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 117

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 117

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).

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equalization of bounties among soldiers of the late war, | nacity that the House finally voted against the asserted and that this might be done in grants of land, in con- right, by a majority of three to one. This was the en- tering wedge to other wrongs upon the rights of settlers which the country has since witnessed; but Mr. Julian's action was approved by the people of California, while the delegates who fought him so desperately were retired to private life. In the election of this year, Mr. Julian was chosen by over six thousand majority. On his return to Washington in December, he was gratified at formity to the policy of the government in dealing with the soldiers of previous wars. His report showed by conclusive facts and figures that the attempt to carry out this policy would prove cruel mockery of the sol- dier, while it would completely overthrow the policy of our homestead, and pre-emption laws; but it recog- nized the justice of equalization, and recommended that this should be done in money. The effect of this report the change of feeling among members respecting the fourteenth constitutional amendment, while the policy of treating the lately rebellious states as territories was rapidly gaining ground. Early in the session he reported a carefully considered bill embodying this policy, which was remarkable. The soldiers throughout the country were the first to accept its conclusions, while the mem- bers of both Houses of Congress promptly followed them in their entire change of base. This was exceed-

ingly gratifying to him, for he saw that he had com- pletely thwarted a movement which threatened the

complete spoliation of the public domain. In response to the wishes of the soldiers, he introduced a bill for the equalization of their bounties in money, at the rate of eight and one-third dollars per month for the service rendered. This bill, which was referred to the Military Committee of the House, was reported favorably with

some amendments, and subsequently passed that body

as General Schenck's bill. During the latter part of

April, Mr. Julian delivered a speech on the "Punish-

ment of the Rebel Leaders," in which he demanded

" the ordinary administration of justice against the most

extraordinary national criminals," and declared that

" the treason spun from their brains, and deliberately

fashioned into the bloody warp and woof of a four

years' war, and the winding-sheet of a half a million

of men, ought to be branded by the nation a crime."

To many this speech will now seem savage, if not

blood-thirsty, but the state of the country and the tem-

opinion of it; and the further fact must be considered, per of the times must be considered when forming an

that Mr. Julian never minces matters, but speaks his

sentiments in the strongest language he can employ.

In June he addressed the House on the question of ne- gro suffrage in the lately revolted states. The course of events at this time had forced this question upon the

serious consideration of Congress. It did not seem pos- sible much longer to evade it; and yet many Republi- cans were halting between two opinions. Mr. Julian

and his argument was a very vigorous and telling plea believed the great danger of the hour was timidity,

mocracy to the work of governing the states lately in re- for political courage in applying the principles of de-

involved in a debate with the California delegation, which bellion. During the latter part of July, Mr. Julian was

consumed the morning hour of three successive days. It

ifornia solicited members with such industry and perti- which he argued at length, but the delegates from Cal- related to the right of pre-emtion on the Suscal Ranche, grew out of a bill to quiet land titles in that state, and

was quite favorably received by the press, and on the 28th of January, 1867, he addressed the House in sup- port of it, and in opposition to the measures of Stevens and Ashley. Such, however, was the chaos of opinion on the question of reconstruction, that all these bills

were finally superseded by the passage of the military bill. He considered this bill utterly indefensible on

principle, that it was completely at war with the genius and spirit of our institutions; but after every other had

failed, and the amendment of Mr. Shellabarger securing

the ballot to the negro had been adopted, he gave it

his support. It was during this winter that his old

political enemies at home made a new and very for-

midable political demonstration against him. Their tac-

failed. It was evident that he was completely master tics thus far, including the resort to the bludgeon, had

of the situation in his district, but, if the Legislature could be prevailed upon so to redistrict the state as to deprive him of his strength, their purpose might still

Three counties of his district that gave him a majority be accomplished. In this enterprise they succeeded.

of nearly five thousand were taken from him, while four

others where added in which he was personally unac-

part of this session of Congress, Mr. Julian reported a jority of about fifteen hundred votes. During the latter quainted, and which gave an aggregate Democratic ma-

bill, which passed, amending the Southern Homestead Law so as to require an oath of loyalty by the party applying for its benefit. In the brief session of the

Fortieth Congress, which immediately followed the ad-

journment of the Thirty-ninth, he reported a bill on

the subject of agricultural college scrip, which became

a law, and thus prevented the wholesale issue of such scrip by the President to the states lately in rebellion. In the organization of the House in December he was again placed at the head of the Committee on Public

