A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume I, Part 104

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > Indiana > A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume I > Part 104

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

to preside over the electoral college of the state when the electors met to cast their votes for President and Vice-president, and upon taking the chair paid a de- served tribute to Mr. Greeley, which was responded to by the unanimous adoption of a resolution in honor of his life and regret for his death. In 1876 the Re- publican party of the state gave him the nomination for Attorney-general. It was an honor which he did not seek, but he accepted it, because he regarded it as a peace-offering, and in the line of his profession. His brief speech of thanks to the convention was humorous, and not indicative of any very strong hope of success, concluding with the two lines from Addison's Cato :

" 'Tis not in mortals to command success,

But we'll do more, Sempronius-we'll deserve it."

He, unfortunately, soon learned that he was not a politician of the modern type ; for, upon being notified that the central committee had assessed a sum against him which bore a certain ratio to the salary of the office of Attorney-general, he promptly declined to pay it, on the ground that, if not in itself corrupt, it tended to corruption. He also informed the committee that, if it should inform him that its payment was a condi- tion of the nomination he had received, he would de- cline at once, but would feel bound to publish the pre- cise grounds upon which he should do so. There was no further correspondence on the subject, and he re- mained on the ticket, to be beaten with the rest. It was during this canvass that, being engaged in defend- ing some men charged with murder in Orange County, he gave offense to a body of lawless men of the neigh- borhood, who had been accustomed to take the law into their own hands, and hang, or otherwise abuse, men whom they believed to be guilty of any crime. The offense complained of was that he had stated certain facts to the Governor indicating that his clients were in danger of being lynched by these men, and asking a guard from his excellency for their protection. These facts were published by one of the papers at the cap- ital as a communication from the neighborhood of the alleged crime. He was at once accused of being its author, and prominent men demanded that he should either disavow it or be retired from the ticket of the party. Some of their letters being placed in his hands for answer, he replied at once, frankly admitting that he was responsible for the facts contained in the article, but not for the publication in the manner and form in which they appeared. Then, after expressing his regret that he should lose a great many Republican votes on account of it, not for his own sake, but the party's, he concluded by saying :

" Now, having fully answered, I beg leave to say that I have nothing to take back, and no apology to make for any thing I have said or done. I should render myself unworthy of the vote of any good citizen, should

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

7th Dist.]

I say murder is not murder when committed by a mob, as well as when committed by a prowling assassin. If I should dissemble my real opinions on this or any other subject to get the votes of men stained with innocent blood, what security would law-abiding people have, that, if elected, I would not, for a consideration, wink at crimes which have made life and property unsafe, and law and justice idle and unmeaning words, in some parts of the state. No; to get office, I will not morally dis- qualify myself, by making even an obeisance to the most flagrant crimes that have disgraced our country."

Major Gordon has made as many sacrifices for his political opinions as if he had been a self-seeking polit- ical partisan. Yet he never has been. Not more than three times in his life has he requested his party or its representatives to give him office. In every instance he was unsuccessful. He has several times been a candi- date when he did not seek to be, and has been three times elected to the House of Representatives in the General Assembly, and twice its speaker. But in each of these contests he has been a conscript, and not a volunteer, as was the case with his race for Attorney- general in 1876. His last election to the House took place in 1878. In the two sessions which followed this election he devoted himself chiefly to the removal of some defects in the criminal laws of the state. His ex- perience as a criminal lawyer enabled him to point out these defects, and suggest the appropriate measures for their removal; and to this end he introduced and advo- cated a number of bills that would, if they had been passed, have greatly advanced the effective administra- tion of the criminal law of the state. Owing to the doc- trines of the Supreme Court of Indiana that, although the sanity of a man charged with crime stands presumed, yet, if a reasonable doubt on the subject arises from the evidence, he must be acquitted, it often happens that men are acquitted on the plea of insanity whom it is impossible to confine as lunatics. By this means society is left with a class of men on its hands and at large who may at any moment kill others, and who are secure against conviction and punishment because they are of doubtful sanity. At the same time, though acquitted as insane, they can not be restrained upon the ground of their insanity, for the reason that it is only doubtful. Holding the doctrine which allows a pre- sumption of law to be overcome by a reasonable doubt both unsound and dangerous, he introduced a bill pro- viding that in all cases of criminal prosecutions where the defense of insanity should be pleaded, and the jury should acquit the defendant, they should determine by their verdict whether they acquitted him on the ground of insanity, and, if so, whether his insanity was due to hereditary causes, to epilepsy or any other constitutional cause, or whether it resulted from temporary disease. In the last case, without reference to the gravity of the charge, the defendant should be restrained so long only as might be necessary to effect his cure; but, in the

