Talk:Zachariah Chandler

Restructuring

Aside from needing citations for the direct quotes, some of the recent additions are out of chronological order and need to be better integrated into the article. Also, some of the language in the recent additions (not attributed as direct quotes) seems archaic--which could mean it may have been drawn a little too literally, without sufficient summarization, from the original sources. older ≠ wiser 01:53, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Citations needed.

I am nearing the end of a project to identify, fix if possible, and remove if needed all of the Citations Needed tags at http://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Category:Articles_with_unsourced_statements&from=Z. It would be very helpful if you could provide sources for your information where other ediitors have marked Citation Needed.

There is a possibility that this information, unsourced, might be deleted by a zealous editor. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis 04:02, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Reconstructing article

I have been reconstructing the article trimming excess detail and removing any block quotes. The article can be expanded. The trimming is to get an article frame work to further any improvements. Thanks. Cmguy777 (talk) 03:46, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Blood Letter

I'm a little bit concerned about the part of the senate section dealing with the blood letter. Namely, the actual quote is from a speech Chandler later gave about a letter he wrote. I assume the letter itself is called the "Blood Letter", and the speech something else (if it has a name), but I'm not sure.

In either case, I haven't been able to find a source that considers it the start of the war (nor, indeed, to have started the war).

--129.2.159.245 (talk) 20:27, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

 Fixed Cmguy777 (talk) 08:49, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Removed blood letter information

I removed the following information from the article. Not supported by MacDonald (1929) summary biography. Cmguy777 (talk) 08:49, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Some historians claim that Zachariah Chandler is the real start of the Civil War because of his infamous "Blood Letter," which he personally styled, "A Little Blood Letting,"

This is not a question of compromise. It is a question of whether we have a government or not. If we have a government then it is capable of making itself respected at home and abroad. If we have not a government, let this miserable rope of sand which purports to be a government perish …General Washington reasoned not so when the Whiskey rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania; he called out the posse comitatus and enforced the laws. General Jackson reasoned not so when South Carolina in 1832 raised the black flag of rebellion; he said "by the Eternal, I will hang them;" and he would have done it. it …we are told six States have seceded, and the Union is broke up, and all we can is to send commissioners to treat with traitors with arms in their hands; treat with men who have fired upon your flag; treat with men who have seized your custom-houses, who have erected batteries upon your great navigable waters, and who now stand defying your authority …I will never live under a government that has not the powers to enforce its laws … This thing has gone far enough. Sir, the Union is to stand; it will stand when your great grand children and mine shall have grown gray---aye, when they shall have gone to their last account, and their great grand children have grown gray … For the men who love this Union, who are prepared to march to the support of the Union, who will stand up in defense of the old flag under which their fathers fought and gloriously triumphed, I have not only the most profound respect, but to their demands I can scarce conceive anything that I would not yield. But, sir, when traitorous States come here and say, unless you yield this or that established principle or right, we will dissolve the Union, I would answer in brief words, "no concessions, no compromise; aye, give us strife unto blood before yielding to the demands of traitorous insolence."

U.S. Senator information

Added U.S. Senator section information to talk page. Needs work. Cmguy777 (talk) 08:58, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

He was a vigorous opponent of slavery and lent his assistance to the Underground Railroad. Chandler attacked the 1857 Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court decision which upheld the Fugitive Slave Law.

In 1858, Chandler opposed the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, which allowed slavery, and also took an active part in debates over this issue. On February 11, 1861, Chandler wrote the famous so-called "blood letter" to Austin Blair, the Governor of Michigan. This letter contained the sentence, "Without a little blood-letting this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a rush." The letter was quoted throughout the country, and Chandler defended his statement on the floor of the Senate. He was closely associated with Senators Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio and Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, whom Lincoln's secretary and biographer John Hay derisively referred to as the "Jacobin Club", alluding to the infamous extremists of the French Revolution. In July, 1861, Chandler, along with Wade, Trumbull and James Grimes, witnessed the First Battle of Bull Run, which was a disaster for the Union forces. At one point, Chandler came close to being captured by the Confederate Army.

