George Hunt Pendleton

Pendleton, George Hunt

(1825–89) U.S. representative/senator; born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Known as "Gentleman George," he traveled abroad in Europe and the Middle East in 1844 before returning to the United States where he married Alice Key, the daughter of Francis Scott Key. A Democrat, he served in the Ohio state senate (1853–56) before going to Congress (1857–65). With Stephen Douglas he led the peace wing of the Democratic Party, favoring compromise and states' rights. Although he supported the war, he opposed Lincoln's wartime powers—for example, suspension of habeas corpus. He espoused greenback payment instead of coins for government bonds, causing eastern Democrats to block his presidential nomination in 1868. President of Kentucky Central Railroad (1869–89), he served Ohio again in the U.S. Senate (1879–85) where he supported a bill that created the civil service commission and competitive exams despite the protest of the victorious Democratic congressman. He was President Grover Cleveland's ambassador to Germany (1885–89).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.