other cases, he should in case of homicide be restrained in some proper place during his natural life, and, in case of crimes of less gravity, until all danger of the repetition of the same or of other offenses was removed. This measure received general favor, and, if it could have been brought to a third reading, would have passed. But, like many other measures of importance, it failed for want of time. He succeeded in securing the passage of a law regulating proceedings in con- tempt, and placing a limit upon the hitherto arbitrary power of the courts in such cases. The law was not passed in the precise form in which the bill was intro- duced, but it is believed that it will form the basis of future legislation, which will secure, on the one hand, the respect due to courts of justice, and, on the other, protect the liberty of the citizen against the use of arbitrary power by passionate or unprincipled judges. He also labored to procure a fair apportionment of the state for congressional and legislative purposes, but the Democratic party, which had suffered so much under preceding apportionments, forgot the wrongs it had suf- fered, and the promises it had made, and, having the power to do as it pleased, equaled, if it did not sur- pass, the outrages of which it had so long complained. Thus, in the hands of political partisans, equality, jus- tice, and liberty perish. As a lawyer, Major Gordon has gained a fair standing in the general practice of his pro- fession, and in criminal law stands among the first law- yers of the country. Perhaps no man in America has ever prosecuted and defended so many capital cases; and many of these have been of great celebrity. His knowledge of medicine and surgery, which first led him into this line of practice, has aided him to win his dis- tinction in it. In questions of expert evidence and medical jurisprudence, he is regarded as an authority, and has explored the law touching them to its remotest principles. In cases involving the medical jurispru- dence of insanity, he has a deservedly high reputation, and has not failed to make jeeringly conspicuous the blunders of some of our judicial tribunals. Until re- cently, he never had a client sentenced to death; and in that case it was not accomplished without, as he de- clares, violating the plainest principles of law, and a flat denial of justice. Considering that he has defended more than sixty persons charged with murder in the first degree, he may be regarded as fortunate in this respect ; but he does not feel so. The execution of one client, in a practice of more than thirty-six years, has afflicted him as much as any personal misfortune of his life; and he has ever since been engaged in preparing a re- view of the case, that, he claims, will clearly expose the injustice of the decision which took his client's life. His career has been marked by great industry and labor, and he has left inerasible traces upon the juris- prudence of the state. Until 1859, the Supreme Court,

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[7th Dist.

under a Constitution which provides that, "in all crim- inal cases whatever, the jury shall have the right to de- termine the law and the evidence," had held that the instructions of the court in matters of law were binding upon the consciences of jurors. He reviewed the whole subject in an exhaustive argument, and induced that tribunal to reconsider and overrule its preceding opin- ions. One member of the court, however, dissented, and, on the pretext of preparing a dissenting opinion, occasioned a delay of several months in the decision. When at last it was made, Mr. Gordon hastened to the court and prepared an abstract of the opinion, which he took care to express in the precise words of the Con- stitution. He then wrote a brief notice for the papers, which ran thus:

"IMPORTANT LEGAL DECISION .- The Supreme Court has just decided, in the case of Williams against the State, that, 'in all criminal cases whatever, the jury have the right to determine the law and the evidence.' Judge Hanna dissents. His opinion against the Constitution is said to be very able."

