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Senator Hendricks served during perhaps the
most tumultuous period of U.S. history. The Civil War
ended, President Lincoln was assassinated and the
Radical Republicans took control of Congress and
Reconstruction. Senator Hendricks, a Democrat, voted
against the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. He
stood against the conditions of the Radicals for the re-
admission of the southern states to the Union. And
standing on the principles of Constitutional law, he
opposed the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th
amendments before the southern states were fully
reunited to the union.
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The disputed presidential election of 1876,
Samuel Tilden vs. Rutherford B. Hayes was settled by
the Compromise of 1877. It does not take a careful
reading of U.S. history to realize the states were once
again on the verge of civil war. The Democrats agreed
that Hayes might take office in return for his
withdrawing of intimidating federal troops from the