page_title: Nathaniel P. Banks
section_title: Postbellum career
hierarchical_section_title: Nathaniel P. Banks / Postbellum career
caption_attribution_description: Nathaniel Prentice Banks. Library of Congress description: "Banks Hon. Nathaniel Prentice of Mass (general in Union Army)"
context_page_description: Nathaniel Prentice Banks was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War.
  A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, and his oratorical skills were noted by the Democratic Party. However, his abolitionist views fitted him better for the nascent Republican Party, through which he became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and Governor of Massachusetts in the 1850s. Always a political chameleon, Banks was the first professional politician to serve as Massachusetts Governor.
  At the outbreak of the Civil War, President Lincoln appointed Banks as one of the first 'political' major generals, over the heads of West Point regulars, who initially resented him, but came to acknowledge his influence on the administration of the war. After suffering a series of inglorious setbacks in the Shenandoah River Valley at the hands of Stonewall Jackson, Banks replaced Benjamin Butler at New Orleans as commander of the Department of the Gulf, charged with administration of Louisiana and gaining control of the Mississippi River.
context_section_description: On his return to Massachusetts, Banks immediately ran for Congress, for a seat vacated by the resignation of Radical Republican Daniel W. Gooch.  The Massachusetts Republican Party, dominated by Radicals, opposed his run, but he prevailed easily at the state convention and in the general election, partially by wooing Radical voters by proclaiming support for Negro suffrage. He served from 1865 to 1873, during which time he chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee.  Despite his nominally moderate politics, he was forced to vote with the Radicals on many issues, to avoid being seen as a supporter of President Johnson's policies.  He was active in supporting the reconstruction work he had done in Louisiana, trying to get its Congressional delegation seated in 1865.  He was opposed in this by a powerful faction in Louisiana, who argued he had essentially set up a puppet regime. He also alienated Radical Republicans by accepting a bill on the matter that omitted a requirement that states not be readmitted until they had given their African-American citizenry voting rights.  Despite his position as chair of an important committee, Banks was snubbed by President Grant, who worked around him whenever possible.
  During this period in Congress, Banks was one of the strongest early advocates of Manifest Destiny.  He introduced legislation promoting offers to annex all of British North America (effectively today's Canada), which drew neither domestic interest, nor that of the Canadians.  This and other proposals he made died in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Charles Sumner.  They served to make him unpopular in Britain and Canada, but played well to his heavily Irish-American constituency.  Banks also played a significant role in securing passage of the Alaska Purchase funding bill, enacted in 1868. Banks's financial records strongly suggest he received a large gratuity from the Russian minister after the Alaska legislation passed.  Although questions were raised not long after the bill's passage, a House investigation of the matter effectively whitewashed the affair.  Biographer Fred Harrington believes that Banks would have supported the legislation regardless of the payment he is alleged to have received.  Banks also supported unsuccessful efforts to acquire some Caribbean islands, including the Danish West Indies and the Dominican Republic. He spoke out in support of Cuban independence.
  In 1872, Banks joined the Liberal-Republican revolt in support of Horace Greeley.  He had to some degree opposed a party trend away from labor reform, a subject that was close to many of his working-class constituents, but not the wealthy businessmen who were coming to dominate the Republican Party. While Banks was campaigning across the North for Greeley, the Radical Daniel W. Gooch successfully gathered enough support to defeat him for reelection; it was Banks' first defeat by Massachusetts voters.  After his loss, Banks invested in an unsuccessful start-up Kentucky railroad headed by John Frémont, hoping its income would substitute for the political loss.
  Seeking a revival of his political fortunes, in 1873 Banks ran successfully for the Massachusetts Senate, supported by a coalition of Liberal Republicans, Democrats, and Labor Reform groups.  The latter groups he wooed in particular, adopting support for shorter workdays.  In that term, he help draft and secure passage of a bill restricting hours of women and children to ten hours per day.  In 1874, Banks was elected to Congress again, supported by a similar coalition in defeating Gooch.  He served two terms (1875–1879), losing in the 1878 nominating process after formally rejoining the Republican fold.  He was accused in that campaign of changing his positions too often to be considered reliable.  After his defeat, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Banks as a United States marshal for Massachusetts as a patronage reward for his service. He held the post from 1879 until 1888, but exercised poor oversight over his subordinates. He consequently became embroiled in legal ac
caption: Postbellum portrait by Mathew Brady or Levin C. Handy
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