George Nicholas Sanders
{{Short description|American official and assassination suspect (1812–1873)}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = George Nicholas Sanders
| image = George Nicholas Sanders.jpg
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| caption = Sketch of Sanders (1865)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = February 1812
| birth_place = Lexington, Kentucky, United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|1873|8|13|1812|2|22}}
| death_place = New York City, New York, United States
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| title = Consul in London
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| spouse = Anna Reid
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| children = Reid Sanders, Male, 1837–1864
Virginia N Sanders, Female, 1841–1866
Lewis Sanders, Male, 1844–1894
| parents = Lewis Sanders and Ann Nicholas.
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George Nicholas Sanders (February 1812 – August 13, 1873) was a former official of the United States and supporter of the Confederate States of America. Sanders was believed by some to have a level of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Early life and career
Sanders was born in Lexington, Kentucky in February 1812.{{Cite web |date=2012 |title=George Nicholas Sanders Family Papers Finding Aid |url=https://findingaids.loc.gov/exist_collections/ead3pdf/mss/2012/ms012053.pdf |website=Library of Congress}} His father was Lewis Sanders, and his mother was Ann Nicholas.
During his early career he was involved in breeding cattle and race horses. Sanders later moved to New York,{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} and married Anna Reid in 1836. His father-in-law was Samuel Chester Reid.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} He was involved in the Young America Movement and was editor of the "Democratic Review."{{Cite journal |last=Eyal |first=Yonatan |date=2012 |title=A Romantic Realist: George Nicholas Sanders and the Dilemmas of Southern International Engagement |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23247458 |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=107–130 |jstor=23247458 |issn=0022-4642}}{{Cite book |last=Widmer |first=Edward L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Ck1o_fOr5YC&q=sanders |title=Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-514062-0 |pages=189–215 |language=en}}
Revolutionary ideas and causes
Sanders was appointed as Consul in London in 1853. Although he moved to London, he was never confirmed by the United States Senate, and recalled the following year. He publicly advocated for the assassination of heads of state, including French Emperor Napoleon III, and had previously been involved in schemes supporting revolutionaries on the European continent.
Sanders interacted with European revolutionaries such as Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Mazzini.
Civil War
During the Civil War, he was involved in activities in Europe and Montreal to support the Confederacy. Sanders was involved in organization of the 1864 Niagara Falls peace conference, and negotiated with the United Kingdom to build ships for the Confederate States Navy.
Following Abraham Lincoln's 1865 assassination by John Wilkes Booth, the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, Joseph Holt, became convinced that the plot was organized by leadership of the Confederate States of America. Sanders was among these leaders who Holt accused of involvement, and a reward of $25,000 was created for his arrest.{{Cite book |last1=Holzer |first1=Harold |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UpeUDwAAQBAJ |title=The Lincoln Assassination: Crime & Punishment, Myth & Memory |last2=Symonds |first2=Craig L. |last3=Williams |first3=Frank J. |date=2014-12-03 |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8232-6394-3 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 4: Lincoln's Chief Avenger: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt}}{{Cite book |last=Leonard |first=Elizabeth D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyAUCAAAQBAJ |title=Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky |date=2011 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-6938-3 |pages=205, 232 |language=en}} It was dropped in November, after Sanders had not yet been apprehended.
Later life
After the assassination of Lincoln, attempts were made to take Sanders into custody, but he fled to Canada and Europe. In 1870, he was in Paris, where he attempted to aid the city's defenders during the Prussian siege:
Mr. George Sanders, whilom United States Consul in London, and one of the leaders of the ex-Confederacy, is here; he is preparing plans for a system of rifle pits and zigzags outside the fortifications, at the request of General Trochu. Mr. Sanders, who took an active part in the defence of Richmond, declares that Paris is impregnable, if it be only well defended. He complains, however, that the French will not use the spade.[https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19263/pg19263-images.html Labouchère, Henry, Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris, Ch.II.]He later returned to the United States and died on August 13, 1873, in New York. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
In popular culture
References
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Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
Category:People of New York (state) in the American Civil War
Category:People associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln