USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 26
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13 Western Sun, May 30, June 16, June 20, July 11, Aug. 29, Sept. 12, Sept. 26, 1828, and the Indiana Journal, April 14, 1830, give long lists. 14 Indiana Journal, Dec. 8, 1829.
15 Noah Noble was a Virginian by birth, having been born in Clark
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the campaign. The vote shows little significance beyond the personal popularity of the two men. Both were Inter- nal Improvement men and both had supported Jackson, though Noble later became a Whig. The congressional cam- paign of this year showed the superiority of the Jacksonian organization over that of the Clay supporters. The former elected all three congressmen, though in two of the districts they were in a decided minority. They held regular con- ventions and nominated a single candidate, while in the Second District the Clay men had six candidates. Gen. John Carr, the Jacksonian candidate, was elected by 4,855 votes out of a total of 14,818 in the district. In the Third District Jonathan McCarty was elected by 6,243 votes out of a total vote of 14,639.16
As soon as the campaign for the governorship was over the Jackson men, now calling themselves National Demo- crats, began active preparation for the approaching contest between Jackson and Clay. The defeat of Mr. Read alarmed them for their supremacy. They could not tell what effect the removals from office would have; neither could they tell what influence the Second United States Bank would have with its fabulous wealth. The campaign would also have to be made against Henry Clay, a western man, and a most skillful politician, not to mention his power as a stump speaker.
County conventions began in November and a State con- vention was called for December. The Clay men, under the name of National Republicans, and claiming to be the party of Jefferson, began their organization as soon as they learned the Democrats were at work. A series of county conventions, or mass meetings, was followed in each party
county, Virginia, Jan. 15, 1794. While quite small, his parents came to Kentucky, crossing over to Indiana and settling at Brookville in 1816. His older brother was United States senator and his younger brother receiver of public moneys at the Brookville land office till 1826. While moving the land office to Indianapolis that year his brother, Lazarus. died, and Noah succeeded him in the office. He had formerly been sheriff two terms and had served in the General Assembly. He held office al- most all his life. He died at his home in Indianapolis in 1844. He was a Whig, though not much of a partisan.
16 Madison Republican, Oct. 13, 1831.
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by a State meeting in Indianapolis.17 The Whigs met in the Methodist church, forty-six delegates being present from twenty-nine counties. Delegates to the Baltimore Convention were chosen and a corresponding committee of one from each county selected. The Democrats met in the courthouse December 12. They adopted resolutions, pre- pared an address, endorsed Jackson, and nominated an elec- toral ticket.
A third party appeared in the field in this campaign. Some time in November the Anti-Masons held a convention at Hanover and decided to take an active part in the ap- proaching election. Several newspapers were advocates of their cause and the leaders of the old parties were seri- ously concerned. The convention appointed a committee to ascertain the views of the candidates for the presidency. The committee addressed Clay on the subject and his an- swer had much to do with allaying the agitation. He pointed out to them that Masonry was strictly a non-po- litical organization like a church or school, and it would not be good practice on the part of candidates to drag such questions into politics. The movement in Indiana subsided as rapidly as it had arisen, though for several years the Masonic order was regarded with suspicion by the public in general.18
The national election of 1832 was a well-conducted con- test. The Jacksonian Democratic Party was thrown largely on the defensive. The two candidates, Clay and Jackson, appealed to the western pioneers. Clay had much the stronger platform and Jackson had much the better organi- zation. The Whigs held a State meeting or convention at Indianapolis, January 31, principally for the purpose of strengthening and perfecting their organization.19 The weakness of their organization was that all the federal
17 Indiana Democrat, Sept. 17. 1831; Nov. 5, 1831; Nov. 23, 1831. In- diana Journal, Nov. 5, 1831; Nov. 12, 1831; Dec. 14, 1831.
18 Indiana Journal, Dec. 3, 1831; Niles' Register 41; 260. The party had an electoral ticket in the field, but no returns available give any votes cast for it. The electoral ticket is given in the Vevay Messenger, Nov. 3, 1832.
19 Indiana Journal, Feb. 1, 1832.
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office holders were Democrats and thus had more time and better opportunity to meet the voters and talk politics. The Whig politician had to go and see the voters, while the voters had to go and see the Democratic politicians.
