Editing Thomas A. Hendricks (section)

==Early political career==
Hendricks remained active in the legal community and in state and national politics from the 1840s until his death in 1885.{{sfn|Memorial|p=16}}{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=162, 164}}

===Indiana legislature and constitutional convention===
Hendricks began his political career in 1848, when he served a one-year term in the [[Indiana House of Representatives]] after defeating [[Martin M. Ray]], the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] candidate.{{sfn|Holcombe|Skinner|1886|pp=97, 99–100}} Hendricks was also one of the two Shelby County delegates to the 1850–1851 Indiana constitutional convention. He served on committee that created the organization of the state's townships and counties and decided on the taxation and financial portion of the state constitution. Hendricks also debated the clauses on the powers of the different offices and argued in favor of a powerful judiciary and the abolishment of grand juries.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=162}}{{sfn|Holcombe|Skinner|1886|pp=109–12}}

===U.S. Congressman===
Hendricks represented Indiana as a [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] (1851–1855) in the [[Thirty-second United States Congress|Thirty-second]] and [[Thirty-third United States Congress|Thirty-third]] Congresses from March 4, 1851, to March 3, 1855.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=160, 164}}{{sfn|Memorial|p=21}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=127}} Hendricks was chairman of the [[United States House Committee on Mileage|U.S. Committee on Mileage]] (Thirty-second Congress) and served on the [[United States House Committee on Invalid Pensions|U.S. Committee on Invalid Pensions]] (Thirty-third Congress). He supported the principle of [[popular sovereignty]] and voted in favor of the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]] of 1854, which expanded slavery into the western territories of the United States. Both positions were unpopular in Hendricks's home district in Indiana and led to defeat in his re-election bid to Congress in 1854.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=162}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=127–28}}

===Land office commissioner===
In 1855 President [[Franklin Pierce]] appointed Hendricks as commissioner of the [[United States General Land Office]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]{{sfn|Memorial|p=21}}{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=162}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=127–28}} His job supervising 180 clerks and a four-year backlog of work was a demanding one, especially at a time when westward expansion meant that the government was going through one of its largest periods of land sales.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=162}} During his tenure, the land office issued 400,000 land patents and settled 20,000 disputed land cases. Although Hendricks made thousands of decisions related to disputed land claims, only a few were reversed in court,{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=127–28}} but he did receive some criticism: "He was the first commissioner who apparently had no background or qualifications for the job. ... Some of the rulings and letters during Hendricks's tenure were not always correct."<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of the Rectangular Survey System | author=C. Albert White, [[Bureau of Land Management]] | year=1983 |publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|Government Printing Office]] |page=119 | isbn=9780160335044 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-BcVn3VhPQC&q=Hendricks&pg=PA119}}</ref>

Hendricks resigned as land office commissioner in 1859 and returned to Shelby County, Indiana.{{sfn|Memorial|p=21}} The cause of his departure was not recorded, but potential reasons may have been differences of opinion with President [[James Buchanan]], Pierce's successor. Hendricks resisted Buchanan's efforts to make land office clerks patronage positions, objected to the pro-slavery policies of the Buchanan administration, and supported the [[Homestead Acts|homestead bill]], which Buchanan opposed.{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=128–29}}

===Candidate for Indiana governor===
Hendricks ran for [[governor of Indiana]] three times (1860, 1868, and 1872), and succeeded only on his third attempt. He became the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial seat after the [[American Civil War]].{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=122}}

In 1860 Hendricks, who ran with [[David Turpie]] as his running mate, lost to the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidates, [[Henry S. Lane]] and [[Oliver P. Morton]].{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=162}}{{sfn|Memorial|p=21}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=128–29}} Three of the four men (Lane, Morton, and Hendricks) eventually served as Indiana's governor, and all four became U.S. senators.{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=128–29}}

In 1868, his second campaign for Indiana governor, Hendricks lost to [[Conrad Baker]], the incumbent, by 961 votes.{{sfn|Memorial|pp=23, 24}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=134}} Baker, who would later become one of Hendricks's law partners, was elected as [[Lieutenant Governor of Indiana|lieutenant governor]] in 1864 and became governor after Morton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1867.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=134}} In the national election, Republican nominees [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and his running mate, [[Schuyler Colfax]] of Indiana, carried the state by a margin of more than 20,000 votes, suggesting that the close race for governor demonstrated Hendricks's popularity in Indiana.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=134}} Following his defeat in his second gubernatorial race Hendricks retired from the U.S. Senate in March 1869 and returned to his private law practice in Indianapolis but remained connected to state and national politics.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=163}}{{sfn|Memorial|p=24}}

In 1872, his third campaign to become governor of Indiana, Hendricks narrowly defeated General Thomas M. Browne, 189,424 votes to 188,276.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=163}}

===Law practice===
In addition to his years of service in various political offices in Indiana and Washington, D.C., Hendricks maintained an active law practice, which he first established in Shelbyville in 1843 and continued after his relocation to Indianapolis.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=162}} Hendricks and [[Oscar B. Hord]] established a law firm in 1862, where Hendricks practiced until the [[Indiana General Assembly]] elected him to represent Indiana in the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] in 1863.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=163}}{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=125}} The law practice was renamed Hendricks, Hord, and Hendricks in 1866, after [[Abram W. Hendricks]] joined the firm. In 1873 it was renamed Baker, Hord, and Hendricks, after Conrad Baker, the outgoing governor of Indiana, joined the firm and Hendricks succeeded him as governor. In 1888 the firm passed to Baker's son, who partnered with Edward Daniels, and it became known as [[Baker & Daniels]], which grew into one of the state's leading law firms.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=125}}{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=162, 163}}