John P. Sanderson
Encyclopedia
John Phillip Sanderson was a soldier, influential politician, lawyer, author, newspaper editor, and member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly
. He is probably most well known for his exposé of the secret political organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle
, which led to its demise.
weekly, Der Libanon Demokrat from 1844 to 1848. He was then the editor of the Philadelphia Daily News from 1848 to 1856.
in 1847. He was the state chairman of the Know-Nothing Party, when it renamed itself the American Party in 1855.
's "Know-Nothing" candidacy helping James Buchanan
to defeat John C. Frémont
, the first Republican candidate in the United States presidential election, 1856
.
at Chicago. He was one of Simon Cameron
's confidential advisers. Sanderson, in conference with Judge David Davis
, who most prominently represented the Lincoln interest, came to a practical agreement on the night before the balloting that Pennsylvania's vote after a complimentary ballot for Cameron be cast for Lincoln, and that Lincoln should give Cameron a cabinet position. The casting of Pennsylvania's vote for Abraham Lincoln
on the second ballot was one of the facts that contributed most toward Lincoln's nommination for the United States presidential election, 1860
.
of the War Department
on March 4, 1861. He resigned from that position to become lieutenant colonel of his son George K. Sanderson
's regiment the 15th U.S. Infantry on May 14, 1861. He reported to Newport Barracks
and assumed command of the regiment's headquarters.
Sanderson was appointed colonel of the 13th U.S. Infantry on July 4, 1863, and soon after accepted a position as an aide to Major General William Rosecrans
on the staff of the Army of the Cumberland
, where he served during the Battle of Chickamauga
. After Rosecrans was relieved of his command Sanderson went with him.
When Rosecrans took command of the Department of the Missouri
late in January 1864, he brought Sanderson with him as Provost Marshal General of the Department of the Missouri. An assistant to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
, Charles A. Dana
, accused Colonel Sanderson of cowardice at the Battle of Chickamauga. This initially held up Congressionl approval of his appointment, but Rosecrans soundly refuted this.
Headquarters Department Of The Missouri,
Saint Louis, April 28, 1864. Hon. James L. Thomas,
Mayor of Saint Louis:
Dear Sir : It was my intention yesterday to speak to you about my provost-marshal-general, Colonel Sanderson, whose name is before the Senate for confirmation, in regular line of promotion, as colonel of the Thirteenth U. S. Infantry. I understand that charges have been made against him before the Senate Military Committee for misconduct at the battle of Chickamauga, while serving on my personal staff. I believe the charges to be maliciously false and without the shadow of foundation, but as it now stands it injures his usefulness in the position which he now fills.
Colonel Sanderson is prepared to refute any charges made against him, and his papers are in the hands of Senator Cowan, of Pennsylvania; but the difficulty is to get the case before the Senate from the Military Committee and have action taken upon it, and my object in writing you is to ask you to unite with such of your friends as may be willing to do so with you in asking the U. S. Senators from this State to try and bring the case before the Senate for their action, on the ground that the interests of this State demand, in view of the important position that he holds, that the matter should be settled at once. If he is innocent he should be vindicated, and I believe he has the evidence to fully vindicate himself, and if guilty he should be relieved from the important position that he fills.
If you have no objection you will much oblige me, and I believe serve the interests of the State, by writing to Senators Brown and Henderson, and getting any of your political friends to join you in the request, asking them to call upon the Military Committee to bring the case before the Senate for their action. I do not ask them to take sides in the matter at all, but merely to afford Colonel Sanderson, through his friend Senator Cowan, who has his papers, the opportunity of vindicating himself from the charges made against him before the Military Committee.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
W. S. ROSECRANS,
Major- General
Colonel Sanderson served in this position until his death after a month's illness at St. Louis, Missouri on October 14, 1864.
Sanderon's most important public service was the full exposition that he made during the civil war of the secret political organization in the northern and western states, known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle
" or the "Order of American knights." His exposure of this organization led to the breaking up of that order.