The veto of the new charter for the United States Bank upset all party plans in the State. It was known in the west that Jackson was not an enthusiastic friend of the bank, but it was not expected that he would try to kill it. The newspapers and politicians of the State were at a loss to understand the President's motives. Some thought it was the result of an understanding between Jackson and the wealthy money lenders of the east whereby Jackson had agreed to put all paper money out of circulation so that the wealthy who held all the specie could loan it at a much higher rate of interest.20 Others were confident that it was a battle royal between the government and the greedy monopolists. The Democrats adroitly shifted the at- tack from the bank to "Nick Biddle," whose name was made a synonym for greed, usury, and high-handed spoliation. The smouldering hatred of the old Indiana note-shaving banks was also kindled to a blaze. On the whole, Indiana sustained Jackson's veto of the bank charter, though prac- tically all its public men opposed it.
There was another veto, however, which could not be explained. A bill had been prepared and passed by Con- gress for opening the Wabash. The President had signed similar bills applying to the Tennessee river and to a river in Pennsylvania. The Indiana measure died in his pocket.21 While this did not seem to affect the election of 1832, it did materially affect that of 1836. President Jackson's ob- jection to the expenditure of public money on the Wabash was that the stream was not sufficient for general naviga- tion and that there was no port of entry on the river. In the next session Senator John Tipton presented another bill for the improvement of the Wabash, including in the bill a provision making Lafayette a port of entry. Tipton
20 Indiana Republican, Sept. 20, 1832, quoting the Wabash Courier. The Wabash Herald asserted the Democratic view.
21 Indiana Journal, Sept. S, 1832 ; also Vincennes Gazette, Aug. 2. 1834.
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cited thirty cases in which Jackson had signed similar measures. But it was all useless. The President vetoed it and thereby lost the support of his friends in the Wa- bash Valley, and perhaps thereby lost the State to Van Buren in 1836.22
Just before the election, October, 1832, a committee of prominent Whigs drew up a statement called "Facts for the people." It set forth in a masterly way the national issues, and the Whig arguments. In this respect it was the forerunner of the modern campaign text-book. The vote, however, showed that Jackson still retained the sup- port of the Indiana voters. Clay carried two of the seven congressional districts, and nineteen out of the sixty-six counties. Jackson's majority was 6,077. Fountain, Knox, Vigo, Tippecanoe, and Cass counties showed by their vote Samuel Judah, their resentment of the Wabash veto.23 United States attorney, and Samuel Milroy, receiver at Crawfordsville, criticised Jackson and both lost their offices in 1833. Dr. Canby also lost his position in the land office at Crawfordsville. Judge Jeremiah Sullivan likewise bolted on the bank veto. Wayne county gave Clay a majority of 969, the largest county majority in the State. Jackson's heaviest vote came from the triangle between Indianapolis, Madison, and Evansville.24 This was, and still is, a center of Jacksonian Democracy in Indiana.
One of the sharpest political struggles that had taken place in the State up to the time took place in the General Assembly of 1832. The veto of the bill rechartering the Second Bank of the United States made it imperative that some form of currency be provided for the citizens of In- diana. Several plans were submitted and many committee reports made. Finally three plans were worked out and embodied in bills. The General Assembly, however, was
22 Logan Esarey, Internal Improvements in Early Indiana, 77.
23 Indiana Journal, Oct. 3. 1832. For Tipton's quarrel with Jackson see Niles' Register, 46-443.
24 Election reports may be found in the St. Joseph Beacon, Dec. 15, 1832; Lawrenceburg Palladium, Dec. 8, 1832; Vevay Messenger, Dec. 15. These have been compared with the official returns and found correct.
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unable to agree on which one was best. Both parties de- manded action. Several members resigned rather than vote on these bills.25
The General Assembly elected in August, 1833, showed the effects of the failure of the previous Assembly to act.
Twelve new senators took their seats. It was claimed that only one senator was re-elected. In the House not less than twenty-five new faces appeared. The old leaders who had dominated the General Assembly since 1816 dis- appeared. The pioneer period of Indiana history was ended, so far as the State legislature was concerned.
