author
B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Wade
1800–1878
A forceful Ohio senator during the Civil War era, he became one of the best-known Radical Republicans in Washington and came within a single Senate vote of the presidency during Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial.
1 Audiobook
Reports of the Committee on the Conduct of the War Fort Pillow Massacre. Returned Prisoners.
by United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Daniel W. (Daniel Wheelwright) Gooch, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Wade
About the author
Born in Massachusetts in 1800 and raised partly in Ohio, he worked as a laborer and teacher before studying law and building a legal career. He served as a judge and then represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1851 to 1869, where his blunt style earned him the nickname “Bluff” Wade.
In Congress, he was a fierce opponent of slavery and one of the Senate’s most influential Radical Republicans. He pushed for stronger wartime and Reconstruction policies, supported civil rights for freedpeople, and often clashed with more cautious leaders, including Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
Wade is also remembered for how close he came to the White House: as president pro tempore of the Senate, he would have become president if Johnson had been removed from office in 1868. He died in Ohio in 1878, leaving behind a reputation for plain speaking, political nerve, and an uncompromising reform spirit.