Zachariah Chandler (10 December 1813-1 November 1879) was a US Senator from Michigan (R) from 4 March 1857 to 3 March 1875 (succeeding Lewis Cass and preceding Isaac P. Christiancy) and from 22 February to 1 November 1879 (succeeding Christiancy and preceding Henry P. Baldwin), and Secretary of the Interior from 19 October 1875 to 11 March 1877 (succeeding Columbus Delano and preceding Carl Schurz).
Biography[]
Zachariah Chandler was born in Bedford, New Hampshire in 1813, and he moved west to Detroit, Michigan in 1833, where he opened a general store and became a wealthy investor. From 1851 to 1852, he served as Mayor of Detroit as a Whig, and he attended the first Republican National Convention in 1856, becoming a member of the abolitionist Radical Republicans. He went on to serve in the US Senate from 1857 to 1875, and he raised and equipped the Michigan volunteers of the US Army during the American Civil War. From 1875 to 1877, he went on to serve as Secretary of the Interior under President Ulysses S. Grant, and, although he managed Rutherford B. Hayes' successful 1876 presidential campaign, Hayes decided against retaining Chandler as Secretary of the Interior. In 1879, he returned to the US Senate after Isaac P. Christiancy's resignation, but he died in office.