The congressional elections in 1833 again showed the superior organization of the Democratic Party. Ratliff Boone, of the First District, was opposed by four Whigs and one Anti-Mason candidate. The latter, Dr. D. G. Mitchell, of Corydon, polled 287 votes out of a total of 7,805 in the district.26
The year 1834 brought with it a renewal of the contest between Governor Noble and James G. Read for the gov- ernorship. The latter was nominated by a poorly attended convention at Indianapolis. The charge was made that it was attended merely by officeholders. Twenty-three out of the sixty-three counties were not represented at all. The Whigs referred to it as a caucus.27
By this time the State was deeply interested in internal improvement schemes, had chartered a State Bank, and was looking forward with great ambitions. Governor Noble was the soul of all these policies. He was not a par- tisan. The Whig Indiana Journal called him a Jacksonian Democrat. He appointed Nathan B. Palmer, one of the leaders of the Democrats, to the office of Treasurer of
25 Indiana Democrat, Feb. 9. 1833. Calvin Fletcher, then a senator from Marion county, resigned. The Democrat approved of his resigna- tion if he could not vote as his constituents desired : "In this land of Republican principles the right of instruction is generally conceded as one of the reserved rights of the people, and that man who openly de- nies that right will seldom be honored with their confidence." This was sound Jacksonian Democracy.
26 Indiana Palladium, Aug. 31, 1833.
27 Indiana Journal, Jan. 4 and Jan. 11, 1834.
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State.28 By skillful political management he had built up a bipartisan organization, the leading members of which were the promoters of the State Bank and the internal im- provements. This organization controlled State politics for ten or twelve years, until the failure of the internal im- provements brought the leaders into disfavor. Mr. Read also claimed to be non-partisan.29 In this role of non-parti- sanship Noble had all the advantage for Read had been an outspoken and unsparing Jackson man.
Early in the campaign Read and Noble signed a pledge not to do any canvassing. They had opposed each other in a canvass of the State three years before, both had been in public life for many years, and it was thought a waste of time and money to canvass the State.30 The agreement, however, was largely in favor of the governor, since he was meeting voters from all parts of the State every day. In spite of this promise, Read made a canvass, but the result was evident from the beginning.31 The national elections everywhere were a severe rebuke to Jackson. The Whig papers are full of bitter attacks on Jackson's veto, specie circular, pet banks, the betrayal of the tariff, and the war on the United States Bank.
Read carried sixteen out of the seventy counties voting. These were in the Jacksonian triangle, with Carroll and Parke added. He was defeated in the State by a vote of 27,302 to 36,925.32 He lost five out of seven congressional
28 Indiana Journal, Feb. 22, 1834.
29 Indiana Journal, April 19, 1834. See also extract from Salem An- notator. The Paoli Patriot also made the same claim for Read. On the other hand, the Indiana Democrat, June 27, charges that all Clay papers were supporting Noble. The Madison Republican, July 3, denied this; but it was substantially true.
30 Indiana Journal, April 26, 1834.
31 "Judge Read started from Jeffersonville July 9, and has been busily engaged traveling and making speeches ever since. He will have tra- versed the whole Wabash country as high up as Lafayette by the day of the election. We have learned from most of the counties he has vis- ited that Noble's friends are deserting him like winter leaves and ral- lying under the banner of Democratic Republicanism with Red." In- diana Democrat, quoted by Journal, Aug. 9, 1834.
32 Logansport Telegraph, Sept. 6, 1834. The results of the 1831 and 1834 elections are given in parallel columns.
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districts. The sweeping majority was a ratification of the internal improvement policy by the voters. The spell of General Jackson had spent its force and the voters gave their attention principally to State affairs.
After the election of 1834 it seemed that Indiana was safely Whig. The State officers and a large majority of the members of the General Assembly belonged to that party, while the regular Democratic organization was almost broken up. Tipton, Hannegan, Sullivan, Judah, Milroy, Drake, and Dr. Canby had either quit the party or were temporarily opposing it.
The Whigs, however, failed to form any political or- ganization and allowed the fruits of the victory to escape them. The congressional election of 1835 returned seven Democratic congressmen from the seven districts. Three, and perhaps four, of these had supported Noble. In the Sixth District no Whig candidate appeared. There was no political principle at stake in the campaign. It seems there was not even a political organization formed.
ยง 59 THE HARRISON CAMPAIGNS
The political campaign that began in Indiana in 1835 and ended in November, 1840, was the most picturesque ever waged in the State. During the five years, 1835-1840, there was no let-up in the struggle.
