USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 27
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The speech of Clark, recounting the achievements of Harrison by one who was, as all knew, giving no idle praise, carried the convention away. Speeches by Polke, Naylor, and others kept up enthusiasm. A misguided poli- tician, who mentioned Johnson as a possible running mate for Harrison, apologized to the convention for the insult. The addresses filled the first pages of the newspapers and swept the country like a prairie fire.
The election of 1836 had all the moral effects of a de- feat for both parties in Indiana, at least so far as the news- papers were concerned. The Democrats were completely defeated, but, to the disgust of the Whig editors, remained in possession of the battlefield.
At the suggestion of the Richmond Palladium the Whig editors formed an editorial association and made system- atic war on the enemy. The Palladium carried, during the whole period from 1836 to 1840 as a motto, the words of Senator N. P. Tallmadge of New York-"Uncompromising
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Hostility to the Reelection of Martin Van Buren." The Indiana Journal and other newspapers likewise kept their battle flags floating, or, as they expressed it, had nailed their colors to the masts. In December, 1839, the National Whig Convention of Harrisburg placed Harrison again in the field as a presidential candidate. This was done largely in deference to the voice of the northwest as expressed in previous State conventions.
A great campaign must have live contributory issues. The Whig convention at Harrisburg had wisely refrained from adopting any platform, thus leaving its campaigners and its press a wide latitude for the contest. In Indiana, especially, it was almost impossible to say what was the paramount issue. There was a State governor and a legis- lature to elect, as well as a President of the nation.
The liquor question had been for years causing a great deal of thinking, especially among the members of the Evangelical churches. Numerous societies, called the Washingtonians, were organized throughout the State. The agitation was nation-wide and then, as now, proved a boomerang to every party that trifled with it. During the winter of 1838 and 1839 thieves and gamblers rendezvoused in the taverns of Indianapolis and for the first time terror- ized the capital. A grand jury spent some time making the investigation.36
There was no lack of orators then to show the direct and sinister connection between taverns and politics. Other orators stood firmly for personal freedom and the rights of the individual. Between these extremes the great body of Hoosiers, in earnest humor, discussed, in school and out, the traditional questions of politics, the tariff, the
36 In the Indiana Journal of May 18, 1839, was printed their report on "Groceries and Grog Shops." "We have come to the unanimous con- clusion that houses kept expressly for the sale of spirituous liquors are highly injurious to the peace, good order and general welfare of this or any other community. We are satisfied that laws licensing such are unwise and impolitic and ought to be repealed. They are abettors of crime and immorality. They are nuisances. They rob the poor and break up families. We appeal to the General Assembly to banish one of the greatest evils that mars the peace and prosperity and happiness of our country."
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bank, the boundaries, slavery, internal improvements, pub- lic lands, and, above all, the "glorious achievements" or the "blundering stupidity" of General Harrison.
As observed before, General Harrison was an ideal newspaper candidate. His life and exploits lent themselves to picturesque descriptions. Especially was this true here in Indiana, where much of his life had been spent. Scarcely a neighborhood but contained some of his comrades in arms. These were sought out and by the liberal aid of the editor they prepared endless anecdotes and incidents of former campaigns. The veterans of Tippecanoe were given the place of honor on the platform where powerful orators referred to their snowy locks and eminent services. They were feasted and toasted at monster barbecues until it seemed the State was trying to atone for having so long neglected its own heroes.
The State campaign was as stoutly contested as the na- tional. The election of 1839 was over before the panic struck the State and the General Assembly stood as unde- cided before the situation as did the people. But, taking up the murmur of the people, it plunged into the chaos of State affairs. The House called for no less than seventeen formal reports on internal improvements, and the Senate eighteen. No one knew what the reports meant. The As- sembly through a long session of eighty-five days was a hotbed of petty politics. The Indiana Journal thus an- nounced its adjournment: "This body, after a stormy, pro- tracted, and useless session of eighty-five days, has at last adjourned, and may heaven for all time save us from such another." The reports collected by the General Assembly furnished an exhaustless supply of materials for stump speakers and newspapers.
Before the year 1840 the politicians of the two parties were fencing for position. The Democrats in the General Assembly called for a caucus, and the Whigs, on December 14, 1839, met at the State House with Samuel Judah, presi- dent, and Charles Test, secretary, and solemnly protested against the undemocratic performance. Their "weighty" resolutions against caucuses went the rounds of the Whig
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press and were praised even by the moderate or "dugout" Democrats.