The papers of both parties printed the article, and the result was that Judge Hanna and Major Gordon were not on speaking terms again until after the War of the Rebellion. He did not relish the joke implied in the complimentary notice of his dissenting opinion. After the war Major Gordon asked the court to recon- sider their doctrine of reasonable doubt, and induced them to return to the common law on the subject, from which they had inadvertently departed. He also pre- sented the doctrines of insanity to them in an elaborate and exhaustive argument, in the case of Bradley against the State, and was rewarded by a clear and rational decision, which must remain an authority as long as so- ciety regards the insane as the proper objects of its solicitude and protection. After the close of the war he was employed by Secretary Stanton to defend Gen- eral Hovey, and all who, under him, had made arrests in the state, by color of military authority, for which they already were sued, or subsequently might be sued. In this employment he was continued for several years. It ended with the trial of Milligan's case, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Indiana, in a verdict of five dollars for the plaintiff, whose de- mand was for five hundred thousand dollars. He was also retained for the government, during the time Mr. Kilgore was district attorney, in several great revenue cases. At the time the fifteenth article of amendment to the national Constitution was pending for ratification in the General Assembly, the Democrats of both Houses resigned in order to prevent its ratification. Their resig- nation left both Houses without a quorum. The House of Representatives, notwithstanding this condition of affairs, proceeded to concur in the Senate's amendments to the Specific Appropriation bill, and to ratify the

amendment. Many good lawyers believed this action to have been taken in plain violation of the Constitu- tion, and demanded that it should be contested. The Attorney-general declared himself satisfied of its valid- ity. The Governor consequently employed Major Gor- don to contest it. The question was raised in a pro- ceeding to compel the Auditor of State to issue his warrant on the treasury for certain money appropriated by the Specific Appropriation act. It was argued at great length before the Supreme Court, by Messrs. Browne, McDonald, and Hendricks in favor of the va- lidity of the act, and Major Gordon against it. His argument was the only one published; and, although the decision was adverse to the argument, he may yet rest satisfied that, if constitutional government shall sur- vive the reckless action of parties in their efforts to re- tain or gain power, the argument, and not the decision, at last will be accepted as the law. In 1873 he was engaged, with Mr. Porter, to maintain the validity of the temperance law known as the Baxter bill; and, notwithstanding the great learning and ability with which it was assailed, they were successful. His brief was not printed, but contributed some of the most conspicuous features to the court's opinion. His last constitutional argument in the Supreme Court was de- livered in the case of Guetig against the state, and, although it was unheeded by that tribunal, the decision can only stand by regarding it as overruling more than half of all the cases relating to constitutional questions decided under the present Constitution. He denied the constitutional existence of the Marion Criminal Circuit Court. The court sustained it, and for the present it stands. If, however, a decent respect for the plainest principles of constitutional law shall ever return to the courts, it is almost certain the decision will lose its authority. As a lawyer, Major Gordon shuns routine, and, as far as he can, cases that must be carried through on the familiar ways of the profession. He delights in new questions, demanding for their right decision a re- sort to fundamental principles and a knowledge of them. In such cases his energy is supreme ; and his re- sources, both of learning and argument, have achieved success where others might have failed. Many of his arguments have exhausted his subjects, and left nothing more to be said or suggested. But recently he ex- presses himself without confidence or hope in the tri- bunal of last resort in the state, and regards labor and learning as wasted "on the desert air," that are spent to try to set its feet again super viam antiquam, or to lead it to walk therein by " the gladsome light of juris- prudence." As a jury lawyer, he has had some great successes, but relies rather upon the clear presentation of a point than upon his ability as an orator, in which character he has more frequently fallen below, than risen above, the occasion. A few times he has tran-

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

7th Dist.]