In the U.S. Senate, on February 17, 1859, Chandler spoke out against the recent Dred Scott decision,

What did General Jackson do when the Supreme Court declared the United States Bank unconstitutional? Did he bow in deference to the opinion of the [c]ourt? No … he said he would construe the constitution for himself, that he was sworn to do it. I shall do the same thing. I have sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, and I have sworn to it as the fathers made it and not as the Supreme Court have altered it. And I never will swear allegiance to that.

As a Radical Republican, Chandler was critical of President Abraham Lincoln for not taking stronger action immediately against the southern states attempting to secede from the Union. He was also very critical of General George McClellan for not aggressively pursuing victory on the battlefield. Like other radical Republicans, he was also critical of Lincoln's Reconstruction plan. In 1868, he was active in the campaign to impeach President Andrew Johnson, whom he viewed as an incompetent willing to sacrifice all the gains made during the war through "soft" reconstruction.

Because the Constitution stipulated that all appropriations of the U.S. Government begin in the U.S. House, effectually, Congress controlled the war machine of the Northern Industrial Complex. Chandler, and the rest of the Radical Republicans thought the American military might-minus defectors-would overrun and out strategize the weaker south.

Not following the admonishment of George Washington in his Farewell Speech they formed an alliance within the Party. The battle was within a day's march of the Whitehouse. In two different carriages were; Chandler (R-MI), Wade (R-OH), Sergeant-At-Arms of U.S. Senate, Brown, and Major Eaton of Detroit-in the Wolverine carriage; and in the Buckeye carriage, Representative Harrison Gray Otis Blake (R-OH), Thomas Brown of Cleveland Ohio, Representative, James Remley Morris (R-OH) and Representative & Historian, Albert Gallatin Riddle (R-OH). According to historian Alber G. Riddle, that event happened on this wise,

Armed with Maynard Rifles and Navy Revolvers and expecting a great victory … Their Confidence was misplaced … it had become evident that the Federal Army had been whipped. Men, horses, and wagons were swept back toward Washington. The rout was complete, and nothing seemed capable of stopping the panic-stricken soldiers [from their disorganized retreat]. The sudden disaster infuriated Wade. He loathed cowardice, and when he saw the soldiers running away from the enemy instead of standing up to the Confederates, he sprang into action. Drawing up his carriage across the pike between a fenced-in farm and an impenetrable wood one mile beyond Fairfax Courthouse, he jumped out, rifle in hand. "Boys, we'll stop this damned run-away," he shouted. Then supported by his companions, he turned back the fugitives at rifle's point.

Chandler was reelected in 1863 and again in 1869, serving from March 4, 1857, to March 4, 1875 in the 35th through the 43rd U.S. Congresses. During and after the Civil War, Chandler proved himself an energetic and deadly foe to Democratic opponents. From the Senate floor in 1862, he tried to link the name of former President Franklin Pierce with that of the seditious Knights of the Golden Circle, evidently as a means of putting the Democrats on the defensive in that year's fall mid-term elections. As early as the fall of 1866, he was one of the most prominent Republicans to call for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, particularly after the latter's self-defeating "Swing Around the Circle" campaign.

Chandler was defeated by Isaac P. Christiancy while seeking election for a fourth term in 1874, when the Michigan legislature deadlocked following a Democratic landslide in elections that year. Chandler served as the chairman of the Committee on Commerce from 1861 to 1875 and was responsible for funneling large amounts of federal funding into the developing Midwest.

References

Sourcing

I don't know if this relates to previous calls for sources but I've just done a mammoth clean-up of overcites. In the process, I noticed a phenomenal number of citations to just one page of the 1929 MacDonald source. I don't think we'd usually even consider that to be a good source - WP:HISTRS - but I really do doubt that it contains all the information that we claimed it does. Someone with more time might care to check the thing and, if necessary, fix the page numbering etc. - Sitush (talk) 20:18, 20 February 2018 (UTC)