Editing Thomas A. Hendricks (section)

===U.S. Senator===
Hendricks represented Indiana in the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] from 1863 to 1869, during the final years of the [[American Civil War]] and the early years of the [[Reconstruction era]].{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=163}} Military reverses in the Civil War, some unpopular decisions in the Lincoln administration, and Democratic control of the Indiana General Assembly helped Hendricks win election to the U.S. Senate.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=125}} His six years in the Senate covered the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses, where Hendricks was a leader of the small Democratic minority and a member of the opposition who was often overruled.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=164}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=130, 131}}{{sfn|Memorial|p=22}}

Hendricks challenged what he thought was radical legislation, including the [[Union (American Civil War)#Soldiers|military draft]] and issuing [[Greenback (1860s money)|greenbacks]]; however, he supported the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] and prosecution of the war, consistently voting in favor of wartime appropriations.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=160}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=130}} Hendricks adamantly opposed [[Reconstruction era|Radical Reconstruction]]. After the war he argued that the [[Southern United States|Southern states]] had never been out of the Union and were therefore entitled to representation in the U.S. Congress. Hendricks also maintained that Congress had no authority over the affairs of state governments.{{sfn|Memorial|p=22}}

Hendricks voted against the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth]], [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth]], and [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth]] Amendments to the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] that would, upon ratification, grant voting rights to males of all races and abolish slavery.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=160}} Hendricks felt it was not the right time, so soon after the Civil War, to make fundamental changes to the U.S. Constitution. Although Hendricks supported freedom for African Americans, stating, "He is free; now let him remain free,"{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=132}} he unsuccessfully opposed reconstruction legislation.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=160}}{{sfn|Thornbrough|pp=226–27}} Hendricks did not believe in racial equality. For example, in a congressional debate with Indiana Senator [[Oliver P. Morton]], Hendricks argued:

{{Blockquote |I am speaking of a race whose history for two thousand years has shown that it cannot elevate itself. I am speaking of a race which in its own country is now enshrouded by the darkness of heathenism, the darkest heathenism that covers land on earth. While the white man for two thousand years past has been going upward and onward, the negro race wherever found dependent upon himself has been going downward or standing still.&nbsp;... What has this race ever produced? What invention has it ever produced of advantage to the world?&nbsp;... This race has not been carried down into barbarism by slavery. The influence of slavery upon this race- I will not say it is the influence of slavery- but the influence of the contact of this race with the white race has been to give it all the elevation it possesses, and independent and outside of that influence it has not become elevated anywhere in its whole history. Can you tell me of any useful invention by the race, one single invention of greater importance to the world than the club with which the warrior beats to death his neighbor? Not one.<ref>{{cite journal |title=40th Cong., 3rd Sess. |journal= Congressional Globe |date=February 8, 1869 |pages= 989–992}}</ref>}}
[[File:Thomas Andrews Hendricks, photo portrait seated, 1860-65.jpg|thumb|right|Photograph of Senator Hendricks, {{circa|1860–1865}}]]
Hendricks also opposed the attempt to remove President [[Andrew Johnson]] from office following his impeachment in the U.S. House of Representatives.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=160}}

Hendricks's views were often misinterpreted by his political opponents in Indiana.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=130}} When the Republicans regained a majority in the [[Indiana General Assembly]] in 1868, the same year Hendricks's U.S. Senate term expired, he lost reelection to a second term,{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=163}} and was succeeded by Republican Congressman-elect [[Daniel D. Pratt]], who resigned the U.S. House seat to which he had been elected in 1868 in order to accept the Senate seat.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}