A U.S. senator during the Civil War and Reconstruction, Zachariah Chandler (1813-1879) was a leading Republican and helped shape Reconstruction policy toward the South.

Zachariah Chandler was born on Dec. 10, 1813, on a farm in Bedford Township, N.H. After attending district schools, he joined the tide of westward migration from New England and settled in the frontier city of Detroit in 1833. He opened a general store, and by shrewd investments of his profits in banking, commercial enterprises, and land he became one of the richest men in the state.

Chandler entered politics as a Whig, served as mayor of Detroit in 1851-1852, but was defeated for the governorship. Increasingly hostile to the expansion of slavery, in 1854 he helped found the Michigan Republican party. Three years later the state legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. In Washington he emerged as one of the foremost members of...