The Whigs nominated Judge Samuel Bigger of Rush county, a graduate of Athens (Ohio) University, a distin- guished legislator and judge, and an eloquent stump speaker. The Democrats nominated Gen. Tilghman How- ard, a native of South Carolina, and a resident of Parke county.37
January 15, a county convention met at Bedford. John Edwards was chairman, R. W. Thompson reported the resolutions and held the crowd spellbound in a two-hour speech. George G. Dunn followed in an oration of equal length. One hundred and sixty-six delegates were ap- pointed to attend the State convention.
Other counties sent delegations of similar size. The delegates began to arrive in Indianapolis January 14. Two days before the time for opening the convention the legis- lative hall was crowded with "Democratic Whigs." Speak- ers followed each other through long day and night ses- sions. Citizens generously opened their homes to the dele- gates, after the taverns were full. By January 16 the capi- tal was flooded with visitors. Samuel Judah of Knox was chairman. John Beard of Montgomery, James Blair of Vermillion, James T. Moffatt of Vigo, Samuel Herriott of Johnson, Thomas D. Baird of St. Joseph, William H. Ben- nett of Union, Morris Lancaster of Wayne, Philip Sweetser
37 Among Whig speakers of State fame were Joseph G. Marshall, O. H. Smith, George Dunn, Albert White, Willard Herod, Caleb Smith, R. W. Thompson, Henry S. Lane. Othniel Clark, Newton Claypool. Sam- uel C. Sample, Thomas J. Evans, Hugh O'Neill. Schuyler Colfax, John Vawter, Milton Stapp, John Dumont, Stephen C. Stephens, Jeremiah Sullivan, Joseph C. Eggleston, William G. Ewing, James H. Cravens, Jonathan McCarty, John Ewing, George H. Dunn, Samuel Judah, Ran- dall Crawford, Thomas H. Blake, Elisha Huntington, Judge De Bruler, Charles Dewey and Conrad Baker. Among the Democrats the best campaigners were General Howard, Edward Hannegan, James Whit- comb, Marinus Willet, Findley Bigger, Amos Lane, Thomas Smith, Rob- ert Dale Owen, John Law, Joseph A. Wright, John G. Davis, Paris C. Dunning, Delaney Eckels, Alvin P. Hovey, Andrew Kennedy. John Spen- cer, Elisha Long, Nathaniel West, N. B. Palmer, General Drake, John Carr, William W. Wick, James Brown Ray, Joseph Holman and Ross Smiley.
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of Marion, Joseph Robinson of Ripley, and John Zenor of Harrison, all members of the General Assembly, were ap- pointed an executive committee to conduct the campaign.
Every county was instructed to hold a convention and form county and township organizations and provide for county and township celebrations. Marion county met Feb- ruary 18, Harrison county on the 22d, and so on. There were conventions of young men, as in Fountain county February 22, Marion county March 5, Marshall county March 22, Miami county March 3; Huntington, Wells, Adams, Jay and Blackford all sent reports in together.
The "first voters" met at the Tippecanoe Battleground May 29. Harrison Democrats celebrated in Shelby county February 22, and were addressed by James Farrington.
A large delegation tramped off to Ohio to attend a cele- bration at Fort Meigs, May 9. By this time Harrison marching clubs were organized in many counties. A rally was called for Decatur county March 22. Almost every voter in the county was present. By eleven o'clock in the morning, Greensburg was full of people. Word came that township delegations were approaching. A procession headed by the Greensburg band formed and moved down the Michigan Road to meet the Adams township delega- tion. At the head of the latter was a monster canoe drawn by six gray horses. In the canoe were a band and a vet- eran of '76, frosty headed, but carrying a large banner. The other township delegations were likewise intercepted, after which the long column paraded the town to the court- house square, where the inevitable speaking began. De- scriptions of such meetings appeared in all papers and in almost every issue. At Connersville the lowest estimate of the crowd was ten thousand. The canoe was fifty feet long. A log cabin 8x12 was a part of the parade; another float contained a threshing floor with four men using flails; the Hagerstown men attended in their canoe; Rush county sent 1,000 men with a buckeye canoe; Union county sent a troop of dragoons armed and in uniform. There was no end to
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the barbecues, and celebrations, and mass meetings, no limit to the pranks of the zealous Whigs.