Lands, and was also made a member of the Committee on Education and Labor. On the IIth of the month

he obtained the floor for the purpose of noticing a fling in the New York Tribune at the Indiana delegation for their vote, just given, in favor of impeaching the Pres-

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ident. He made a condensed summary of the reasons | and vindicated his conduct and his motives. On the which prompted that vote, and paid his respects to the 8th of December following he proposed the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, giving the right of suf- frage to all citizens of the United States, without any distinction or discrimination whatever founded on race, color, or sex. This was the first distinct proposition ever made for the enfranchisement of women. After the subsequent ratification of the fifteenth amendment, securing the right of suffrage to the negro, he proposed a sixteenth amendment, in the exact form of the fifteenth, granting the right of suffrage to women. On the 5th of February he delivered his speech entitled " How to Resume Specie Payments." In the Fortieth Congress he was again made chairman of the Land Committee, and further honored by a place on the Committee on Recon- struction. On the 22d of March he introduced a bill striking the word "white" from our naturalization laws, and forbidding any distinction or discrimination founded on color or races in their administration. During this short session he was also able to save some millions of acres of the public domain from the clutches of monopolists, by securing the adoption of a proviso to several large grants, requiring the sales to be made to actual settlers only, in quantities not greater than a quarter section, and for a price not exceeding two dol- President in a way decidedly pleasing to the Republican side of the House. On the 20th of December the House Committee on Public Lands authorized him to report his bill, previously introduced, forbidding the further sale of our public lands, except as provided for in our pre-emption and homestead laws. This was really a great and far-reaching measure, proposing to make the Homestead Law what it should have been in the begin- ning. Near the close of the previous Congress he had reported a bill declaring forfeited to the United States about five million acres of land granted by Congress in 1856 to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, to aid them in building certain railroads, and which grants had lapsed by failure to comply with their con- ditions. On reaching the measure in its order, he de- bated the question at length, and was bitterly opposed by Washburn, Bingham, and Blaine, but his bill passed the House. In the latter part of February, Mr. Julian was selected by the speaker as a member of the Com- mittee of Seven to prepare articles impeaching Andrew Johnson, President of the United States. On the 6th of March he addressed the House at length on his bill dedicating the public lands to actual settlement, and the speech was made a Republican campaign document lars and fifty cents per acre. On his return home Mr. Julian found himself so prostrated by overwork, and so constantly harassed by place hunters, that he resolved upon a journey to the Pacific coast as a means of recre- ation and rest. He started on the 10th of June and was absent nearly three months, spending most of his time in California, but visiting Oregon and Washington Territory. He failed in his purpose, and on his return was unable to bestow his customary attention upon his constituents. On reaching Washington in December, for the presidential canvass of this year, and was widely circulated. In order to guard against the passage of another land bounty bill, which the House Committee on Military Affairs reported, he prepared another report on the subject, more fully demonstrating the mischief of such a policy than he did in his report two years be- fore. Early in June he gave particular attention to our Indian treaty policy, already referred to, and, after a sharp and telling debate in the House, he succeeded in

carrying a joint resolution which led the way to the he found himself unfit for business, and he spent the

greater part of the winter of 1869-70 in New York in quest of medical aid. While in the city the question of his renomination had to be considered, and after much hesitation he finally announced himself as a can- didate. He was anxious to complete some important measures of reform in our Jand policy, and he greatly desired to rebuke the course his enemies had pursued in

final abandonment of that policy. He also reported a bill, which passed, relieving honorably discharged soldiers of the late war from the payment of the fees required of other parties under the Homestead Law. In the spring of this year he was overwhelmingly renomi- nated for Congress, notwithstanding the effort to defeat him by the project of reconstructing his district, and on his return home he opened the canvass by a very vigor. the previous canvass. But his health was so utterly broken down that he could neither manage the canvass nor acquit himself with any credit if again elected; and he saw, too late, the great mistake he had made in not promptly declining the race. Through some unseen influ- ence nearly all the Republican papers in the district suddenly wheeled into line against him, and the Cin- cinnati Gazette, always hitherto friendly, now opened its batteries against him. The tactics of his enemies at [ home were unscrupulous to the last degree, and while he was scarcely able to be out of bed, and his services ous speech at Shelbyville, in which he dealt severely with the record of the Democratic party on the subject of the public lands. He was elected by a small ma- jority, notwithstanding the district had been formed expressly to defeat him. The bitterness of this canvass was so unmeasured that on the 25th of October he de- livered a speech at Dublin briefly reviewing his con- gressional career, and showing how, in each successive contest, the warfare against him had increased in bitter- n'ess as it declined in power, while he vigorously de- fended himself against the false charges of his enemies, were constantly demanded in the Land Committee and

