Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight over the Thirteenth Amendment by Leonard L. Richards

Author:Leonard L. Richards [Richards, Leonard L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780226208947
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

Frank and Fenton were not only from roughly the same social background but, in addition, neither was running for reelection when Ashley sought their help.

In Fenton’s case, he had been approached by the Republican Party to run for governor of New York against the Democratic incumbent Horatio Seymour. The party leadership thought Fenton had the command presence that a governor should have. Tall and well built, with a full head of graying wavy hair, he was widely regarded to be one of the “best looking” men in Congress. He was also an old hand in Republican politics even though he was just forty-five years old.3

Like Ashley, Fenton had originally been a Jacksonian Democrat. Elected to Congress in 1852 as a Democrat, he had vehemently denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and unsuccessfully tried to persuade President Franklin Pierce and Secretary of State William L. Marcy to oppose it. Defeated for reelection that year, Fenton became one of the founders of the New York Republican Party, organizing and presiding over its first convention in 1855. Then, in 1856, he ran again for his old House seat, against the same opponent who had whipped him in 1854, and won by eight thousand votes. Subsequently, he was reelected three times, winning his last election with over 63 percent of the vote. In Congress, he never gave set speeches but was an important figure on the Ways and Means Committee. He also was known as “the friend of the soldier” and a fierce opponent of the Fugitive Slave Act.4

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