The culmination came in the Battleground Convention of May 29. Indianapolis was the rallying ground for the southeastern part of the State. Delegates and delegations began to arrive May 25. It rained during the three preced- ing days, but no one complained. The women of the cap- ital had prepared two beautiful banners. After the pre- sentation ceremonies, the column began to get under way, marching in squadrons of 200 each. Those on horseback took the lead, followed by carriages and wagons with a long rearguard on foot. Many of the latter trudged barefoot through the black mud of the Michigan road, carrying their shoes in their hands. The column was said to be twenty- five miles long. Corncribs, haystacks, parlors, kitchens, barns, bedrooms, all were thrown open along the way to this army of pilgrims. Everybody was welcome every- where. Every cabin had its banner up and barrel out. The White Horse Trained Band from Fayette county attracted most attention. Single delegations of 1,000 men came marching. The Battlegrounds were white with tents. There were men from nearly every State in the Union.
In one place was a group of patriot survivors of the Revolution, in another the heroes of Fort Meigs, and in still another those of Tippecanoe, the Levites who were to act as high priests at this shrine. The veteran preacher, John Vawter, called the "nations" to order and turned the meeting over to Gen. John McCarty. Judge William Polke, Thomas Hinds, of Illinois, and Isaac Naylor, survivors all of the battle, made brief addresses, after which Judge Big- ger, the orator of the day, spoke two hours. James Brooks, editor of the New York Express, followed with an oration. After this came the crowning act of the meeting. The sur- viving soldiers gathered together at the Battleground House, formed in order, whereupon Judge Polke produced the old banner under which Captain Spier Spencer's Yellow Jackets had fought, under which those two heroes of the militia, Spencer and Warrick, had died, and which Colonel
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Tipton had carried, and under it again these old men marched to the stand, where Mr. Polke presented it to Edi- tor Brooks to be kept by him till the inauguration of Har- rison, to whom it was then to be presented and by whom . it was to be placed among the archives of the nation.
It was a perfect delirium of sentiment. The Democrats stood off and wondered if their good neighbors would ever return to their senses. The State enjoyed a carnival of oratory. Joint discussions were held, in one of which it is said two speakers talked two days, occupying two hours each, forenoon and afternoon. A part of the itinerary of the candidate for governor, Judge Bigger, will illustrate the strenuous life of the spellbinders during the cam- paign.38
On this trip he traveled horseback 700 miles, made thir- ty-three speeches, each two to four hours long.
The campaign closed with a monster parade in Indian- apolis the night before the election. Mr. Whitcomb, later governor, was to speak on the North Side, and Senator O. H. Smith on the South Side. After waiting till midnight for the noise to subside the two speakers left their stand. After the State election the Democrats gave up the contest and sanity gradually returned to the people. In the State election Samuel Bigger was elected by over 9,000 plurality. The State senate stood 31 to 15 in favor of the Whigs. The house stood 78 to 22, showing thus more decisively the results of the campaign. Harrison carried the State in the following November by 13,698 majority.
38 On one of his trips he left Greensburg on horseback and, after speaking there April 6, April 7 he spoke at Versailles, April 8 at Vevay, April 9 at Madison, April 10 at Charlestown, April 11 at New Albany, April 13 at Corydon, April 15 at Leavenworth, April 16 at Fredonia, April 17 at Rome, April 18 at Troy, April 20 at Rockport, April 21 at Boonville, April 22 at Evansville, April 24 at Mt. Vernon, April 25 at Cynthiana, April 27 at Princeton, April 28 at Petersburg, April 29 at Vincennes, May 1 at Merom, May 2 at Caledonia, May 4 at Terre Haute, May 6 at Bowling Green, May 7 at Greencastle, May 8 at Danville, May 9 at Indianapolis.
CHAPTER XIV
REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS FROM THE STATE
§ 60 THE TREATY GROUNDS
THE little garrison under Maj. Josiah H. Vose at Fort Wayne was withdrawn April 19, 1819.1 They were the last regular soldiers on frontier duty in the State. The westward movement of settlers had carried the frontier be- yond Indiana.
