Ben Wade and the Negro
By HANS L. TREFOUSSE*
IT HAS LONG BEEN A MATTER OF DISPUTE whether the rad-
ical Republicans of one hundred years
ago were really sincere
in their professions of friendship for
the Negro. Were they
merely interested in economic gains for
their followers and
political preferment for themselves,
making use of the Negro
question simply to hide their true
objectives, or were they
genuinely concerned with uplifting the
downtrodden race?
This question of motivation is brought
into especially sharp
focus when it is discovered that
radical leaders actually had
private prejudices against the very
people whom they pub-
licly professed to befriend. Could a
man be sincere in his
advocacy of Negro rights while he was
privately subject
to the same preconceived notions
against which he struggled
publicly? Perhaps some light may be
shed upon this prob-
lem by an examination of the
relationship between Benjamin
F. Wade and the Negro.
For many years it has been the fashion
to sneer at Ben
Wade as a vulgar extremist whose
accession to the presi-
dency was fortunately averted by the
one vote which acquitted
Andrew Johnson in the impeachment
trial.1 And while other
radicals have found defenders, Ben Wade
has been more
or less forgotten.
This neglect is wholly unjustifiable.
The bluff, outspoken
judge from the Western Reserve, who
defied doughfaces, Cop-
* Hans L. Trefousse is assistant
professor of history at Brooklyn ,College.
1 For example, Claude Bowers, The
Tragic Era: The Revolution After Lincoln
(Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 88; George
Fort Milton, Abraham Lincoln and the
Fifth Column (New York, 1942), 43; Burton J. Hendrick, Lincoln's
War Cabinet
(Boston, 1946), 268.
162
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
perheads, and conservative Republicans
during a career
spanning the entire middle period of
our history, deserves to
be remembered as one of the outstanding
champions of racial
equality in America. His forthright
denunciation of slavery,
slaveholders, and foes of human
equality made him one of
the leaders of the Republican party,
and he played an im-
portant part in the final triumph of
emancipation.
Wade first entered public life in the
1830's. While serv-
ing in his first two sessions as a
state senator, 1837-39, he
denounced slavery and the proposed
annexation of Texas on
the grounds, among others, that it
would be "madness to
tempt destruction by extending this
rotten and wicked system
[slavery] over what are now unpeopled
solitudes."2 He took
a strong stand against the gag rule in
congress,3 and re-
peatedly offended his pro-slavery
colleagues with the intro-
duction of petitions for the repeal of
the state's discriminatory
Black Codes.4 On one
occasion, he had the temerity to pre-
sent a petition from a group of Negroes
seeking to incorpo-
rate for school purposes.5 Although
the opposition held
that Negroes had no civil rights in
Ohio and therefore could
not petition the general assembly,
after a heated debate the
memorial was received by a vote of 19
to 14. The petition
failed to receive further
consideration, but Wade had given
additional evidence of his devotion to the cause of
human
rights.6
These actions constituted merely a
foretaste of things to
come. When the legislature of
neighboring Kentucky sent
two commissioners to Columbus to lobby
for a stringent
fugitive slave law, the Ohio lawmakers
accommodated them.
2 Ohio Senate, Report of the Select
Committee Relating to the Annexation of
Texas to the Union, January 12, 1838, a pamphlet in the library of the
Western
Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland.
3 Ashtabula Sentinel, March 10, 1838.
4 See, for example, petitions presented
by Wade, listed in the Ohio Statesman
(Columbus), January 7-February 13, 1839,
as well as Ashtabula Sentinel, January
13, 27, 1838.
5 Ohio State Journal and Register (Columbus), January 22, 1839. For the
petition, presented January 19, see ibid.,
January 25, 1839.
6 Ibid., January 22, 1839.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 163
The advocates of the bill were in an
overwhelming majority,
and passage of the measure was certain.
Wade and a handful
of determined opponents of the law,
nevertheless, continued
to resist the bill, vigorously fighting
its final passage through-
out the night and early morning of
February 21-22, 1839.