The campaign began about the middle of the year 1835. Harrison does not now seem to have been even a remote possibility as a presidential candidate at the beginning of the agitation. Col. R. M. Johnston had long been one of the dashing figures in American political life. Soon after the close of the War of 1812 it had been claimed that the mounted Kentuckians, at the battle of the Thames, had stampeded the Indians; a short time later it was said the fiery Colonel Johnston had led the charge; a short time later, in the press accounts, it was the dashing Colonel Johnston who had killed Tecumseh; still later it was the fashion to call him the renowned Colonel Johnston who commanded the Kentuckians at the battle of the Thames.
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Now at last it had become the glorious General Richard M. Johnston who won the battle of the Thames.
Johnston was a receptive candidate for the presidency to succeed Jackson, whose political methods he imitated. He had perhaps no thought of waking any resentment in the heart of the old general at North Bend. And perhaps no such thing would have resulted but for an unfortunate expression by citizens of Indianapolis. A committee, com- posed of Arthur St. Clair, Seton W. Norris, Livingston Dun- lap, James Morrison, Henry Brady, and Alex Wylie, was appointed to invite General Harrison to come to their town and celebrate the anniversary of the victory he had helped to win.33 The note, as printed, appears innocent enough, yet a combination of circumstances made of it the spark that fired the magazine.
Harrison's answer, dated September 27, 1835, filled two columns, and was copied by almost every paper in the northwest. It showed beyond doubt that the old pioneer had all his ancient power. Like his camps among the In- dians, his letter had no points left unguarded where an attack could be made. The Indiana Democrat, edited at the time by Alexander F. Morrison, had mentioned the meeting at Indianapolis as preliminary to the celebration of the victory of the Thames, achieved by General Har- rison and Colonel Johnston. A Kentucky poem had re- cently gone the rounds of the press, which celebrated the battle and likened Johnston to Telamonian Ajax as he had ranged the field of battle. Governor Shelby was humbly mentioned as Agamemnon, but nothing was said of Har- rison. A great meeting was called by the Tammany So- ciety of New York that year to celebrate the victory won by Colonel Johnston on the Thames. In Boston they called attention to the victory of the Thames won by Colonels Johnston and Harrison. Why, asked the old general, should his own name be linked with that of Johnston in connec- tion with the action on the Thames? He, himself, was in supreme and unquestioned command. Not a movement
33 Madison Republican and Banner, Oct. 15, 1835.
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was made but by his order. Why should this colonel of militia be his associate? No one denied the gallantry of any part of the army, none certainly would detract from the merits of Colonel Johnston. But no one ever spoke of the victory won by General Jackson and some colonel at New Orleans, although he had a number of able officers of that grade. No one ever speaks of the victory of Gen- eral Miller and the gallant Colonel Brown at Niagara. Likewise, there were no divided honors at the battle of the Thames. The glories should go to the army, and it was under his command alone. The praise should go to the whole army, and not to some single individual. If any one, more than another, shared in the councils of the com- mander, it was the greatest of Kentucky's soldiers, Gov- ernor Shelby, the hero of King's Mountain. Finally, in proof of his position, Harrison called attention to the mes- sage of Monroe, to the resolutions of Congress, to the word of Governor Shelby, to the report of Commodore Perry, to that of General Wood, and finally to the history of the war written by Robert B. McAfee, who served under Johnston.
The partisans and fellow-soldiers of the old hero heard his call like a command. The reference to Governor Shelby fired the Kentucky Whigs. During the fall General Har- rison made trips down the Ohio, being hailed everywhere as an old friend. Everybody except a few of the Jacksonian precinct politicians joined in the barbecues, parades, ban- quets, and celebrations in his honor. At Madison, Louis- ville, New Albany, and Vincennes he was received by the undivided populace. A description of these military spec- tacles, the toasts, and set orations, filled the press of the Ohio river towns. The editors were always made the sec- retaries of the meetings.
On November 7-15, 1835, a monster meeting was held on the Tippecanoe battlefield. Isaac Naylor, the veteran editor of the Crawfordsville Record, and a soldier at Tippe- canoe, was the speaker of the day. Dr. Deming pro- nounced an eulogy on Harrison. All then repaired to the feast. The barbecue was served on three tables each one
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hundred yards long. These were filled twice by the multi- tude.