Fort Wayne was then a busy center of the fur trade. Often 1,000 men were collected there on Indian pay day. At such times horse-racing, gambling, drunkenness and debauchery were the order until the traders had all the Indians' annuity money in their possession.2
In 1823 John Tipton became the agent of the Miamis and Pottawattomies, with headquarters at Fort Wayne. As the settlements around the place increased the Indians fell back on the upper Wabash and Eel rivers. Partly that he might be nearer the Indians and partly due to interest in
1 Vincennes Centinel, July 19, 1819.
2 Robert S. Robertson, Valley of the Upper Maumee I, 184. The fol- lowing paragraph from Rev. J. B. Finley, Life Among the Indians, 518, describes these scenes. The missionary was an eye witness: "This was an awful scene for a sober man to look upon. Here were encamped be- tween two and three hundred Indians, and one-third if not one-half drunk ; men and women, raving maniacs, singing, dancing, fighting, stab- bing, and tomahawking one another-and there were the rumsellers watering their whisky until it was not strong grog, and selling it for four dollars a gallon-their hired men gathering up all the skins and furs, and their silver trinkets, ear-bobs, arm-bands, half-moons, silver crosses, and brooches-giving a gill of grog for a dozen of silver brooches -and their guns, tomahawks and blankets, till they were literally stripped naked, and three or four were killed or wounded. The reader may set what estimate he pleases, or call him by what name; yet if there was ever a greater robber, or a meaner thief, or a dirtier mur- derer than these rumsellers, he is yet to be seen."
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land speculation, Mr. Tipton secured the removal of the Indian Agency, in the spring of 1828, to the mouth of Eel river, the present site of Logansport.
The Indian trade at that time was one of the most lucra- tive occupations in the State. The agent bought large num- bers of cattle, hogs, and horses for the Indians. Droves of stock were gathered up and driven through the forests to Fort Wayne or Logansport.
By the law of 1819 the Indians of Indiana were granted annuities as follows : Weas, $3,000; Pottawattomies, $2,500; Delawares, $4,000; Miamis, $15,000; besides which there were specific gifts which often amounted to as much as the annuities. Thus at this time, 1819, the Delawares, then preparing to go west, were given $13,000.3
The annual assembly at the Treaty Grounds was the greatest commercial event of northern Indiana from 1820 to 1840. It corresponded with the New Orleans trade in the southern part of the State. At the treaties of October 20, 26 and 27, 1832, there were distributed goods to the value of $365,729.87.4 There were not less than fifty trad- ers on the grounds. The bills of W. G. and G. W. Ewing footed up about $30,000. Joseph Holman, a member of the First Constitutional Convention; Jonathan Jennings, our first governor; John W. Davis of Carlisle, long a member of Congress and at one time its speaker; Allen Hamilton, president of the Fort Wayne Branch of the State Bank; Samuel Hanna, founder of Fort Wayne; Nicholas McCarty, a merchant of Indianapolis and later a Whig candidate for governor; Alexis Coquillard, founder of South Bend; Jor- dan Vigus, one of the founders of Logansport, were a few of the better known traders and agents. It is hardly nec- essary to say these were the leading men of the northern part of the State. Many of them became wealthy in this
3 United States Statutes at Large 1819, ch. LXXXVII.
4 Senate Document, Indian Removals, V, 1834-5. First Sess. 23d Cong. The Treaty Grounds were on the Tippecanoe river near its mouth. The assemblies were not all held at the same place. Some were held at the Big Springs where Wabash is now, some on the site of Huntington, some at the mouth of the Mississinewa and many down on the old Tip- pecanoe Battleground.
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business. It was said that the Ewing brothers became millionaires.5
At this time it is hardly possible to determine the profit made by the traders. Blankets sold at $8 and $10 each; red flannel at 57 cents; bleached shirting at 971/4 cents ; tincups at 121/2 cents ; red cotton handkerchiefs at 40 cents ; calico at 25 cents; silk vests at $4; coffee boilers at 75 cents; thread at $2 per pound; hats at $5; knives at 40 cents ; powder at 40 cents. The quality of the goods can- not now be ascertained. The traders sold on credit to the Indians and then presented their bills to the Indian agents who paid the annuities. This plan was tolerably satisfac- tory until the greedy traders presented bills which amounted to more than all the annuities. Then there was trouble among the traders.
At the October payment, 1836, the Ewing brothers and Captain Fitch presented claims for $34,000. As the pay- ment of this would have taken all the money the other traders objected. The agent, Abel Pepper of Rising Sun, was unable to settle this dispute. A committee then re- ceived all the claims, amounting to over $100,000, and pro- rated the annuity money. This wrong to the Indians was so plain that a government agent, J. W. Edmunds, was sent to investigate the claims. His report showed beyond a doubt that the Indians had been cheated out of practically all their money.6
§ 61 BLACK HAWK'S WAR
As long as the first pioneers of our State lived they feared and hated the Indians. It was difficult to tell whether they feared or hated them most. During the dec- ade from 1830 to 1840 they gave a good exhibition of each. From their own viewpoint they were amply justified in both. As an example of the terror which an Indian up- rising caused on the border there is nothing better than Black Hawk's War.
