Changes

As a Whig, Wade won a special election to Ohio's Class I Senate seat in 1851.<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=142492 OH US Senate Special Race - Mar 14, 1851]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref> When the party collapsed due to internal division over [[slavery]], he helped form the [[Republican Party]], which he joined.<ref name=battlefieldtrust/> Sen. Wade was re-elected in 1856<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=142494 OH US Senate Race - Nov 04, 1856]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref> and 1862.<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=142495 OH US Senate Race - Nov 00, 1862]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref>

As a Whig, Wade won a special election to Ohio's Class I Senate seat in 1851.<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=142492 OH US Senate Special Race - Mar 14, 1851]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref> When the party collapsed due to internal division over [[slavery]], he helped form the [[Republican Party]], which he joined.<ref name=battlefieldtrust/> Sen. Wade was re-elected in 1856<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=142494 OH US Senate Race - Nov 04, 1856]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref> and 1862.<ref>[https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=142495 OH US Senate Race - Nov 00, 1862]. ''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref>

Joining GOP ranks as a Radical Republican, Wade was an ardent supporter of [[women's suffrage]] and trade unions.<ref name=battlefieldtrust/> He voiced heavy opposition towards the Fugitive Slave Act and the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]], drawing the ire of Southerners.

Joining GOP ranks as a Radical Republican, Wade was an ardent supporter of [[women's suffrage]] and trade unions.<ref name=battlefieldtrust/> He voiced heavy opposition towards the Fugitive Slave Act and the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]], drawing the ire of Southerners. Along with U.S. representative Joshua R. Giddings, Wade helped the efforts of the [[Underground Railroad]] let slaves in the South escape to freedom in defiance of then-''status quo'' laws, particularly as forty percent came through Ohio.<ref>Clines, Francis X. (June 24, 2002). [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/24/us/slave-railroad-buffs-question-museum-site.html Slave 'Railroad' Buffs Question Museum Site]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref>

As the South plotted secession in response to the election of President Abraham Lincoln, Wade gave a fiery speech on the Senate floor in mid-December 1860. Described as a "regular war speech" by ''[[The New York Times]]'', the two hour-long address vowed that the Republican Party would be ready to execute federal laws as needed without regard for whether Southern states secede or not.<ref>December 18, 1860. [https://www.nytimes.com/1860/12/18/archives/the-secession-agitation-congressional-proceedings-senate-the.html THE SECESSION AGITATION.; CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. SENATE. THE SECESSION AGITATION.] ''The New York Times''. Archived version available [https://archive.md/0As4v here]. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref>

As the South plotted secession in response to the election of President Abraham Lincoln, Wade gave a fiery speech on the Senate floor in mid-December 1860. Described as a "regular war speech" by ''[[The New York Times]]'', the two hour-long address vowed that the Republican Party would be ready to execute federal laws as needed without regard for whether Southern states secede or not.<ref>December 18, 1860. [https://www.nytimes.com/1860/12/18/archives/the-secession-agitation-congressional-proceedings-senate-the.html THE SECESSION AGITATION.; CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. SENATE. THE SECESSION AGITATION.] ''The New York Times''. Archived version available [https://archive.md/0As4v here]. Retrieved November 9, 2021.</ref>