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that on reconstruction, he was obliged to keep up a between the element of reform in the Republican party and the leadership that sought to hide its sins under the mantle of its past achievements. Mr. Julian's con- gressional career was now closed. In the beginning public opinion was overwhelmingly and fiercely against him, but he resolved, at whatever cost, to revolutionize that opinion, and reconstruct it in conformity with his own earnest convictions, and he wore himself out in the complete abandon of himself to the task. From the beginning to the end of the struggle, the politicians of the district where against him, and they were numerous and formidable, while he was obliged to stand single- handed and alone as the champion of his cause in de- bate. Probably no congressional district in the Union was ever the theater of so much hard toil by a single man; but he succeeded in his undertaking. Step by step he saw his constituents march up to his position, and the old "burnt district" at last completely disen- thralled and transfigured by the faithful and ceaseless administration of anti-slavery truth. He saw slavery itself perish, but he never fought it as the champion of "one idea" He regarded the abolition of the chattel slavery of the Southern negro as simply the in- troduction and prelude to a far grander movement, looking to the emancipation of all races from all forms of slavery ; and when he went out of Congress he could point with satisfaction and pride to the record he had made in the practical illustration of this truth. He be- lieved in the " rights of men," whether trampled down by Southern slave-holders, the monopolists of our public domain, the remorseless power of corporate wealth, the legalized robbery of a protective tariff, or the power of concentrated capital in alliance with labor-saving ma- chinery. During the summer of 1871, Mr. Julian supervised the publication of a volume of his principal speeches. In the fall he prepared an article for the press, which attracted a good deal of attention, entitled, " Wanted ! Another New Dispensation." In this ar- ticle he foreshadowed his future course by pointing out the reforms which the Republican party should espouse as the condition of its continuance in power. He in- sisted that the party needed a " new dispensation " in the direction of tariff reform, in its land policy, in the re- form of our civil service, and respecting the labor ques- tion. These points were set forth in detail and with emphasis. He did not propose the disruption of the Republican party, and did not desire it; but he insisted that it could only continue to govern the country on the condition of radically reconstructing its ideas and policy in conformity with the views he expressed. Early in the year 1872 Mr. Julian visited Wash- ington, and conferred with Trumbull, Schurz, and Sumner about the political condition. While there he was urged by leading Republicans from different constant correspondence with his friends at home, and supervise the canvass so far as it was possible. Hav- ing entered into this fight, he was intensely anxious to win, and it seemed to him impossible to abandon the unfinished legislative projects upon which his heart was set; but when the news came announcing his de- feat he accepted it as a blessed deliverance. It seemed to him and his friends that his life had been saved by the event. He could not help feeling the great injus- tice done him after so many years of hard and faithful service, and at the moment of his perfect vindication by the ratification of the fifteenth amendment, when it seemed to him his triumph should have been signal. But he was perfectly reconciled to the idea of retirement and rest. The district convention indorsed his course in Congress, and his letter to the convention, cordially ac- quiescing in the result, left him still the favorite of his constituents. During the session of the Forty-first Con- gress his bill forbidding the sale of public lands, save to actual settlers, passed the House, though in a modi- fied form. Another important measure previously introduced by him .also passed, declaring that a settle- ment under the pre-emption law shall be deemed a con- tract between the settler and the government, and shall create a vested right of property which can only be diverted by his failure to comply with the conditions of the law. He also reported from his committee a very important bill defining swamp and overflowed lands. During the following session he found it necessary to prepare another report against land bounties to soldiers ; and, in order to pacify the advocates of such bounties, he introduced a bill amending the Homestead Law by deducting their term of service from the time of settle- ment required. On the 21st of January he delivered another speech on the land question in which he dealt with the whole subject more thoroughly than ever be- fore. Large editions of it were circulated in English and German. On the 20th he moved to strike the word "male" from the suffrage clause of the bill for the government of the District of Columbia, on which the yeas were fifty-five. On the last night of the session his bill defining swamp and overflowed lands was reached, and, on a motion to suspend the rules and pass it, the yeas were ninety-seven and the nays sixty. On a similar, motion as to his bill to prevent the sale of public land-, except to actual settlers, the vote stood one hundred and nine yeas to sixty-nine nays. These were very gratifying votes to him, as they clearly indi- cated the early triumph of these important measures. It was during this session that General Grant and Bab- cock inaugurated the San Domingo project, and that Sumner was degraded from the chairmanship of his committee; and Mr. Julian retired to private life just as the "irrepressible conflict " began to develop itself | parts of Indiana to become a candidate for Congress-