5 Senate Documents. Indian Remorals, V. 371 seq. 1834-5.
6 Logansport Telegraph, October 15, 1836, and succeeding issues.
(22)
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Black Hawk was a popular leader of a band of Sauk Indians who lived on Rock river, in northwestern Illinois. His village was near the mouth of the river, down where it joined the Mississippi. The old warriors in this band were kindred spirits who had served under Tecumseh in the War of 1812. They were known along the frontier as the "British Band," and their sympathy for the British was notorious. The Hawk had himself "touched the quill," as the Indians called signing a treaty, in 1804 and again in 1816, when his tribe had ceded its land to the government.
But when the government surveyors and the settlers came in 1831 to occupy the land the grizzly old warrior's heart failed him. He had watched his women and children cultivate the village fields for half a century, and when, in the spring of 1831, he returned from a winter's hunt in Iowa to find the squatters had pre-empted his fields and actually plowed up the graves of his ancestors, he could stand it no longer. He warned the intruders and then started with his warriors across northern Indiana and southern Michigan to visit his British friend, the com- mander of Malden. The British general advised him wrongly and the war followed.
All the border Indians were restless during that year. Early in the summer of 1831 a Miami hunting party killed a Pottawattomie war chief, as a result of which the Potta- wattomies threatened war. They first demanded an indem- nity of $50,000 as blood money. If this was not forthcom- ing the Miamis were assured that the Pottawattomies would be on them in the spring "before the leaves were as big as squirrels' ears."
Gen. William Marshall was sent as agent to settle this difficulty ; and in a grand council on the St. Joseph suc- ceeded in doing so.
About this time a proclamation of Gov. John Reynolds of Illinois reached the Indiana border. The frontier settle- ments at this time were between the Wabash and the Illi- nois State line, west and northwest of Lafayette, with ad- vance posts over the line in Illinois twenty to forty miles. When Black Hawk returned from his winter's hunt he
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warned the squatters to leave. The governor of Illinois took this warning for a declaration of war, and at once called out the Illinois State militia and notified the people that the Sauk and Pottawattomies were on the warpath. The governor meant the Prairie Pottawattomies of Illinois, but the Indiana settlers thought he meant the Indiana Pot- tawattomies, many of whom lived among the settlers west of the Wabash. A courier carried the report to Indian Agent Marshall at Logansport, who at once dispatched his runners in all directions to gather the scattered villages of Pottawattomies into Logansport till the war was over. He did this to pacify the settlers and to save the Indians from the militia.
At midnight Sunday, May 21, 1832, Captain Newell of the Warren county militia, was called out of bed and told that the Indians were at Iroquois, near the State line, and approaching fast. He was told that all the settlements west of Big Pine creek, in Warren county, had given way and Big Pine would break in the morning, if no aid ap- peared.
By eight o'clock Captain Newell was at the head of fifty mounted men, and by eleven o'clock had reached Parish's Grove, eighteen miles on his way. Here he met the throng of refugees from the Sugar Creek Settlements. The rabble of refugees completely blocked the way. The settlers of upper Pine creek had abandoned their clearings. After Captain Newell had calmed the terror-stricken pioneers, he selected twenty-five of his best-mounted men and pressed forward that same evening twenty miles farther, to Iro- quois river, in Illinois. He passed scores of settlers flee- ing for their lives. From these he heard that the Hickory Creek Settlements had all been abandoned and the people were on their way to the Wabash. Several families were reported murdered on Fox river. The Fox River Settle- ment was seventy-five miles farther on, but Captain Newell decided to go ahead and try to reach it by morning. A few miles further he met more refugees from Hickory creek, who assured him that not a person was left in the outlying
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settlement, and that it would be useless to go on. The cap- tain accordingly returned and began to quiet the people.
As soon as Captain Newell received word of the out- break, on Sunday night, he sent a mounted scout posthaste to Lafayette for aid. Another report reached Lafayette, also, about the same time as the courier, that the Illinois militia, 275 in number, had been routed on Hickory creek, with the loss of over twenty-five men killed; that 200 mi- litiamen were needed; that the settlers had all fled, some to Fort Chicago and others to the Wabash; that the whole frontier was abandoned, and that houses were being burned and families murdered.
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