Zachariah Chandler: Politician and Founder of the Republican Party

Portrait of Zachariah Chandler, 1860, by Mathew Brady. Public Domain

Growing up with strong abolitionist beliefs, Zachariah Chandler would utilize his success as a businessman to become an influential politician. After the Whig Party folded, Chandler played an instrumental role in the formation of the new Republican Party just before the Civil War broke out.

Chandler was born in Bedford, New Hampshire in 1813. After receiving an education from the common schools, he worked as a teacher briefly before his father offered him the choice between giving Chandler $1,000 in cash or paying for his college education.

Chandler took the money, and in 1833 headed to Detroit, then the capital of the Michigan Territory. He found success as a businessman after turning a general store into a popular wholesale dry goods company.

Zachariah Chandler in a depiction by The Detroit Post and Tribune, 1880. Public Domain

He used his wealth to support abolitionist causes and financially aided local efforts to assist escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad. As a member of the Whig Party, Chandler soon became involved in the political scene.

In 1851, Chandler defeated General John Williams in Detroit’s mayoral election, taking his first step in political office. After serving as mayor for a year, Chandler ran as a Whig Party candidate for Michigan’s first governor, but he fell short in the election.

The Republican Party

The Whig party collapsed, and Chandler called for members to meet on July 6, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan where they formed the Republican Party. Chandler played a vital role in the new political party for the rest of his life.

In this new political party, Chandler associated with the “Radical Republican” faction which staunchly opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This act allowed slaves escaping to the North to be returned to their owners in the South. He financially supported Michigan abolitionists, encouraged African Americans to fight in the Civil War, and battled for civil rights for freed slaves after the war ended.

Illustration of Senator Zachariah Chandler denouncing the eulogies of Jefferson Davis in the U.S. Senate in 1879. Kean Collection/Getty Images

In 1857, Chandler ran on the Republican ticket as U.S. Senator for Michigan and won, signaling the start to his 18-year career in the U.S. Senate. While Senator, Chandler never swayed away from his Radical Republican sentiments; he often criticized President Abraham Lincoln and other more moderate Republicans for not acting against the South quickly enough.

“Lincoln means well but he has no force of character,” Chandler once wrote, according to the book “The Radical Republicans: Lincoln’s Vanguard for Racial Justice” by Hans Trefousse. “He is surrounded by Old Fogy Army officers more than half of whom are downright traitors and the other one half sympathize with the South.”

National Politics

Chandler’s long tenure in the Senate screeched to a halt when he was defeated by his Democratic opponent during the election in 1874. Shortly after leaving the Senate, in 1875 President Ulysses Grant offered Chandler a place in the president’s cabinet as Secretary of the Interior.  

Chandler labored to eliminate corruption, fraud, and profiteering at the federal level. He terminated many working in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Pension Bureau and Land Office, and the Patent Office.

Secretary of the Interior Zachariah Chandler in his office at the Department of Interior. The Detroit Post and Tribune, 1880. Public Domain

In 1877, President Rutherford Hayes dismissed him as Secretary of Interior, even though Chandler spearheaded Hayes’s presidential campaign and played a crucial role in getting him elected.

Chandler was chosen as the Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party in 1878, and he was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 1879 after Isaac Christiancy resigned. Many considered Chandler the Republican Party’s front runner for the 1880 Presidential election before he met his tragic fate.

On Oct. 31, 1879, Chandler traveled to Chicago to deliver a political speech at McCormick Hall to the African American Young Men’s Republican Auxiliary Club. There, he expressed his desire that one day African Americans could vote and run for political office freely. The next day, Chandler passed away in his room, after battling a mild cold, at the Grand Pacific Hotel, ending any hopes of him becoming the nation’s next president.

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