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WADE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1800-1878)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 227 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WADE, See also:BENJAMIN See also:FRANKLIN (1800-1878) , See also:American states-See also:man, was See also:born near See also:Springfield, See also:Massachusetts, on the 27th of See also:October 1800, of Puritan ancestry. He was reared on a See also:farm, receiving little systematic See also:education, and in 1821 he removed with his See also:family to See also:Andover, in the Western Reserve of See also:Ohio. Here he spent two more years on a farm, and then, securing employment as a drover, worked his way to See also:Philadelphia and finally to See also:Albany, New See also:York, where for two years he taught school, studied See also:medicine, and was a labourer on the See also:Erie See also:Canal. Returning to Ohio in 1825, he studied See also:law at Canfield, was admitted to the See also:bar in 1827, and began practice at See also:Jefferson, See also:Ashtabula See also:county, where from 1831 to 1837 he was a law partner of See also:Joshua R. See also:Giddings, the See also:anti-See also:slavery See also:leader. During 1837–1839 and 1841–1843 he was a Whig member of the Ohio See also:State See also:Senate. From 1847 until 1851 he was a state See also:district See also:judge, and from 1851 until 1869 was a member of the See also:United States Senate, first as an anti-slavery Whig and later as a Republican. In the Senate Wade was from the first an uncompromising opponent of slavery, his See also:bitter denunciations of that institution and of the slaveholders receiving added force from his rugged honesty and sincerity. His See also:blunt, See also:direct See also:style of See also:oratory and his somewhat rough See also:manners were characteristic. After the outbreak of the See also:Civil See also:War he was one of the most vigorous critics of the See also:Lincoln See also:administration, whose Ohio member, See also:Salmon P. See also:Chase, had See also:long been a See also:political See also:rival. He advocated the immediate emancipation and arming of the slaves, the See also:execution of prominent See also:Southern leaders, and the wholesale See also:confiscation of Confederate See also:property.

During 1861–1862 he was chairman of the important See also:

joint-See also:committee on the conduct of the war, and in 1862, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, was instrumental in abolishing slavery in the Federal Territories. In 1864, with H. W. See also:Davis (q.v.), he secured the passage of the Wade-Davis See also:Bill (for the reconstruction of the Southern States), the fundamental principle of which was that reconstruction was a legislative, not an executive, problem. This bill was passed by both houses of See also:Congress, just before their See also:adjournment, but See also:President Lincoln withheld his See also:signature, and on the 8th of See also:July issued a See also:proclamation explaining his course and defining his position. Soon afterward (Aug. 5) Wade and Davis published in the New York See also:Tribune the famous " Wade-Davis Manifesto," a vituperative document impugning the President's honesty of purpose and attacking his leadership. As long as President See also:Johnson promised severe treatment of the conquered See also:South, Wade supported him, but when the President definitively adopted the more lenient policy of his predecessor, Wade became one of his most bitter and uncompromising opponents. In 1867 he was elected president See also:pro tem. of the Senate, thus becoming acting See also:vice-president. He voted for Johnson's conviction on his trial for See also:impeachment, and for this was severely criticized, since, in the event of conviction, he would have become president; but Wade's whole course before and after the trial would seem to belie the See also:charge that he was actuated by any such See also:motive. After leaving the Senate he resumed his law practice, becoming See also:attorney for the See also:Northern Pacific railway, and in 1871 he was a member of President See also:Grant's Santo Domingo See also:Commission. He died at Jefferson, Ohio, on the 2nd of See also:March 1878.

His son, See also:

JAMES FRANKLIN WADE (b. 1843), was See also:colonel of the 6th United States (coloured) See also:cavalry during the Civil War, and attained the See also:rank of See also:major-See also:general in the See also:regular See also:army in 1903, commanding the army in the Philippines in 19o3-1904 See A. G. Riddle, See also:Life of Benjamin F. Wade (See also:Cleveland, Ohio, 1886).

End of Article: WADE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1800-1878)

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