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man at large under the new apportionment, and after [ had peremptorily declined to be a candidate. But he much hesitation he gave his consent; but on further reflection he finally sent a telegram to Mr. W. P. Fish- back, of the Indianapolis Journal, the day before the State Convention met, positively forbidding the use of his name. He wanted the compliment, but could not consistently accept it, as he had fully made up his mind that he would not support General Grant for the presidency, if nominated, as it was now certain he would be. His conduct towards Sumner, and his alli- ance with the "Senatorial Group," had rendered this morally impossible. In the latter part of March he fully committed himself to the Liberal Republican movement in a published letter, defining his position, and giving his reasons in very strong and earnest words. He separated himself from the old party with the sin- cerest regret. His revolt against its discipline painfully reminded him of his experience in 1848, and he had never dreamed of being again called to a fierce conflict with old and dear friends. No public man in the party in the state had a better record, or had won a fairer national reputation. The party was in the pride of its power, with great deeds behind it, accustomed to have its own way, and as able as it was willing to crush all dissent in its ranks. He had been with it and of it in all its achievements, and could not fail to see that in facing the wrath and scorn of such an organization, and joining hands with its foes, he would be obliged to taste political death. He could not fail to see that his Republican friends every-where would become his unrelenting foes; but he saw no honorable way of escape, and with an un- flinching purpose he resolved to face all the conse- quences of his decision. In this loyalty to his convic- tions, and disloyalty to his party, it was enough for him to know that he performed the bravest and most praise- worthy act of his life. He attended the Cincinnati Convention of the Ist of May, in which he worked hard for the nomination of Adams. Notwithstanding his failing health, he opened the canvass in July in a speech at Indianapolis, which was published in the Liberal newspapers, and widely circulated as a campaign docu- ment. He continued on the stump till the close of the canvass, constantly encountering torrents of abuse and defamation. The venom of his old Republican friends even surpassed that which confronted the Abolitionists in their early experience. The leaders of Grantism set all the canons of decency at defiance in their efforts to blacken his character. The Republican editors and orators of the state branded him as a "renegade," an "apostate," and a "rebel." They said he had left the party because he failed to get the nomination for Con- gressman at large, and repeated and reiterated the statement throughout the entire campaign; and yet they well knew this statement to be false, and that he

fully availed himself of the right of self-defense on the stump, meeting his assailants with the effective weapons of argument, invective, and ridicule, while their pro- longed howl bore witness to the completeness of his work. During the following winter Mr. Julian prepared a thorough article, which appeared in the New York Tribune, in opposition to a land bounty bill which had passed the House, and was then pending in the Senate. The article was printed as a tract by the New York Land Reform Association, and incorporated by the Senate Committee on Public Lands into its adverse re- port on the House Bill, which was thus finally defeated. In September, 1873, he delivered a very carefully con- sidered and elaborate speech on current political topics, at Rockville, Indiana. During this and the three or four following years he devoted much of his time to a course of general reading, which his long political life had hitherto made impossible. In June, 1874, he at- tended a general anti-slavery reunion at Chicago, in which he spoke on "The Lessons of the Anti-slavery Conflict." During the month of August he made a series of speeches in behalf of women suffrage, in Mich- igan, the question having become a practical one in that state by a proposed Constitutional amendment. In the fall of this year he discussed the same question in a series of speeches in Iowa. In October, 1875, he deliv- ered an address, which he had prepared with much thought and care, before the anti-slavery reunion in Greensboro, and in February, 1876, he delivered the same at Spiceland, and before the literary societies of the North- western Christian University. In April he visited New York and Washington, and conferred with prominent Liberals as to the political outlook. He looked forward with hope to the New York conference of Liberals, which was to meet in May, but was completely in the fog as to the course which coming developments might make it his duty to pursue. He was willing to support Adams or Bristow, but fully determined not to support any man whose election would prolong the rule of Grantism. The nomination of Hayes and Tilden added new complications, and divided and embarrassed inde- pendent voters in reaching their final conclusions ; but, having faith in Governor Tilden as the champion of po- litical reform, and believing that Hayes would prove the instrument of the political leaders who had finally ac- cepted him as their candidate, Mr. Julian determined to support the former. Soon after this decision he be- gan the preparation of a strong political speech, which he delivered in the Opera-house in Indianapolis on the 26th of August, to a magnificent audience. He thor- oughly argued the pending political issues from his (independent stand-point, and while vividly portraying the profligacy of Grantism during the previous, eight years, and clearly presenting his reasons for support-

