Sanders, George Nicholas

Sanders, George Nicholas (1812–73) promoter, revolutionist, Confederate agent; born in Lexington, Ky. A man of means, half idealist, half con artist, he turned his political lobbying skills to good advantage. During the annexation of Texas (1845), he worked as a political and businessperson's go-between, operating as the same for Eastern capitalists who were speculating in Chicago real estate. Committed financially and politically to the revolutionary cause in Europe (1850s), he crusaded for European republicanism through his "Young America" movement, edited the Democratic Review (1851), assisted in the issuance of the Ostend Manifesto, and worked as a Confederate agent in Europe and Canada during the Civil War. He was falsely connected with Lincoln's assassination (1865) but throughout his career managed to antagonize as many people as he won over.