"Though I stand here at two
o'clock in the night," he shouted,
"and though I speak to ears that
are deaf, and to hearts,
impervious to a sense of right,
justice, and liberty, still, sir,
I will be heard." Denouncing
slavery for its inconsistency
with American professions of liberty,
he berated his associates
for their moral obtuseness, and vainly
tried to postpone the
final vote.7 Partly as a
result of his stubborn opposition,
he failed of reelection in an election
generally unfavorable
to Whigs suspected of abolitionism.8
After an enforced absence of two years,
Wade returned
to the legislature in 1841. In spite of
his earlier defeat on
the Negro question, he resumed the
struggle against slavery
in America. This time he rushed to the
defense of John
Quincy Adams, whom Ohio Democrats, like
their colleagues
in Washington, wanted to censure for
his presentation in the
house of representatives of an
abolitionist petition for the
dissolution of the Union. Wade was not
able to thwart the
majority, but his telling replies to
his opponents constituted
at least a partial vindication of the
"Old Man Eloquent" in
Ohio.9 And while Wade could
not procure the repeal of the
Black Codes in 1842,10 he did succeed,
with others, in defeat-
ing attempts to repeal the charter of
abolitionist Oberlin
College.11 Even if many of his efforts
failed, he had im-
pressed his constituents with his firm
antislavery views.
7 Wade's
speech may be found in the Ohio State Journal (Columbus), April 3,
1839, and in the Ashtabula Sentinel, June
15, 1839.
8 Francis P. Weisenburger, The
Passing of the Frontier, 1825-1850 (Carl
Wittke, ed., The History of the State
of Ohio, IV, Columbus, 1942), 383-384.
9 B. F. Wade to Mrs. Wade, February 4,
1842. Benjamin F. Wade Papers,
Library of Congress.
10 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, December
10, 1842, March 6, 1868; Ashtabula
Sentinel, December
31, 1842.
11 L. P. Brockett, Men of Our Day (Philadelphia,
1868), 239-240.
164
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
National prominence came to Ben Wade as
the result of
his election to the United States
Senate in 1851. While serv-
ing as the president judge of Ohio's
third judicial district,
he had bitterly denounced the
Compromise of 1850 and the
federal fugitive slave law, a fact that
probably contributed
to his election. Actually, it was a
combination of Whigs and
Free Soilers that sent him to
Washington to fill the senatorial
vacancy.12 At the time he
entered congress only five senators
dared speak out consistently against
the South's cherished
institution: John P. Hale of New
Hampshire, Charles Sum-
ner of Massachusetts, William H. Seward
of New York,
Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, and the new senator
from the
Buckeye state. Almost immediately his
forthright character
made an impression in Washington.
Castigating slavery and everything
connected with it as a
relic of barbarism and a flagrant
denial of the principles of
the Declaration of Independence, Wade
could always be relied
upon to oppose all pro-slavery measures
with the utmost vigor.
The Kansas-Nebraska act, the Lecompton
constitution, the
proposed annexation of Cuba, the
secessionist tendencies of
his southern colleagues--all became
targets for his sarcastic
attacks, and he soon became known
throughout the land as a
fearless fighter for northern rights.
When Senator George
E. Badger of North Carolina delivered a
pathetic speech
about his dear old "black
mammy" whom northerners would
not allow him to take with him to
Kansas, Wade quickly
retorted that no one minded his taking
the old woman to the
territory, provided that she be given
her freedom when she
got there and provided also that she could not be sold
there
by the senator.13 The free
states appreciated such poignant
rejoinders. Moreover, Wade came to be
known as a person
without fear. The southern code of
dueling did not faze him,
and he let it be known that although
officially opposed to
duels, personally he would not shirk a
fight. No one chal-
12 Ohio State Journal, March 15, 17, 24, 1851; A. G. Riddle, The Life of
Benjamin F. Wade (Cleveland, 1886), 114, 167.
13 Congressional Globe, 33 cong., 1 sess., Appendix, 313.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 165
lenged him, but when he condemned
Preston Brooks's attack
on Charles Sumner in no uncertain
terms, it looked as if he
would be called upon to make good his
declaration. Once
again, however, his southern opponents
failed to call him to
account, and his reputation was greatly
enhanced.14
During the Civil War, Wade was again in
the forefront
of those who demanded justice for the
Negro. As chairman
of the joint congressional committee on
the conduct of the
war, he bitterly opposed McClellan and
other Democratic
generals.15 He applied
incessant pressure upon the adminis-
tration to wage the war with greater
vigor, to bring about
immediate emancipation, and to raise
regiments of colored
troops. These demands became the
cornerstone of his policies,
and when his opinions finally
prevailed, he saw to it that his
sons were transferred to the new
colored regiments, an as-
signment not then generally sought by
people with influence.16
Moreover, he pushed through congress
legislation abolishing
slavery in the territories,17 and
when the problem of recon-
struction became acute, he publicly
took issue with Lincoln
over the president's mild policies
toward the South.18
What Wade had begun before the war, he
pursued to its
logical conclusion afterwards. Consistently
pressing for
radical policies to protect the Negro
in the South in his newly
gained rights, the senator from Ohio
set an example to south-
ern whites by introducing in congress a
bill to enfranchise
the colored people of the District of
Columbia.19 The failure
of the South to give Negroes the vote
was one of the factors
which brought about radical
reconstruction and enforced
Negro suffrage for the former
Confederate states, measures
14 New York Tribune, May 28, 1856;
Ashtabula Sentinel, May 29, June 5, 1856.
