George H. Pendleton
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| George H. Pendleton | |
|---|---|
| Former U.S. Senator from Ohio From: March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1885 | |
| Predecessor | Stanley Matthews |
| Successor | Henry B. Payne |
| Former U.S. Representative from Ohio's 1st Congressional District From: March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1865 | |
| Predecessor | Timothy C. Day |
| Successor | Benjamin Eggleston |
| Information | |
| Party | Democrat |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Key |
George Hunt Pendleton was a Democrat Senator from Ohio known for being a Copperhead during the Civil War and George B. McClellan's running mate during the 1864 presidential election and for the Pendleton Act, which reformed the United States civil service and created the Civil service system.
Career
Pendleton gained prominence as he opposed the Civil War and supported slavery. He voted against the 13th Amendment and was one of its leading opponents.[1] He was enraged when blacks were given their freedom, believing them to be inferior. He was a proponent of the "Ohio idea", and wanted Civil War debt to be paid off in the form of greenbacks,[2] which notably gained Thaddeus Stevens's support. This allowed him to receive the vice presidential nomination of the Democrat Party in 1864, but they lost in a landslide. He exited politics after this.
Pendleton made a comeback in the 1878 midterm elections, and was made Ohio's Junior Senator. He was known for his advocacy of civil service reform, which many Democrats and Half-Breeds supported at the time. Pendleton was unhappy that many black Republicans had received government jobs during Reconstruction, and wanted to stop this trend in an effort to reverse their socioeconomic gains. By using civil service reform to mandate the merit system, Pendleton could use this new idea to rebuild the Democrat Party in the Gilded Age and create a civil service system that was entrenched with Democrat bureaucracy and discriminate against blacks. So he wrote the Pendleton Act and was able to convince a Republican Congress to pass that in the wake of Half-Breed James Garfield's assassination, as public pressure and media pressure was great enough to cause Stalwart Chester A. Arthur to cave in and betray his faction along with Republicans that did not want civil service reform and had mentored Arthur, like Roscoe Conkling. As a result, the act was passed, and it would help cause the Progressive Era. This lead to an end of the pro-business policy of the Gilded Age while also laying down the groundwork for the Deep State,[3][4] another product of big government. As most Democrats had favored the spoils system, Pendleton fell into unpopularity and lost reelection in 1884.[5]
In 1885 Grover Cleveland appointed him US Ambassabor to Germany, and he became a civil servant himself. He held this position until 1889, ending his political career. He died a few months later.
See also
References
- ↑ A Few Good Men: Coincidences and Anomalies of the (Obscure) Men Who Shaped 13th Amendment
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/event/Ohio-Idea
- ↑ The Birth of the Deep State: A History
- ↑ The Assassin Who Helped Create the Deep State
- ↑ https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/George_Pendleton
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