Thomas A. Hendricks, one of Indiana's most successful politicians during the late 19th century despite a lifelong preference for the law over politics, served successively as senator, governor and vice president.

The nephew of Indiana Gov. William Hendricks, Hendricks grew up in Shelbyville, served as both a state and national representative, and was commissioner of the General Land Office during the land boom years of the 1850s. A popular and respected leader, Hendricks upheld the Democratic party standard and its support for the Civil War to save the Union (but not to free the slaves). A United States senator during the latter years of the war and the first years of Reconstruction (1863-69), he also campaigned three times for the Hoosier governorship--1860, 1868 and 1872. Successful in his third try, he thus became the first Democrat in a northern state to be so honored after the Civil War.

In 1876 Hendricks ran for the vice presidency with Samuel J. Tilden of New York, and they won the popular and initial electoral vote, with 20 electoral votes in dispute. An electoral commission, however, awarded all 20 votes and hence the election to the Republican ticket of Rutherford Hayes and William Wheeler. Four years later, Hendricks refused nomination as vice president--he wanted to be president--but he accepted second place on the Democratic ticket in 1884 and campaigned with Grover Cleveland. Hendricks died after serving only eight months as vice president.

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