15 T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and the
Radicals (Madison, Wis., 1941), 65,
83, 105, passim.
16 Edwin M. Stanton to Wade, June 24,
1864. Edwin M. Stanton Papers,
Library of Congress.
17 Congressional Globe, 37 cong., 2 sess., 2618.
18 He did so in the famous Wade-Davis
Manifesto, which appeared in August
1864. For an interesting account of the
episode from the point of view of one of
Wade's associates, see Riddle, Life
of Benjamin F. Wade, 258-259.
19 Congressional Globe, 39 cong., 1 sess., 1.
166 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
so ably defended by Wade that he was
elected president of the
senate by his radical colleagues. And
while others did not
hesitate to advocate universal suffrage for the South
while
their own states still discriminated
against Negroes, Wade
took a bold stand in favor of universal
suffrage in his home
state of Ohio in 1867--a stand so
unpopular it probably cost
him reelection for a fourth term.20
He had to retire from the
senate, but he did not forsake radical
principles even after
his return to his home in Jefferson. He supported
Grant
through two terms, and vigorously
denounced President Hayes
for abandoning the radical regimes in
the South and thereby
sacrificing the freedmen to the tender
mercies of their former
masters.21 As Frederick
Douglass wrote:
Without Adams, Giddings, Hale, Chase,
Wade, Seward, Wilson and
Sumner to plead our cause in the
councils of the nation, the taskmasters
would have remained the contented and
undisturbed rulers of the Union,
and no condition of things would have
been brought about authorizing
the Federal Government to abolish
slavery in the country's defense.22
The verdict is correct; only Wade's
motivation must be in-
vestigated more closely.
At first sight it would appear that the
record speaks for
itself. But surprising as it may seem,
Ben Wade, the cour-
ageous defender of Negro rights,
actually held the most
vulgar private prejudices against the very people he
bene-
fited so much. His correspondence with
his wife leaves
absolutely no room for doubt on this
score. When he first
arrived in Washington in 1851, he gave
free vent to his
opinions in his letters to Mrs. Wade.
What impressed him
in the capital was the great number of
Negroes. Because
of his contempt for southern whites, he
found the Negroes
to be the most intelligent part of the
population. But he
wrote that he could not abide their
odor "in and about
20 Mary Bright George Land, "Old
Backbone: 'Bluff' Ben Wade" (unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Western Reserve
University, 1957), 621.
21 New York
Times, November 2, 1877.
22 Frederick Douglass, Life and Times
of Frederick Douglass (New York,
1941), 536.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 167
everything," and bemoaned the fact
that the food was "all
cooked by niggers until I can smell and
taste the nigger."23
Nor did eighteen years of residence in
Washington cure him
of his notions. While discussing the
servant problem with
his wife in 1873, he complained
bitterly about the terms
demanded by a prospective colored
employee. "For mere
nigger power it will cost over $500 a
year," he wrote, ex-
pressing the wish that he could get
"a white woman of the
English or Northern European
breed," because he was "sick
and tired of niggers."24 Nor did he
confine his strictures to
unlettered freedmen; he felt wronged by
an attorney to whom
he referred as a "nigger
lawyer,"25 and, while
serving on
Grant's commission to San Domingo, he
made unfriendly
remarks about Frederick Douglass, who
had accompanied
the group as a secretary.26
Not a very pretty record for a
friend of human rights!
In view of these prejudices, two
explanations are possible
in order to explain Wade's career. It
may be argued that
he was merely a self-seeking
politician, an utterly cynical
opportunist, wholly devoid of
principle. Supporters of this
hypothesis might maintain that he
embraced antislavery
notions only because the Western
Reserve was antislavery,
and because antislavery seemed to be
the coming thing. Then,
once he had established a reputation as
a radical, he had to
embrace racial equality as well as the
abolition of slavery.