scended the expectations of his friends and the public, and carried all before him by the earnestness and fervor of his eloquence ; and verdicts gained by him have been attacked in motions for new trials, and on appeal to the Supreme Court, on the ground that " the jury was led away from the real issues of the case by the eloquent counsel." But these instances are exceptional and rare in his career, and have never occurred when the circum- stances of the case did not strongly enlist his feelings and convictions. He has no mannerism, however, to limit the possibilities of his nature, and may at any time, under proper circumstances, carry a case by means which it is impossible to anticipate, and which no amount of preparation will enable his adversary to guard against, because they are unknown and un- thought of even by himself until the moment when they are employed. He has always, as far as the strug- gles of professional life would permit, cultivated a taste for literature, and might, perhaps, have succeeded in it, had he chosen it for a vocation. His love for it has rendered him less of a lawyer than he might otherwise have become, while the requirements of his profession have impaired and cramped his capacity to have become a successful literary man. Still he has found, in the constant resort to the poets, historians, and philoso- phers, a respite from the toil and care of professional life. He has rarely taken a vacation in the last thirty- five years, and insists that the mind and brain find their best vacation and rest by changing the subjects upon which they are engaged, and keeping up their activity and efforts, but in new fields. This he maintains is both safer and more becoming than hunting and fishing. The old boiler kept in use and warm may be used with safety for years, whereas if it be allowed to remain un- used and to rust for even a short time it will be sure to explode the first high pressure of steam that is raised within it again. In early life he possessed an excellent verbal memory, and committed several books of " Para- dise Lost," so that he could repeat them without hesi- tancy ; and so great was his familiarity with its style that while yet a mere boy he wagered a watermelon with a friend that he could either talk or write in the measure and style of Milton without being allowed a moment's time to consider the topic. It was agreed that he should write an apostrophe to the poet himself, as the test by which he should win or lose the wager. He instantly wrote :

" Bard of my soul, thy hallowed song sublime Uplifts my feebler strain, and, risen high, The vast variety and depth of thought

That flow commingled in thy matchless verse Anew and deep I drink-drink from the fount Prepared of God, rich to the mental taste, But tasted not before I drank with thee, O bard of deathless fame! Now, by thy wing Directed, I, through climes unknown am borne, And guided to the spring whence song bursts forth ;

Thence let me drink ; to taste and not drink deep,

O powers immortal, may I ever scorn, Still choosing rather to be nought, than aught

Inferior to the bard whose genius vast,

And venturous as vast, of chaos, death, And night, with voice untrembling sung."

Whether justly or not, he won the wager. Since then he has occasionally turned his conceits into verse. Some of these conceits have been published ; and for the time have attracted attention, and won the favor of the press. One of them, especially favored in this way, passed into the Knickerbocker Magazine from the columns of the newspaper where it first appeared, nearly thirty years ago. Another, during the first year of the great Re- bellion, was also received with general favor. It was entitled " The Love of the Actual and the Ideal," and is as follows:

"The Star loved the Sea, and the Sea loved the Star; But in vain, for they still were apart;

And the Sea ever sighed to his mistress afar, And sobbed in his sorrow and anguish of heart. But the Star, with a smile in her bright, flashing eye, Looked down through night's shadows afar,

And saw, what no mistress e'er saw with a sigh, In the heart of the Sea the bright face of a Star.

And she knew that her throne was the heart of the Sea, And was happy to know that she reigned there alone; But the Sea was not happy-Oh, how could he be ?-- Since nought but her shadow e'er came to her throne. So the Sea could not go to the queen of his heart, And the Star could not stoop from above;

Their love was in vain; for they still were apart, And, apart, could but dream of the rapture of love."

Years have had no effect upon his love of poesy; and his tendency to write verses still remains unchanged. His last piece, written upon the fly-leaf of a book he was reading in bed, on Christmas night, 1879, and en- titled " My Mother's Centennial Birthday," shall close what we have to say on this aspect of his life :

" I'm thinking, dear mother, of thee, And my heart in my bosom stands still; And the blood in my veins flows stagnant and chill,

As if frozen to ice ere it reaches the sea, 'T'ill in life I am dead, yet e'en death can not smother The thoughts that to-night wander back to my mother.