Harrison was formally nominated for the presidency by this meeting. But by this time the Harrison boom was in full career elsewhere. Editor John Douglas, of the In- diana Journal, November 13, 1835, said there was a steady manifestation of interest in the coming candidacy of Gen- eral Harrison.34 It was not a preconcerted series of meet- ings, and there was no articulation to the campaign, but Harrison banquets were held in every county. Papers were filled with discussions of his battles. Incidents and anec- dotes were met with in all papers. County meetings solemnly resolved that he was a fit candidate for the presi- dency.
These early meetings were apparently non-political. Nothing offensively partisan was ever brought up. Neither the name Whig, Democrat, Jackson men, Clay men, nor any of the other numerous epithets, by which one or the other political party was known, were used by the speakers.
One of the first of these meetings in Indiana was called by John Vawter, a patriarch of the Baptist church. The meeting was held at old Vernon. Here is perhaps a proper place to note a phase of this campaign not generally recog- nized. This meeting would probably have passed resolu- tions condemning Clay with as much unanimity, if not with as much enthusiasm, as it showed when endorsing Har- rison. Clay never received the support of the church peo- ple of the State, if the newspapers can be taken as evidence. The Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists, especially the preachers, continually found fault with his drunkenness, his gambling, his profanity, to mention only a few of the immoralities he was charged with. The edi- tors tried in the earlier years to explain or condone these faults as the unavoidable characteristics of all really great men, but in later years, especially since his defeat in 1832,
34 A meeting at Brookville, Feb. 7, 1835, endorsed the nomination of Harrison previously made in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Enos McCarty, a Democrat, presided. Indiana American, quoted in Indiana Journal, Feb. 27, 1835.
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they had ceased, and now gave full publicity to all rumors of that kind.
In every question that arose during that quarter of a century Clay, they charged, threw the weight of his influ- ence against good morals. The opposite was true of Har- rison, and the humble church folks of the northwest turned with hope from such characters as Clay, Van Buren, Web- ster, and Buchanan.
The meeting at Vernon was followed by a similar one at Lexington, presided over by Col. Abraham Kimberlin, and addressed by the venerable Col. James Goodhue, a crippled soldier, whom Jackson had dismissed from the postoffice, over the protest of the whole neighborhood, after almost a lifetime of honest service.
Every paper of the period contains some reference to a county meeting, and the Whig papers mixed up the ac- counts with criticism of the high-handed, straight-arm methods of the administration men.
The Van Buren papers tried in vain for a hearing. The people would have no patience with them. In fact, many of them that were free of federal patronage boldly took their places in the Harrison ranks and received the name, "dugout" Whigs. The faithful discipline under which Jackson had compelled his editors to defend his adminis- tration now reacted against them. People discounted everything the editor said as if it were handed down. John Douglas, editor of the Indiana Journal, had referred to Jackson editors a few years ago as wearing the "chain and collar" of their master. The reference was catchy and during this and the succeeding campaign they were usually referred to as the "collar" press.
The Harrison Convention met at Indianapolis Decem- ber 14, 1835. It proved to be a reunion of the heroes of Tippecanoe. Many of them had never taken part in poli- tics, but when they heard the call of their old commander they rallied for his support. It seemed to the common people an insult to thus challenge these old soldiers of an earlier generation.35
35 Vevay Weckly Messenger. Dec. 26, 1835.
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The aged preacher, John Vawter of Vernon, called the Indianapolis convention to order. Marston G. Clark, whose name recalled the memory of his kinsman, George Rogers Clark, and who himself had been a distinguished pioneer of the State, and had served as aid in the Tippecanoe cam- paign, choosing the site for the night camp which became the battle ground and for the selection of which Harrison had been so unjustly censured, was called to preside. He was escorted to the chair by Judge William Polke, who had served as chief of scouts for General Harrison and had been interpreter in the last interview with the Prophet the night before the battle, and Jordan Vigus, likewise a hero of Tippecanoe. As this trio of heroes marched up the aisle, gray and grizzled with hardships, but firm and erect as when they marched up the Wabash twenty-four years be -. fore, the Van Buren politicians present saw they had unin- tentionally awakened a dormant force in Indiana that was beyond their control. As vice presidents of the convention there sat beside Clark, Gen. John G. Clendennin of Orange county and General Samuel Carr of Clark county, two of the strongest supporters of Jackson in the State.
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