This stand, it might be argued, made it
possible for him
to stay in office, so that whatever he
did, he acted for purely
selfish reasons. It would follow that
he was more interested
in his personal well-being and the
advocacy of protective
tariffs and subsidies to industry than
in the struggle for
human freedom in which, in spite of his
personal prejudices,
he professed to be engaged. Such a view
would be simple,
acceptable to those who have long
damned him for other
23 Wade to Mrs. Wade, December 29, 1851.
Wade Papers.
24 Wade
to Mrs. Wade, March 9, 1873. Wade Papers.
25 Ibid.
26 Wade to Mrs. Wade, February 1, 1871. Wade Papers.
168
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
reasons, and wholly damaging to Wade's
reputation. Little
would remain but the incidental good he
achieved in spite
of bad intentions, and he would stand
revealed as a hypocrite,
ruffian, and cheat.
However, this is not the only
explanation. There is another,
more subtle and more complicated, more
honorable and yet
humanly understandable. It seems
altogether possible and
probable that Wade's prejudices
influenced him in one direc-
tion, but that, as a rational human
being, he recognized them
for what they were and refused to be
guided by them. Thus
he acted in accordance not with what
his baser emotions
influenced him to do, but with what his
intelligence taught
him to be true. Therefore, throughout
his life, he remained
loyal to his considered belief in the
equality of man, not-
withstanding private outbursts which
remained without
significance.
That Wade was subject to racial
prejudice is not hard to
understand. Born in poverty in New
England, he had had
little formal education when he settled
in the Western Re-
serve in northeastern Ohio in 1821.
Belief in the inferiority
of the Negro people was a general
prejudice throughout the
country. The state of Ohio, which
became Wade's adult
home, had a vicious Black Code, which
was not modified
until 1849. Under it, Negroes were
virtually forbidden to
enter the state; they could not attend
public schools; their
testimony was not acceptable in court
cases against whites;
they were excluded from juries; and
they could not work
unless they carried certificates of
freedom. Free Negroes
who wanted to move into Ohio were
required to furnish a
bond of $500, a requirement which
eliminated most of them
from settling legally in the state. And
those who did were
not safe from persecution and race
riots.27 When John
Malvin, who became a respected colored
citizen of Cleveland,
arrived in the state during the age of
Jackson, he "found
27 Frank U. Quillin, The Color Line
in Ohio: A History of Race Prejudice in
a Typical Northern State (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1913), 23-32.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 169
every door closed against the colored
man . . . excepting only
the jails and penitentiaries, the doors
of which were thrown
wide open to receive him."28
Even though the Western Reserve was far
more liberal
in its attitude toward the Negro than
other portions of the
state, it was by no means free from
race prejudice. In
Cleveland in the 1830's there were
separate pews for Negroes
in many churches, and Negro carpenters
found it impossible
to find work.29 As late as
the turn of the century, social
intercourse between the races was
considered impossible, a
lynching was narrowly prevented, and
Negroes had to sue
in order to go bowling in the public
parks. This condition
of things made it possible for
saloonkeepers in nearby Akron
to charge twice as much to Negroes as
to whites, a practice
which the courts refused to upset.30
So strong was the feeling against the
Negro race through-
out the state that even Republican
governors refused offers
of Negro troops and were unable to
protect Cincinnati
Negroes from cruel mistreatment during
a forced labor draft
in 1862.31 Ohio offered few advantages
to fugitives from
the slave states, and it was with
considerable justification
that contemporaries could say:
Ohio's not the place for me;
For I was much surprised
So many of her sons to see
In garments of disguise.
Her name has gone out through the
world,
Free labor--soil and man--
But slaves had better far be hurled
Into the lion's den.
Farewell, Ohio!
I cannot stop in thee;
I'll travel on to Canada,
Where colored men are free.32
28 John Malvin, Autobiography of John Malvin (Cleveland,
1879), 12.
29 Ibid., 18, 23.
The separate pews were gradually abolished.
30 Quillin, Color Line in Ohio, 157-158, 116, 119.
31 William Wells Brown, The Negro in
the American Rebellion (Boston,
880), 100; Malvin, Autobiography, 40.
