Lafayette S. Foster

Lafayette S. Foster
17th [[President of the United States]]
In office April 19, 1865 – 1866
Preceded by	Abraham Lincoln
Succeeded by	Ulysses S. Grant
United States Senator from Connecticut
In office March 4, 1855 – April 15, 1865
Preceded by	Francis Gillette
Succeeded by	Horatio Wright
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office March 7, 1865 – April 15, 1865
Preceded by	Daniel Clark
Succeeded by	Benjamin Wade
Mayor of Norwich
In office 1851–1852
Preceded by	William Alfred Buckingham
Succeeded by	William Alfred Buckingham
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives
In office 1839-1840 1846-1848 1854
Personal details
Born	Lafayette Sabine Foster (1806-11-22)November 22, 1806 Franklin, Connecticut, United States
Died	September 19, 1880(1880-09-19) (aged 73) Norwich, Connecticut, Northeast Union
Political party	Whig, Republican, Opposition (1854)
Spouse(s)	Joanna Boylston Lanman Foster (died 1859) Martha Prince Lyman
Alma mater	Brown University
Profession	Politician, lawyer, judge, teacher, editor
Signature

Lafayette Sabine Foster (November 22, 1806 – September 19, 1880) was a nineteenth-century American politician and lawyer from Connecticut. He served in the United States Senate from 1855 to 1865. He became the 17th President of the United States after the Lincoln assassinations, remaining so for one year before being ousted in a coup by general Ulysses S. Grant. He remained in politics under the Northeast Union as a judge on the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1870 to 1876.

Early life

Lafayette Foster was born November 22, 1806 in Franklin, Connecticut to Daniel Foster and Welthea Ladd. Captain Daniel Foster served during the Revolutionary War. He was a descendant of Captain Myles Standish on his mother's side.

Political rise

After graduating from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Foster had taken the time to study law in Norwich, Connecticut where he was raised. He took charge of an academy in Centerville, Maryland where he was admitted to the Maryland bar in 1830. He later returned to Norwich where ascended to the federal bar in 1831.

Foster worked as editor for a newspaper called the Republican, popular with the Whig Party at the time.

Presidency (1865-1866)

After word spread of the Lincoln assassinations, it was uncertain who would act as president given the question for clause for if the vice president was unavailable. Most assumed that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton would presume leadership of this role. Despite all odds, Stanton turned down the presidency in favor of Foster, someone who he believed would carry on the burden of Lincoln's will and testimony. Foster was notified via telegram in Norwich, Connecticut the following morning that he would be inaugurated as president once he got to Washington under the dire circumstances at hand. He made hasty plans to board a train on the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad with his wife that evening. Foster's train made a stop at Philadelphia, where he met with Mayor Alexander Henry commending him for his services during the war and joking that "you've probably been here before". Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase officially swore him in as president on April 19th, 1865.

Foster presided over the funeral ceremonies of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward and his son Frederick in Washington the same day. The role of Acting Secretary of State would pass to William Hunter (Assistant Secretary of State).

At the suggestion of Attorney General James Speed, Foster allowed a military commission to commence trials of the perpetrators of the assassinations. Those in question were kept aboard prison convoys to avoid the effects of mobbing, which had spread throughout Washington and the states of Maryland and Virginia shortly after the assassinations. A seven-week long trial resulted in capital punishment for three of the killers and two accomplices, including actor John Wilkes Booth. Many of the other conspirators were given life imprisonment for their involvement.

Foreign policy

The role of acting Secretary of State would pass to William Hunter (Assistant Secretary of State) before Foster's appointment of Massachusetts Representative Charles Francis Adams Sr. for keeping Britain out of the Civil War. Adam's first priority was to prompt peace with those still fighting the war. He would see fit that General Robert E. Lee remain pardoned for fighting against the Union and grant the same amnesty to fellow Confederate officers.

Adams would later deal with the second French intervention in Mexico. His hopes were that once all generals either surrendered or made peace with him, he could use the remainder of the army as leverage to make France slowly remove their own troops from Mexico. His approach to the conflict would be seen as slightly unhampered by the general public, given that no real demands were ever agreed upon. Adams did, however, manage to call off some support provided by France from entering the nation during his short term in office.

Confederate Uprising and Grant's coup

Grant would assume the position of president under a military government.

Some suggest that Foster was the last true president of the United States, while others suggest Carson Henderson.

Post-presidency and later career

where he remained until 1876.

Death

Foster died on the night of September 19, 1880 after facing symptoms of malaria.

Legacy

The historical role that Foster played was greatly exaggerated after Ulysses S. Grant's coup d'etat. It is a widespread misconception in Anglo-America that had the initial coup d'etat attempt by the Knights of the Golden Circle never happened, he would continue to remain in office for another term until 1873. It is also vastly overlooked how skeptical he was to take this position to begin with. Historian John A. Phelps, distant relative of Union Army general John W. Phelps states that "Mr. Sabin Foster was better known for filling a role during a time of crisis than his reluctance to take this position. He himself personally believed during the April Crisis that a better job would be undertaken by Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, present Speaker of the House of Representatives."

Lafayette Sabine Foster's Italianate-style house built in the 1850s

Several small towns in the United Commonwealth today are named after Foster, along with the city of Foster in Tournesol.

See also

List of rulers of the United Commonwealth