Editing George H. Pendleton (section)

==Career==
[[File:Democratic presidential ticket 1864b.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Currier and Ives]] print of the Democratic presidential party ticket, 1864. Lithograph with watercolor.]]

Pendleton was elected as a member of the [[Ohio Senate]], serving from 1854 to 1856. His father had been a member of the Ohio Senate from 1825 until 1827.<ref name="NGPbioguide"/> In 1854, he ran unsuccessfully for the [[Thirty-fourth United States Congress]]. Two years later, he was elected as a [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] to the [[Thirty-fifth United States Congress|Thirty-fifth Congress]] and would be re-elected to the three following Congresses (March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1865). During his time in the House of Representatives, he was one of the managers appointed by the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] in 1862 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against [[West H. Humphreys]], a US judge for several districts of Tennessee.

In the 1850s, Pendleton actively opposed measures to prohibit slavery in the [[Western United States]].<ref name=ohiocivilwarcentralbio/> A leading defender of slavery,<ref>December 4, 2012. [https://www.eastoregonian.com/opinion/editorials/pendleton-namesake-fought-for-slavery/article_9c76e429-ca15-50ea-b217-c477da97a448.html Pendleton namesake fought for slavery]. ''East Oregonian''. Retrieved January 27, 2022.</ref> he was a leader of the "peace" faction of his party during the American Civil War, with close ties to the [[Copperheads (politics)|Copperheads]]. He voted against the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]], which outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://beta.congress.gov/congressional-record/2005/12/08/extensions-of-remarks-section/article/E2496-1|journal=Congressional Record |volume= 151|number=157|title=Recognizing the Anniversary of the 13th Amendment (Extensions of Remarks)|date=December 8, 2005|pages= E2496–E2497|publisher= Government Printing Office}}</ref>

===National politics===
Pendleton, a nationally prominent [[Copperhead (politics)|Extreme Peace Democrat]], was nominated as the vice presidential running mate of [[George McClellan]], a [[War Democrat]], in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1864|1864 presidential election]]. McClellan, age 37 at the time of the convention, and Pendleton, age 39, are the youngest major party presidential ticket ever nominated in the United States. Their [[National Union Party (United States)|National Union]] opponents were President Lincoln and [[Andrew Johnson]]. McClellan and Pendleton lost, receiving about 45% of the popular vote and less than 10% of the electoral vote.

Since Pendleton was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, he was not a candidate for re-election to the [[Thirty-ninth United States Congress|Thirty-ninth Congress]]. [[George E. Pugh]], the Democrat nominated to run for Pendleton's seat, lost to Republican [[Benjamin Eggleston]].

===Out of office===
Out of office for the first time in a decade, Pendleton ran for his old House seat in 1866 but lost. In [[1868 Democratic National Convention|1868]], he sought the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He led for the first 15 ballots and was nearly the nominee, but his support disappeared and he lost to [[Horatio Seymour]], primarily for his support of the "[[Ohio idea]]."<ref name=ohiocivilwarcentralbio/> The following year, he was the Democratic nominee for [[Governor of Ohio]] and again lost, this time to [[Rutherford B. Hayes]].<ref name="GHPbioguide"/>

Pendleton stepped away from politics, and in 1869, he became president of the Kentucky Central Railroad.<ref name="Kentucky1877">{{cite book |last1=Kentucky Central Railroad Company |title=Charter of the Kentucky Central Railroad Company: To which is Added the General Laws of Kentucky Relating to Railroad Interests, and an Abstract of Decisions of the Court of Appeals Thereon. Also, Charters of the Maysville and Lexington Railroad Companies, North and Southern Divisions |date=1877 |publisher=Printed at the Western Methodist Book Concern |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vChEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA7 |access-date=3 October 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

===Political comeback===
In 1879, he made his comeback when he was elected as a Democrat to the [[United States Senate]]. During his only term, from 1881 to 1885, he served concurrently as the [[Democratic Conference Chairman of the United States Senate|Chairman of the Democratic Conference]]. Following the 1881 assassination of [[James A. Garfield]], he passed his most notable legislation, known as the [[Pendleton Act]] of 1883, requiring civil service exams for government positions. The Act helped put an end to the system of [[patronage]] in widespread use at the time, but it cost Pendleton politically, as many members of his own party preferred the spoils system. He was thus not renominated to the Senate.<ref name="GHPbioguide"/>

===Later life===
[[File:GHPendleton.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Pendleton in his later years.]]
Instead, President [[Grover Cleveland]] appointed him [[diplomatic rank|Envoy Extraordinary]] and [[Minister Plenipotentiary]] to Germany the year that he left office, which he served until April 1889. Five months later, during his return trip to the United States, he died in [[Brussels]], [[Belgium]].<ref name="GHPbioguide">{{cite web |title=PENDLETON, George Hunt - Biographical Information |url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000203 |website=bioguide.congress.gov |publisher=[[Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]] |access-date=3 October 2018}}</ref>

===Beliefs===
Pendleton had a very [[Jacksonian Democracy|Jacksonian]] commitment to the Democratic Party as the best, perhaps the only, mechanism through which ordinary Americans could shape government policies. Mach (2007) argues that Pendleton's chief contribution was to demonstrate the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]]'s willingness to use its power in government to achieve Jacksonian ideals.

While his Jacksonian commitment to [[states' rights]] and limited government made him a dissenter during the Civil War, what Mach calls Pendleton's Jacksonian "ardor to expand opportunities for ordinary Americans" was the basis for his leadership in civil service reform and his controversial plan to use [[greenback (money)|greenbacks]] to repay the federal debt.  What appeared to be a substantive ideological shift, Mach argues, represented Pendleton's pragmatic willingness to use new means to achieve old ends.