"Tis Christmas to-night, and afar

. To the hills of Virginia I go; And there, where the waters of Greenbrier flow,

Thy birthplace I find, by the light of love's star. But a hundred slow years have gone after each other Since the day of thy birth, my own gentle mother.

O life, what a wonder thou art ! What a wonder must ever remain !

Beginning forever; and, dying, beginning again,

As the blood tide flows on from heart unto heart; And the thought of my soul, that the years can not smother, Is fed by the blood of thy heart, O my mother !

As the dew on the rose was thy love

On my heart, in the morn of its years, And now, on the last leaf of life, it appears

Like a star in its brightness, sent down from above, To shine in the heart of the dew ; to me 't is no other

Than the soul of thy love, in my tears, O my mother."

.. .

REPRESENTATIVE MEN OF INDIANA.

[7th Dist.

What has been already written concerning Major Gor- don's life is enough to enable those who could form a just estimate of his intellectual and moral endowments, and judge aright the motives and purposes which have led him thus far, to determine equally well to what rank of men he is to be assigned, as could be deter- mined with the fullest and most particular biography. It will not be denied by any such person that he is a man of talents equal to the attainment of great ends. At the same time it is true that these talents lie upon the borders of many provinces of thought, and seem to be drawn with an almost equal love to them all. He hesitates to give his allegiance, undivided and complete, to any one. Feeling that he has by nature a birthright in them all, he has thus far refused to surrender it, and so has failed to gain the best fruits and greatest crops from any one of them. The labor he has bestowed upon them all, if it had been given to any one, would have made him easily the first among his peers in it. But it woulel have left him at the same time something less than himself, or at least other than himself; for it would have dwarfed the loving spirit, akin to genius, if, indeed, it be not genius itself, which goes out on all sides desiring to know and enter into sympathy and communion with the infinite. Had he felt through life, or at any time in life, that the chief end of man was to be a means to some other end for the sake of worldly wealth or fame, he might have given himself wholly to some special pursuit ; but, believing that every man's own development is the one great end of rational hu- man effort and life, and that every other aim and effort should run into it and assist in its accomplishment, he has with entire faith diversified his labors according to the inclination of his natural powers and their tenden- cies. This has given him something of the enthusiasm of youth at every stage of his career, and made his powers swift and strong to grapple with whatever new question presents itself for consideration. It was this that made him a strangely earnest and old boy, and it is this that now, upon the verge of old age, makes him a strangely earnest and boyish old man. He has never held the acquisition of wealth to be a legitimate end of human pursuit, and would most likely to-day, as he has often done, part with his last dollar to help those who lacked the necessaries of life, trusting to the good provi- dence of God to be provided for as well when his own necessities might require the like assistance. He has faith in man, though he has sometimes been on the verge of losing his faith in men. He regards no man as fit for great place in our government who does not believe in the constantly progressive development of our race; and that, at last, the time may come when all shall know the Lord, and when every man shall become sufficient in intelligence and moral force for the government of himself, and so government itself, as a means of coerc-

ing the lawless and disobedient, become entirely and forever unnecessary. Any other view of the outcome of the human race is, in his opinion, aimed at the hope of the perpetuation of our free popular governments here in America, and if true, the herald of their certain down- fall. He has had his ambitions, but they aimed rather at deserving than receiving advancement. His country has never found him wanting in devotion to its safety or glory, and, when his poverty has made his service painful in the extreme, he has rendered it as earnestly and faithfully as if want had not touched his home, although he gave it not with a single, but with a di- vided heart. His ambition, beyond mere duty, perished when his only son was brought home from the battle- field dead. The earthly spring of his life was broken by that blow. Whatever he has since done, or may hereafter accomplish, will be the result of the necessity so well expressed by his favorite poet :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A biographical history of eminent and self-made men of the state of Indiana : with many portrait-illustrations on steel, engraved expressly for this work, Volume I, Part 104

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1038

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Cincinnati, Ohio : Western Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1038