32 Charles Thomas Hickok, The Negro
in Ohio, 1802-1870 (Cleveland, 1896), 47.
170 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
What was true of Ohio was also true of
the neighboring
states. The Black Codes of Illinois not
only tried to exclude
Negroes from the state but also
virtually sanctioned slavery.33
Indiana treated her colored people as
perpetual aliens, de-
prived them of most civil rights, and
made their settlement
as difficult as possible.34 It
is obvious that these legal dis-
abilities reflected such deep-seated,
widespread prejudices that
it was extremely difficult for any of
the inhabitants to free
themselves entirely of the prevailing
notions of the com-
munity.
That the racist atmosphere of the Old
Northwest left its
mark upon the opponents of slavery as
well as upon the
defenders of the peculiar institution
is well known. Abraham
Lincoln avowed his opposition to the
establishment of social
and political equality for the Negroes
in his Peoria speech
in 1858, and he continued to advocate
colonization until the
end of his life; yet his zeal in the
cause of free soil cannot
be doubted. Not even his kindly nature
was able to overcome
his environment, so similar to Wade's;
nevertheless, it is
certainly an error to accuse him of
hypocrisy. Oliver Morton,
the radical war-time governor of
Indiana, was a mainstay
of Republicanism in the Hoosier state,
but, although, like
Wade, he was identified with the
extremist wing of the party,
he fought against Negro suffrage in
Indiana as late as 1865.35
Even in the New England citadel of
Republicanism, where
conditions were somewhat different from
those prevailing
in the Old Northwest, James Pike,
Washington correspon-
dent of the New York Tribune, gave
vent to prejudices much
33 Arthur C. Cole, The Irrepressible
Conflict, 1850-1865 (New York, 1934),
263-264; George Washington Williams, History
of the Negro Race in America
From 1619 to 1880: Negroes as Slaves,
as Soldiers, and as Citizens (New
York,
1883), II, 122-123.
34 Williams, History of the Negro Race, '119-122;
Emma Lou Thornbrough,
The Negro in Indiana Before 1860: A
Study of a Minority (Indianapolis,
1957),
119 ff.
35 Thornbrough, The Negro in Indiana,
239; William Dudley Foulke, Life of
Oliver P. Morton (Indianapolis, 1899), I, 449, 487.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 171
stronger than Wade's.36 It
should be hardly surprising that
the senator from Ohio was not entirely
free from the bigotry
which was so common.
It is in Wade's own career that proof
must be found of the
sincerity of his position on the Negro
and human rights. If
it can be established beyond doubt that
he was animated by
expediency, if his political actions
afford clear evidence of
self-seeking, then it is obvious that
his prejudices were part
and parcel of a career of hypocrisy.
If, on the other hand,
it can be shown that he often acted in
defiance of the normally
accepted rules of "clever"
political behavior, if it can be
demonstrated that he risked his career
and his position for
the sake of principle, and if his own
statements can be cited
in support of his honest struggle with
himself, then it be-
comes likely that he really was sincere
in his acts. The facts,
it would seem, must speak for
themselves.
What are the facts concerning the
Ohioan's career? Time
and time again he risked chances of
political advancement
because of his outspokenness. His violent
denunciations of
slaveholders in the Ohio legislature
did not make him popular,
and the Negroes whose petitions he
presented were unable to
vote for him. Yet he persisted. Had he
really been interested
only in currying favor with the voters
of the Western Re-
serve, he could not have acted more
unwisely, since he did not
succeed in his bid for a second term.
When he finally did
return to the state senate, he resumed
his attacks on slavery
where he had left off two years
earlier, totally unchastened
by the intervening electoral setback.
What was true of his stand in Columbus
was equally true
of his position in Washington after his
election to the United
States Senate in 1851. To take as
advanced a position on
slavery as he did was wholly unusual.
His declarations that
Negroes were human beings and that
slaveholders were
barbarians were not calculated to
appeal to the voters in
36 Robert Franklin Durden, James Shepherd Pike: Republicanism and the
American Negro, 1850-1882 (Durham, N. C., 1957), 31-33.
172
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
southern Ohio, whose support he had to
have to win re-
election in 1856. Had popularity with
the voters been his
chief motive, he might either have
compromised on the
matter of slavery or he might have
courted the momentarily
powerful Know-Nothings, who held the
balance of power.
He did neither. Defying the
slaveholders as before, he not
only refused to give support to the
nativist order but de-
nounced it on the floor of the senate.
