Editing Thomas A. Hendricks (section)

==High office==

[[File:Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, Ind - NARA - 528670.jpg|thumb|left|Photo of Sen. Thomas A. Hendricks (c. 1865)]]

===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}}

===Governor of Indiana===
In 1872 Hendricks was elected as the governor of Indiana in his third bid for the office.{{sfn|Memorial|p=24}}{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=163, 164}} An indication of Hendricks's growing national popularity occurred during the [[1872 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1872]]; the Democrats nominated [[Horace Greeley]], the [[Liberal Republican Party (United States)|Liberal Republican]] candidate. Greeley died soon after the election, but before the Electoral College cast its ballots; 42 of 63 Democratic electors previously pledged to Greeley voted for Hendricks.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=135}}

Hendricks served as governor of Indiana from January 13, 1873, to January 8, 1877,{{sfn|Memorial|p=24}} a difficult period of post-war economic depression following the financial [[Panic of 1873]]. Indiana experienced high unemployment, business failures, labor strikes, and falling farm prices. Hendricks twice called out the state militia to end workers' strikes, one by miners in [[Clay County, Indiana|Clay County]], and one by railroad workers' in [[Logansport, Indiana|Logansport]].{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=160–61}}

Although Hendricks succeeded in encouraging legislation enacting election and judiciary reform, the Republican-controlled legislature prevented him from achieving many of his other legislative goals.{{sfn|Holcombe|Skinner|1886|pp=308–09}} In 1873 Hendricks signed the Baxter bill, a controversial piece of [[Temperance movement|temperance]] legislation that established a strict form of [[local option]], even though he personally had favored a licensing law. Hendricks signed the legislation because he thought the bill was constitutional and reflected the majority view of the Indiana General Assembly and the will of Indiana's citizens. The law proved to be unenforceable and was repealed in 1875; it was replaced by a licensing system that Hendricks had preferred.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=163}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=135}}

One of Hendricks's lasting legacies during his tenure as governor began with discussion to fund construction of a new [[Indiana Statehouse]]. The existing structure, which had been in use since 1835, had become too small, forcing the growing state government to rent additional buildings around Indianapolis. Besides its size, the dilapidated capitol building was in need of major repair. The roof in the Hall of Representatives had collapsed in 1867 and public inspectors condemned the building in 1873. The cornerstone for the present-day state capital building was laid in 1880, after Hendricks left office, and he delivered the keynote speech at the ceremony.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=164}} The new statehouse was completed eight years later and remains in use as Indiana's state capitol building.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=136}}

===Vice presidential nominee===
[[File:Tilden and Hendricks campaign poster.jpg|thumb|Campaign poster for the election of 1876.]]

Hendricks ran for [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] in 1876 and 1884; he won in 1884.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=164–65}} The Democrats also nominated Hendricks for the vice presidency in 1880, but he declined for health reasons.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=161}} In 1880, while on a visit to [[Hot Springs, Arkansas]], Hendricks suffered a bout of paralysis, but returned to public life. No one outside of his family and doctors knew his health was failing. Two years later he was no longer able to stand.{{sfn|Memorial|pages=28, 70}}

In the disputed [[1876 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1876]] Hendricks ran as the Democratic candidate for vice president with [[New York (state)|New York]] governor [[Samuel Tilden]] as the party's presidential nominee.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=161}} Hendricks did not attend the Democratic convention in [[St. Louis|Saint Louis]], but the party was pursuing the strategy of carrying the [[Solid South]] along with New York and Indiana. The Indiana delegation urged Hendricks as the vice-presidential nominee, and he was nominated unanimously.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=137}}

Although they received the majority of the popular vote, Tilden and Hendricks lost the disputed election by one vote in Electoral College balloting to [[Rutherford B. Hayes]], the Republican Party's presidential nominee, and [[William A. Wheeler]], his vice-presidential running mate.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=137}} A fifteen-member Electoral Commission that included five representatives each from the House, Senate, and [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] determined the outcome of the contested electoral votes. In an 8 to 7 partisan vote, the commission awarded all twenty of the disputed votes from [[South Carolina]], [[Louisiana]], [[Florida]], and [[Oregon]] to the Republican candidates.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=138}} Tilden and Hendricks accepted the decision, despite deep disappointment at the outcome.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=138}}

As chairman of the Indiana delegation, Hendricks attended the Democratic Party's national convention in 1884 in [[Chicago]], where he was again nominated as its vice-presidential candidate by a unanimous vote.{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=119, 120}} [[Grover Cleveland]] was the party's presidential nominee in the [[1884 United States presidential election|1884 presidential election]]; once again the Democrats' strategy was to win New York, Cleveland's home state, and Hendricks's home state of Indiana, plus the electoral votes of the Solid South. Democrats narrowly won New York, Indiana, and two more Northern states plus the Solid South to secure the election.{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=120, 121}}