Pennsylvania General Assembly
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times , the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly. Since the Constitution of 1776, written by...
. He is probably most well known for his exposé of the secret political organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle
Knights of the Golden Circle
The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret society. Some researchers believe the objective of the KGC was to prepare the way for annexation of a golden circle of territories in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for inclusion in the United States as slave states...
, which led to its demise.
Lawyer
Sanderson was admitted to the bar in 1839. He practiced law in Philadelphia from about 1848-1861.Author and editor
Sanderson was the author of Views and Opinions of American Statesmen on Foreign Immigration (Philadelphia, 1843), and Republican Landmarks (1850). He edited & published the weekly Demokratischer Whig starting in 1843, and the Anti-MasonicAnti-Masonry
Anti-Masonry is defined as "avowed opposition to Freemasonry". However, there is no homogeneous anti-Masonic movement...
weekly, Der Libanon Demokrat from 1844 to 1848. He was then the editor of the Philadelphia Daily News from 1848 to 1856.
Politician
Sanderson was elected to the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1845 and to the Pennsylvania State SenatePennsylvania State Senate
The Pennsylvania State Senate has been meeting since 1791. It is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such...
in 1847. He was the state chairman of the Know-Nothing Party, when it renamed itself the American Party in 1855.
United States presidential election of 1856
Hopes that the Pennsylvania fusion ticket would prevent Buchanan's victory, were dashed when John P. Sanderson, the Know-Nothing Party's state chairman, announced that the original slate of the American Party electors would remain in the field, thereby diluting the strength of the "Union" fusionist ticket. Former president Millard FillmoreMillard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
's "Know-Nothing" candidacy helping James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
to defeat John C. Frémont
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont , was an American military officer, explorer, and the first candidate of the anti-slavery Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, that era's penny press accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder...
, the first Republican candidate in the United States presidential election, 1856
United States presidential election, 1856
The United States presidential election of 1856 was an unusually heated contest that led to the election of James Buchanan, the ambassador to the United Kingdom. Republican candidate John C. Frémont condemned the Kansas–Nebraska Act and crusaded against the expansion of slavery, while Democrat...
.
United States presidential election of 1860
Sanderson was one of the Pennsylvania delegates to the 1860 Republican National Convention1860 Republican National Convention
The 1860 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States, held in Chicago, Illinois at the Wigwam, nominated former U.S. Representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President and U.S. Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice President...
at Chicago. He was one of Simon Cameron
Simon Cameron
Simon Cameron was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of War for Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War. After making his fortune in railways and banking, he turned to a life of politics. He became a U.S. senator in 1845 for the state of Pennsylvania,...
's confidential advisers. Sanderson, in conference with Judge David Davis
David Davis (Supreme Court justice)
David Davis was a United States Senator from Illinois and associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He also served as Abraham Lincoln's campaign manager at the 1860 Republican National Convention....
, who most prominently represented the Lincoln interest, came to a practical agreement on the night before the balloting that Pennsylvania's vote after a complimentary ballot for Cameron be cast for Lincoln, and that Lincoln should give Cameron a cabinet position. The casting of Pennsylvania's vote for Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
on the second ballot was one of the facts that contributed most toward Lincoln's nommination for the United States presidential election, 1860
United States presidential election, 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election, held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout the 1850s on questions surrounding the...
.
Soldier
When Cameron was named Secretary of War in President Abraham Lincoln's cabinet, Sanderson was appointed chief clerkUnited States Assistant Secretary of War
The United States Assistant Secretary of War was the second-ranking official within the American Department of War from 1861 to 1867, from 1882 to 1883, and from 1890 to 1940...
of the War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
on March 4, 1861. He resigned from that position to become lieutenant colonel of his son George K. Sanderson
George K. Sanderson
George Kaiser Sanderson was a career U.S. Army officer. Having enlisted as a Private he was latter commissioned and twice breveted for gallant and meritorious service during the American Civil War. He is most notable for being the first to erect a monument at the Little Bighorn Battlefield...
