making campaign speeches for the Whig party presidential candidate Zachary Taylor.

In 1851, Zachariah Chandler was elected Mayor of Detroit and served one year in office.

In 1852, Zachariah Chandler ran as a Whig candidate for the Governor of Michigan, but he was defeated.

In 1856, Zachariah Chandler was a delegate at the first Republican Party National convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the Republican National Committee.

Zachariah Chandler was known as one of the Radical Republicans who pushed for harsher punishment for the former rebels, and greater liberties for African-Americans.

In January 1857, Zachariah Chandler ran as a Republican and was elected as a USSenator for Michigan, succeeding Lewis Cass.

Zachariah Chandler was reelected in 1863 and again in 1869, serving from March 4,1857, to March 3,1875, in the 35th through the 43rd US Congresses.

From March 1861 to 1875 Zachariah Chandler was chairman of the Committee on Commerce that controlled powerful "pork barrel" appropriations for rivers and harbors.

At the outbreak of the Civil War Zachariah Chandler used his Senatorial influence to raise and equip the Michigan volunteers.

Zachariah Chandler was a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.

On July 6,1862, Zachariah Chandler castigated General George McClellan's prosecution of the war in a speech at Jackson, Michigan.

Zachariah Chandler regarded his speech against McClellan as one of his most important public services.

On March 3,1863, Zachariah Chandler authored legislation for the collection and administration of abandoned property in the South.

On July 2,1864, Zachariah Chandler authored legislation for the regulation of intercourse with the insurrectionist Confederate states.

Zachariah Chandler supported higher tariff rates, the creation of a national bank, and voted for greenbacks as an emergency war measure, but strongly condemned any inflation of the currency.

Zachariah Chandler supported Reconstruction Acts that gave civil rights to African Americans, but criticized reconstruction for being too lax.

On January 5,1866, Zachariah Chandler authored a resolution for non-intercourse with Great Britain for refusing to negotiate the Alabama Claims, but this was rejected by the Senate.

On November 29,1867, in retaliation to Britain, Zachariah Chandler submitted a resolution that Abyssinia be recognized as a belligerent nation at war against Great Britain, demanding that Abyssinia be given the "same rights which the British had recognized to the Confederacy" during the Civil War.

Secretary Zachariah Chandler fired corrupt agents at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and fired and replaced the Indian Commissioner and Bureau Clerk.

In February 1876 Chandler handed Indians who refused to leave their hunting grounds, concerning the encroachment in the Black Hills by miners, over to Secretary of War William W Belknap's department.

When Zachariah Chandler took office he found the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be the most corrupt out of the federal departments under his charge.

Zachariah Chandler quietly investigated the Bureau and found corrupt appointees and suspicious practices by subordinates.

Zachariah Chandler ordered their removal, but the new commissioner said that these men were valuable to the Bureau, so Zachariah Chandler held off firing the clerks.

Zachariah Chandler replied to Grant that the Commissioner said it would be impossible to run the Bureau without them.

Zachariah Chandler immediately went over to the Bureau and gave orders for the suspected clerks to be fired which was promptly enforced.

Zachariah Chandler had Gaylord and Gorman to investigate the Land Office whose investigation discovered there was a "Chippewa half-breed scrip" profiteering combination.

Zachariah Chandler broke up the combination and fired all of the members connected to the corrupt ring.

Zachariah Chandler vacated the room and put in charge an African American porter to lock by key and keep people from entering the room until honest replacements were found.

Zachariah Chandler without warning instigated an investigation by putting a new officer in charge of monthly payrolls of Patent Office employees taking the full names and addresses of everyone who signed them.

Zachariah Chandler exposed and removed corrupt unqualified clerks who profiteered by hiring out their work to underpaid replacements.

Zachariah Chandler simplified Patent Office rules making patents easier to obtain and lessening their costs to the public.

In December 1875 Zachariah Chandler banned "Indian Attorneys", persons who claimed to represent Indians in Washington, from the Department of Interior.

Zachariah Chandler banned payment to these men for alleged services to Indians saying their claims or representation were illegal and immoral.

Zachariah Chandler became Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party in 1878.

Zachariah Chandler served in the 45th and 46th Congresses from February 22,1879, until his death later that year.

Under consideration by party leaders as a possible candidate in the 1880 presidential election, Zachariah Chandler went to Chicago to deliver a political speech on October 31,1879.

Zachariah Chandler said that he hoped one day blacks would be able to vote freely and safely, run for office, and make speeches throughout the nation including the South just as former rebels were allowed to vote, run for office, and speak in the North.

When Zachariah Chandler was appointed Secretary of Interior by President Grant in 1875, reformers were concerned that corruption and patronage in the Department would continue as under Secretary Columbus Delano, Grant's previous appointment.

Zachariah Chandler had a reputation as a wealthy Republican partisan political boss, rather than a reformer.

However, these concerns proved unwarranted, as Zachariah Chandler proved to be an efficient reformer.

Zachariah Chandler investigated corruption in his department and reported to President Grant, who gave him approval to launch reforms.