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ing Governor Tilden, he condemned the machinery of both the old political parties, and expressly reserved his entire political independence. In style, method of discussion, the skillful marshaling of facts, force of ar- gument, and effectiveness of appeal, it decidedly com- mended itself to the people. In speaking of it, the Indianapolis Sentinel declared that in "elegance of diction it excels any address made in the present cam- paign, and is worthy of the pen of Addison or Steele. In incisive arguments and trenchant sarcasm it is equal to the best efforts of Burke or Grattan; and its inex- orable logic reminds one of Webster and Calhoun." Through the agency of the Associated Press it appeared in the leading newspapers of the country, and was largely circulated as a campaign document in the state ; while the National Democratic Committee afterwards printed and circulated in pamphlet the enormous num- ber of two million copies during the campaign. No speech ever delivered in this country had a greater cir- culation, unless, possibly, it be that of Sumner on the ULIAN, JOHN FINLEY, lawyer, of Indianapolis, was born at Centreville, Wayne County, Indiana. He is a son of Judge Jacob Burnet Julian and Martha (Bryan) Julian, both natives of the same county, and identified, as were their parents, who set- tled there in 1806, with the interests of Eastern Indi- ana. The Julians are descendants of a French Hu- guenot family. The earliest one of whom any trace has been preserved is Pierre St. Julien, who was en- gaged in the struggle between James and King Will- iam, and who fought under the latter at the battle of the Boyne. Even after the ascendancy of the latter life was not pleasant for Protestants in Ireland, and some of the family removed to the Carolinas in the early part of the last century ; and when the West be- came open to settlement, they went thither. His pa- ternal grandmother was descended from the Hoovers and Waymiers, both of German ancestry. On his mother's side he is of Scotch-Irish descent. His grand- father, Henry Bryan, an accomplished gentleman and scholar, was a government surveyor, being of the Bry- ans of Belfast, Ireland; and the father of his grand- mother, William Crawford, was from the same place. Mr. Crawford was a soldier in our Revolutionary War, and was wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was one of the first settlers of the Indiana Territory. John Finley Julian was educated at the Town Academy, afterwards the Whitewater College, in Centreville, un- der the immediate care of Miss Mary Thorpe and Doc- tor Cyrus Nutt, both of whom have passed away, but have left a fragrant name behind them. At a later period he attended Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, during the presidency of the celebrated Horace Mann. Here he took a classical course. He had by this time imbibed a strong love of reading, and has " Barbarism of Slavery." He continued on the stump till the close of the canvass, and was universally ac- corded the credit of very effective service. After the election, when the result became doubtful, he visited New Orleans, at the request of Mr. Hewitt, for the pur- pose of watching the proceedings of the Louisiana Re- turning Board, and securing, if possible, a fair count of the vote. He remained there nearly a month, and on his return, at the request of the Indiana Democratic state central committee, prepared an elaborate speech, in which he overhauled the action of Mr. Sherman and his associates, in pettifogging their cause and evading an honest search after the truth; exposed the knavery of the Returning Board in its organization, and in hiding its performances under the mantle of darkness; pointed out the autocratic power of the state Republican officials, and painted the rule of lawlessness and crime which had afflicted the people for years; and triumphantly met the charge of Democratic intimidation by fact, ar- gument, and ridicule. He closed this remarkable speech by quoting and adopting these words from another: " Whosoever hath the gift of tongue, let him use it ; whosoever can wield the pen of the ready writer, let him dip it in the ink-horn; whosoever hath a sword, let him gird it on, for the crisis demands our highest exertions, physical and moral." The address was deliv- ered at Indianapolis on the eighth day of January, 1877, before one of the largest gatherings ever held in the state. During the year 1877 Mr. Julian remained at home and gave his entire attention to private affairs. Since that time he has written a number of leading articles for our principal periodicals, chiefly on political and reformatory topics, which have attracted a good deal of attention, and considerably added to his reputa- tion as a thinker and writer. His mind is as vigorous | since been a great buyer and devourer of books. lle

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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 117

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