Charles J. Harrison

Charles Joseph Harrison (Born Karl Josef Harrison, December 12, 1824 - October 4, 1926) was an American lawyer, writer, and statesman who served as the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1873 and later on a political theorist, philosopher, Marxist theoretician. He is regarded as the forefather of the ideological branch of Marxism known as Federal Socialism. He assumed the office of Presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, in which he was at the time vice president. Harrison was a Radical Republican who ran alongside Lincoln on the National Union ticket. After Lincoln's assassination, Harrison led the nation through the Reconstruction era, overseeing the expansion of civil rights for newly freed slaves, the slow readmission of seceded states back into the Union, violent and often crackdowns on post-Civil War violence, and the swelling of federal power. This radical approach to Reconstruction agitated many Democrats and Moderate Republicans likewise, culminating in his failure of nomination and step-down from professional politics after the 1876 Republican primary.

Born in St. Charles, Missouri, and raised in Pella, Iowa,