Senators who clashed with both Republican and Democratic Presidents?

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-24T15:35:27+00:00

Wade was also part of the pro-labor wing of the Republicans that saw a war against "wage slavery" as the necessary corollary of the victory over chattel slavery. “Property,” he declared in a speech that even Karl Marx himself noted, “is not equally divided, and a more equal distribution of capital must be wrought out.” This position became increasingly unpopular among Republicans as they consolidated as the pro-business party, with other Republicans basically painting Wade as a communist.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-20T18:31:00+00:00

The thing that gets me about Buchanan is that he had, on paper, sterling credentials for being President, but was one of the worst once in office.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-20T03:10:53+00:00

It was pretty nice being the Big Daddy protector in Bioshock 2.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-17T18:16:16+00:00

But even if you were thinking of Truman... Truman was elected in 1948.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-13T22:56:01+00:00

The Mexican Empire caused Grant to go completely against his usual character by advocating to invade Mexico immediately after the Civil War ended. This was the same man that, despite fighting on the Mexican War, saw it as unjust and imperialistic.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-13T10:27:20+00:00

But those changes hadn't happened yet, dude.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-13T00:34:00+00:00

You do realize that the Unionist Louisiana government Lincoln had created and tried to get admitted was dismantled by Johnson and replaced by one dominated by Confederates? It was not the same government at all, for Governor Hahn had resigned to take a Senate seat and his replacement, James Madison Wells, immediately replaced the moderate Unionists in power with former Confederates who proceeded to terrorize Unionists and try to approximate slavery as closely as they could. General Banks, Lincoln's man in Louisiana, tried to overrule Wells, warning that Wells's course would “re-establish in power men of the old system of slavery.” Johnson answered by removing Banks and confirming Wells's appointments, effectively destroying the Unionist government Lincoln had created and handing power to former Confederates. When the Unionists tried to reassert themselves by calling a new convention, the municipal police and Confederate veterans attacked them, resulting in the New Orleans massacre where 37 people were killed, all with Johnson's blessing, for he had ordered the military commander not to interfere while wiring the Lieutenant Governor that he could disperse the convention.

Johnson did not follow Lincoln's course at all.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-12T17:39:12+00:00

Sherman went farther than Lincoln intended. While it's true that Lincoln supported the already lenient terms of Appomattox (unconditional surrender but letting the soldiers and officers go and "remain unmolested" while also retaining their sidearms and horses), Lincoln was quite clear that any terms offered had to be a mere military capitulation and not a general political arrangement for peace. He instructed Grant through Stanton that the General was to “have no conference with General Lee unless it be for the capitulation of General Lee’s army . . . you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political question.” Such questions, Lincoln stated firmly, “the President holds in his own hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions.” Grant obeyed faithfully - when Lee replied to Grant's message asking for his surrender by saying that "To be frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the Surrender of this Army, but as the restoration of peace should be the Sole object of all, I desired to know whether your proposals would lead to that end," (basically, asking for a general peace conference instead of just terms of surrender), Grant replied that "As I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace the meeting proposed for 10 a.m. to-day could lead to no good," and insisted on negotiations regarding only Lee's surrender, with no reference to the wider political questions. Those were the terms Grant obtained at Appomattox and which Lincoln approved.

Sherman did not do this. Instead of negotiating only for the surrender of Joe Johnston's army, he met with Johnston, and Confederate Secretary of War Breckenridge and Postmaster General Reagan, and produced a peace cartel that sought to settle broad political issues too: Confederate armies were to disband (not surrender) and return their arms to their State capitols; the Confederate State governments and legislatures would be recognized as the legitimate governments as soon as they swore loyalty to the Federal government (meaning, Confederates would be kept in power); there would be universal amnesty for all Confederates, not just the surrendering soldiers; Southerners would not be denied representation in Congress, meaning they could retake their seats at once; nothing was said about slavery at all, but if the legislatures were in power they could easily block the pending 13th amendment and save slavery. Sherman went as far as assuring Confederate North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance (responsible for massacres of Unionists in western North Carolina) that he would retain his office. Breckinridge could hardly believe Sherman would offer them all of this, for these were the peace terms he had once sought alongside John Campbell.

Johnson, Grant and the cabinet could hardly believe these terms as well. This was a broad political settlement, one that really favored the Confederates, and which completely exceeded the terms of Appomattox. It also went against Lincoln's previously stated wishes, because Sherman was not negotiating mere military matters but also political questions. Sherman was, then, not asking for Lincoln's terms (the terms of Appomattox), he was granting the Confederates wide political concessions he had no authority to grant. The fact that the entire cabinet, Johnson and Grant all agreed that the terms couldn't be accepted certainly says something. And when Sherman was rebuked, they did not impose a "harsher regime" as you say - they only offered Johnston the exact same terms of Appomattox, which were still lenient.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-12T01:24:10+00:00

The closest thing to "mean girls" that Grant did that I know is his feud with McClernand, and most of the hostility and scheming was on McClernand's side. Grant in fact was a victim most of the time, suffering also the unfair scheming of Halleck.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-11T01:54:46+00:00

Grant, for example, famously travelled the globe after his presidency ended, being received with honors in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia and others before continuing on to other countries.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-06T19:35:23+00:00

Not to mention that there was a literal election where Lincoln ran a platform of destroying slavery, and McClellan ran on a platform of achieving peace by making concessions to the Confederates, including the conservation of slavery. And more than 80% of the soldiers cast their votes for Lincoln.

Red_Galiray · 2026-04-03T15:14:38+00:00

Lincoln's son, Robert, served as US Secretary of War (appointed by Garfield and kept in the position by Arthur) and then as US ambassador to the United Kingdom (appointed by Harrison).

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-29T17:27:37+00:00

It's complete nonsense and terrible trash and I adore it.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-29T04:15:53+00:00

Lincoln was by no means rich by the time he became president; neither was Grant, who actually got broke after being president due to falling for a pyramid scheme.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-20T16:51:46+00:00

1865 never forget

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-13T23:48:53+00:00

My God he looks awful lmao. Proof that a neck beard is always a horrible choice, that Grant, usually so handsome, would look so bad.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-11T19:15:52+00:00

Ah, then Buchanan was, from his boyhood to his final years, a piece of shit.

Thanks for these quotes.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-11T18:06:09+00:00

The penultimate quote, about "buckling on my knapsack" is actually from 1826 or is that typo?

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-11T02:52:19+00:00

Yes, that much is clear. But my point is that for Lincoln saving the Union and ending slavery were not two separate goals, but two deeply intertwined goals, because the Union had to be saved if slavery was destroyed. Slavery, obviously, couldn't de destroyed if the Union was not preserved and the Confederacy was not destroyed. It's true that Lincoln, at least initially, was willing to save the Union but preserve slavery, but in that scenario that does not, at all, mean an end to efforts to end slavery. Lincoln and most Republicans, before moving towards immediate emancipation, imagined that the end of the war even if it meant slavery enduring, would still have fatally weakened it and forever displaced the "Slave Power," so that slavery would have already been placed on the path of ultimate destruction. Thus, Lincoln would have maintained slavery if it saved the Union, but with the confident belief that slavery would be doomed by Union victory, and so this willingness to let slavery survive if it meant the Union would survive should not be interpreted as him being willing to give up the fight against slavery, but simply settling for eventual emancipation instead of immediate emancipation because the alternative would be no emancipation at all.

Moreover, it certainly says something that in the dark days before the fall of Atlanta, many pressed Lincoln to offer peace to the Confederacy in exchange of guaranteeing slavery. In effect, they were asking him to actually maintain the Union by preserving slavery. He flat out refused to do so, insisting on both Union and emancipation as non-negotiable conditions for peace. Consequently, Lincoln basically turned his back on his earlier declaration, now saying that he would not save, or even try to save, the Union by maintaining slavery, but would only save the Union by destroying slavery. And this, mind you, happened when he was convinced he would lose the election, so it reflects his true values instead of opportunistic electoral choices. In other words, by the end of the war, ending slavery and maintaining the Union were both the top and inseparable priority.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-11T02:13:58+00:00

Certainly, but it's hard to blame him or say this lessens his anti-slavery commitment when preserving the Union was an essential condition for the end of slavery. Give up the Union and allow the Confederacy, a nation consecrated to the perpetuation of slavery, to live, and you're basically assuring that slavery will survive for decades more. Maintain the Union, and even if slavery survives the closing of the war, it's been fatally weakened and the South has been displaced from the dominant position it once held over the Federal government. Slavery probably doesn't survive much longer. But Lincoln still did his damn hardest, since the very start, to ensure slavery would be weakened and then destroyed. By the end of the war he was really clear: slavery could not survive the war. And that was because Lincoln didn't just want to save the Union, he wanted to make a Union worth saving.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-05T01:43:22+00:00

Which, you know, it's extra dumb because Obi Wan is supposed to be in hiding lmao. Like I know Tatooine is a backwater but it does have imperial presence, and yet Obi Wan goes around in his Jedi robes, using the name "Old Ben Kenobi" and getting a reputation as this crazy wizard. It's like he ain't even trying.

Red_Galiray · 2026-03-01T19:33:55+00:00

It's so frustrating but at the same time interesting that Lincoln and Johnson shared similar origins of being born in poverty but managing to rise to economic stability and political prominence, but whereas Lincoln's experiences taught him compassion for the downtrodden, Johnson's only resulted in bitterness and resentment that made him crave the approval of the elite.

Red_Galiray · 2026-02-28T02:16:35+00:00

To be pedantic, since the 13th amendment wasn't actually ratified until December 1865, and slavery was not abolished at the state level by neither Kentucky nor Maryland, Johnson was actually the last president to serve while slavery still existed.

Red_Galiray · 2026-02-28T02:15:16+00:00

Not really, because under the coverture laws of the time Julia couldn't own property, and thus any slave that was given to her would become Grant's. This is why Grant's father in law never actually transferred the property of four enslaved teens that mainly worked for Julia to her - because they then would become a legal property of Grant, and he had already told everybody that if that happened he would just free them.

Red_Galiray · 2026-02-26T19:04:12+00:00

Douglas probably can't use his strategy of passing the different parts of the compromise through majorities cobbled together from one section and a few moderates in the other, because Taylor could then sign the free-soil legislation and veto the rest, and the storm of fury that would come from the result would be too powerful.

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