To the intense anger of
the Know-Nothings, he went so far as to
offer an amendment
to the homestead bill to permit
foreigners not yet in the
United States to share in its benefits.37
For a Republican
senator up for reelection in a state
where naturalized citizens
were mostly Democrats, this was a
forthright stand. He was
reelected in 1856, not because of his
opportunistic trimming,
but in spite of his uncompromising
position on slavery, the
Negro, and nativism.
Wade's wartime career lends further
support to the theory
that he really believed in the policies
he advocated, notwith-
standing private emotional lapses. His
incessant demands
for emancipation, his tireless warfare
upon Democratic gen-
erals from McClellan down, and his bold
advocacy of the
use of Negro troops were not wise for a
senator from Ohio
whose second term was about to expire.
The Buckeye state
was then afflicted with the most
virulent type of Copper-
headism, especially in the southern
counties, where Clement
L. Vallandigham headed the peace
movement. To combat
this danger the Republicans had united
with the War Demo-
crats in the Union party, an alliance
which depended strongly
on conservative support. It was a
foregone conclusion that
a moderate candidate would have the
best chance to become
senator when Wade's term was completed
in 1863. Dependent
as he was on the support of the Union
party, some sort of
trimming would have been the most
advantageous policy
for any would-be candidate. Wade,
however, refused to
compromise. Defying the conservative
factions in both
37 Congressional
Globe, 33 cong., 1 sess., 1661, 1725.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 173
parties, he stood out as the leader of
the radical wing in
congress. The result was that he was
almost defeated, but
his friends rallied at the last moment,
and he finally succeeded
in winning a third term.38 Certainly
these were not the
actions of a cheap, self-seeking
politician.
The history of Reconstruction offers
additional proof of
Wade's apparent sincerity. The
Wade-Davis Manifesto,
which castigated the president for not
pursuing a more
vigorous policy toward the conquered
states, was not an
act of political wisdom when it was
published in 1864.
Nevertheless, it was the precursor of
the stand Wade was to
take throughout the period which
followed, when he persisted
in his relentless, uncompromising
pro-Negro policies regard-
less of political consequences. To say
that he merely used the
Negro to perpetuate Republican rule
during this period is
to miss the most remarkable point about
his behavior.
It so happened that the Reconstruction
period offered him
opportunities of tremendous scope. His
party was in power,
his faction seemed to sweep everything
before it, and had he
conducted himself with a little more
circumspection, he might
easily have obtained the highest office
in the land. But he
did nothing of the kind. Instead of
accommodating himself
to the prevailing sentiments and merely
paying lip service to
the idea of racial equality and Negro
rights, he remained in
the forefront of the most radical
segments of the party.
It meant his political ruin. Popular as
it was to prattle
about emancipation and even Negro
suffrage for the South,
it was not popular to take these
assertions so seriously as to
apply them to Ohio as well. Unlike some
of his radical
colleagues, who, faced with a similar
problem, ignored the
question of Negro suffrage at home but
advocated it in the
South, Wade seemed wholly impervious to
political expedi-
ency. What he had demanded for the
South and pushed
38 Joshua R. Giddings to J. A. Giddings, February 1, 1863,
Giddings Papers,
Ohio Historical Society; Eugene H.
Roseboom, The Civil War Era, 1850-1873
(Carl Wittke, ed., The History of the
State of Ohio, IV, Columbus, 1942),
394-395.
174
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
through for the District of Columbia he
now urged upon
his reluctant home state. He believed
the Negro was entitled
to the vote, whether in an ex-rebel
state or in a loyal common-
wealth. So, in 1867, he boldly campaigned for the
enfran-
chisement of the Negro in Ohio, thereby
consciously risking
his entire political future. Because
his own reelection for a
fourth term depended upon the
legislature to be chosen in
the same election, his own fate was
very much at stake. In
view of the widespread prejudice
against the Negro, especially
in southern Ohio, it would have been
prudent to play down
the race issue, but Wade did nothing of
the kind. Instead,
he led his party, which was divided on
the Negro suffage
question although the platform called
for "impartial man-
hood suffrage," into what appeared
to many voters to be an
extreme position. Stumping the state
with his accustomed
vigor, he denounced the Democrats as
traitors and demanded
the suffrage for Negroes in Ohio as
well as in the South.39
The result was that the Republicans
managed to elect the
governor by a small majority but lost
the legislature. The
suffrage amendment was defeated, and
Ben Wade was retired
from the senate.