's regiment the 15th U.S. Infantry on May 14, 1861. He reported to Newport Barracks
Newport Barracks
Newport Barracks was a military barracks on the Ohio River, across from Cincinnati, Ohio in Newport, Kentucky. It was operational from 1803 until 1894.-History:In 1803, James Taylor Jr. solicited the help of his cousin, James Madison, who was then U.S...
and assumed command of the regiment's headquarters.
Sanderson was appointed colonel of the 13th U.S. Infantry on July 4, 1863, and soon after accepted a position as an aide to Major General William Rosecrans
William Rosecrans
William Starke Rosecrans was an inventor, coal-oil company executive, diplomat, politician, and United States Army officer. He gained fame for his role as a Union general during the American Civil War...
on the staff of the Army of the Cumberland
Army of the Cumberland
The Army of the Cumberland was one of the principal Union armies in the Western Theater during the American Civil War. It was originally known as the Army of the Ohio.-History:...
, where he served during the Battle of Chickamauga
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought September 19–20, 1863, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia called the Chickamauga Campaign...
. After Rosecrans was relieved of his command Sanderson went with him.
When Rosecrans took command of the Department of the Missouri
Department of the Missouri
Department of the Missouri was a division of the United States Army that functioned through the American Civil War and the Indian Wars afterwards.-Civil War:...
late in January 1864, he brought Sanderson with him as Provost Marshal General of the Department of the Missouri. An assistant to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War from 1862–1865...
, Charles A. Dana
Charles Anderson Dana
Charles Anderson Dana was an American journalist, author, and government official, best known for his association with Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his aggressive political advocacy after the war....
, accused Colonel Sanderson of cowardice at the Battle of Chickamauga. This initially held up Congressionl approval of his appointment, but Rosecrans soundly refuted this.
Headquarters Department Of The Missouri,
Saint Louis, April 28, 1864. Hon. James L. Thomas,
Mayor of Saint Louis:
Dear Sir : It was my intention yesterday to speak to you about my provost-marshal-general, Colonel Sanderson, whose name is before the Senate for confirmation, in regular line of promotion, as colonel of the Thirteenth U. S. Infantry. I understand that charges have been made against him before the Senate Military Committee for misconduct at the battle of Chickamauga, while serving on my personal staff. I believe the charges to be maliciously false and without the shadow of foundation, but as it now stands it injures his usefulness in the position which he now fills.
Colonel Sanderson is prepared to refute any charges made against him, and his papers are in the hands of Senator Cowan, of Pennsylvania; but the difficulty is to get the case before the Senate from the Military Committee and have action taken upon it, and my object in writing you is to ask you to unite with such of your friends as may be willing to do so with you in asking the U. S. Senators from this State to try and bring the case before the Senate for their action, on the ground that the interests of this State demand, in view of the important position that he holds, that the matter should be settled at once. If he is innocent he should be vindicated, and I believe he has the evidence to fully vindicate himself, and if guilty he should be relieved from the important position that he fills.
If you have no objection you will much oblige me, and I believe serve the interests of the State, by writing to Senators Brown and Henderson, and getting any of your political friends to join you in the request, asking them to call upon the Military Committee to bring the case before the Senate for their action. I do not ask them to take sides in the matter at all, but merely to afford Colonel Sanderson, through his friend Senator Cowan, who has his papers, the opportunity of vindicating himself from the charges made against him before the Military Committee.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
W. S. ROSECRANS,
Major- General
Colonel Sanderson served in this position until his death after a month's illness at St. Louis, Missouri on October 14, 1864.
Sanderon's most important public service was the full exposition that he made during the civil war of the secret political organization in the northern and western states, known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle
Knights of the Golden Circle
The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret society. Some researchers believe the objective of the KGC was to prepare the way for annexation of a golden circle of territories in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for inclusion in the United States as slave states...
" or the "Order of American knights." His exposure of this organization led to the breaking up of that order.