Under normal circumstances, it would
have been extraordi-
nary for a politician to take such a
chance. But what is really
surprising is that circumstances were
not normal. Johnson
was then about to be impeached, and
Wade, as president pro
tem of the senate, was next in line for
the presidency. The
balance of power in the senate, no less
than that in the state
of Ohio, was held by the conservative
Republicans, who would
have to vote to convict Johnson if
impeachment were to
succeed. Instead of appeasing this
vital group, Wade con-
stantly irritated it. To men of
conservative temper, his
position on the Negro was disturbing
enough; yet he man-
aged to alienate them irrevocably by
taking a strong stand
in favor of labor as well. In a speech
at Lawrence, Kansas,
39 Roseboom, The Civil War Era, 461-462;
George H. Porter, Ohio Politics
in the Civil War Period (New York, 1911), 246-248.
BEN WADE AND THE NEGRO 175
he criticized severely the prevailing
inequality of wealth,
and strongly endorsed fairer treatment
of the workingman
by the employer. Since he also advocated the vote for
women,40 he appeared to be a dangerous
radical agitator who
had to be stopped. Conservatives were
horrified. Senator
Charles Sumner, who was a radical
himself, was warned by
his wealthy constituents that Wade
would be worse than
Johnson.41 When the house finally
impeached the president,
he was acquitted by just one vote--a
result toward which the
Ohio senator's refusal to compromise
had contributed mate-
rially. He had missed the highest
office in the land, a failure
which was made more galling by the fact
that it probably
also ruined his chances for a vice
presidential nomination on
Grant's ticket42--an
opportunity he had greatly desired. His
political life was over; he never held
prominent elective office
again. Certainly these circumstances do
not point to the type
of man who would let political
expediency rule him.
In the last analysis, however, Wade's
own words must
absolve him from any charges of
hypocrisy. During the
crucial campaign for Negro suffrage in
Ohio in 1867, the
old senator addressed a mass meeting in
Marietta. What
he said on this occasion showed that he
knew his constituents'
problems, including their prejudices,
better than has gen-
erally been assumed. His mistake was to
believe that they
would be able to overcome their bigoted
notions as he himself
had done, and so he said to them:
The right of the colored man to
suffrage is but the legitimate and
logical deduction from what you had
done before. . . . There are no doubt
men here who have strong prejudice
against the colored men, the result
of education. Men are not to blame for
that, but they are to blame if they
40 William F. Zornow, "'Bluff Ben'
Wade in Lawrence, Kansas: The Issue
of Class Conflict," Ohio
Historical Quarterly, LXV (1956), 44-52.
41 Edward
Atkinson to Charles Sumner, February 25, March 4, 1868. Sumner
Papers, Harvard University.
42 Roseboom,
The Civil War Era, 468.
176
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
suffer what they know to be prejudice to
prevail on them to do injustice
to anybody.43
He had bared his innermost thoughts,
but his audience was
unable to rise to his level.
In retrospect, therefore, it would
appear that although
Benjamin F. Wade was as prone to
prejudice as most of his
contemporaries, he nevertheless
practiced what he preached--
to disregard his personal prejudices
lest harm be done to the
innocent. As a human being, he had
weaknesses, but he was
man enough to recognize them for what
they were. Conse-
quently, the discovery of letters
baring his private prejudices,
far from detracting from his service to
the country in gen-
eral and the Negro in particular,
reveals him to have been
a man of greater stature than has been
supposed. Not only
did he prevail against his unreasonable
enemies in and out
of congress, but he managed to overcome
his own equally
unreasonable weaknesses as well. He
kept his vow never to
forget the Negro,44 and when
he died in 1878, he had earned
the undying gratitude of the leaders of
the colored race.45
With considerable justice, the New
York Times reported that
his death marked the passing of the
"last of the Congressional
champions of freedom."46
43 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, August
21, 1867.
44 On January 18, 1866, he said on the
senate floor, speaking of the Negroes:
"I shall never desert them. My
honor, my sense of justice, is aroused upon this
subject. I have invoked their aid in the
Army; I have agreed to protect them in
their freedom, and so far as my
exertions go they shall be, whatever else may
come." Congressional Globe, 39
cong., 1 sess., 294.
45 Douglass, Life and Times, 578.
46 New York Times, March 3, 1878.