USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 19
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Two years after this, Mr. Hannegan made overtures to Mr. McDonald for a settlement of the feud between them. With the assistance of mutual friends a reconciliation was reached, and ever afterward they and their families were upon the best of terms.
Mr. Hannegan's manners were elegant. He was courteous to ladies and delighted in their society. While he was in the Senate, Mrs. Maury, an English woman, visited the United States and afterward published a book. She was fascinated with Hannegan, and in her book praises him to the skies. She says :
"This is a genuine son of the West ; ardent, impulsive and undaunted ; thinking, acting and daring with the most perfect freedom. His spirit is youthful and buoyant, and he is ever sanguine of success, though he feels acutely the bitterness of disappointment. Show me a gentler, more affectionate nature than Edward Hannegan, you can not; and believe me, the Western men in general resemble him. * When Mr. H. made his speech on the Oregon question, I was in the gallery immediately above, and in the excitement of the moment I threw down my glove to the speaker; it fell at his side. The chivalrous Hannegan instantly picked it up, pressed it to his lips, looked gratefully up to the gallery, bowed and placed it in
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his bosom. The fortunate glove was transmitted by the next day's post to the lady of the Senator, then in Indiana. I pre- serve the less happy fellow to it. * * *
" This Senator was not born in the State he represents, but in Kentucky (?), in the city of Lexington ( ?? ) ; consequently, in the very atmosphere of Henry Clay, and I can not well tell how he escaped being a Whig. He is a Presbyterian, but has com- mitted his only son to the care of Dr. Hailandière, Catholic Bishop of Vincennes, in Indiana, to be educated at the college in that city. . A devoted lover of the country and of its inde- pendence, he so pined at last in Washington that he was com- pelled to go home for a fortnight to refresh his spirits and re- cruit his health. I met him on the Ohio on his way. 'Come home with me,' said he to the Doctor and myself; ' come home with me, and I will show you the lovely valley of the Wabash. I can endure those hot and crowded halls no longer ; I must have free air and space to roam in ; I like to hunt when I please, and to shoot when I please, and to fish when I please, and to read when I please. Come home with me and see how I live in In- diana.'"
Mr. Hannegan, like most other men, did not enjoy a practi- cal joke at his own expense. A jolly Irishman, still living at Covington, delighted in playing pranks upon his distinguished friend. On one occasion a Teutonic sausage-grinder was hold- ing forth to a crowd upon the wonderful merits of his sausage, and declaring that " Meester Hannegan, he buys 'em," when the jolly Irishman, with a twinkle in his eye, said : "Pshaw ! Hannegan says you make your sausages out of dead hogs." " Did he say dot; did he say mine sausage was made from dead hogs?" asked the butcher, terribly excited. "Yes, he did," replied the Irishman, as he left and went on his way. The meat man wanted to hear no more. With coat off and shirt sleeves rolled up, he ran, butcher-knife in hand, to Hannegan's office door, which he pounded vigorously. Mr. Hannegan, who, at the time, was entertaining some friends, quickly turned the knob and met the irate butcher face to face. There stood the angry German, flourishing his butcher-knife, and pouring forth a torrent of broken words with such energy that Hanne-
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gan was really alarmed. "Meester Hannegan, Johnny Mac says you tells him I make sausenges out'en dead hogs ! " yelled the butcher. "I makes nice, clean sausenges, and I wants to know about it." "Why, my good friend," said Mr. Hanne- gan, " who told you that?" "Vy, John Mac." "Did he ; did the rascal say that? Let's go and see him." Excusing him- self to his friends, Mr. Hannegan and the sausage man started out to hunt the jolly Irishman. Arriving at his house, he was called out, and when he appeared a broad smile upon his face soon developed into a loud laugh. "Now, Mr. Mac," began Hannegan, " did you intimate that I cast any reflections on this man or his business? Why, sir," growing more excited, " he was about to assassinate me." The Teuton began talking, also, and between the two, the noise was lively. After awhile there was a lull, and the joker said to the butcher, 'You don't make sausages out of live hogs, do you?" Light broke in upon the German, and uttering the words - - , he walked away. By this time Hannegan was somewhat mollified, and addressing the Irishman said : "Johnny Mac, jokes are jokes, but when they reach the point that a friend is in danger of as- sassination, it is carrying them a little too far." The story soon spread over town, and Hannegan enjoyed it as much as any one ; but the sausage-grinder's occupation was gone. He could not stand the raillery to which he was subjected, so he left Cov- ington and sought fields for peddling his sausage where jokes did not so much abound.
Mr. Hannegan was on the steamer Princeton, February 28, 1844, when a large gun exploded, killing Abel P. Upshur, Sec- retary of State, Thomas W. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy, and several other distinguished men. President Tyler was on board, but was not injured by the explosion. In a letter to Dr. Stewart, of Delphi, dated March 1, 1844, Mr. Hannegan says :
" The horrible occurrence on the Princeton you will see in the papers. I was standing with General Jessup at the main- mast, some twenty-five or thirty feet from the explosion, and was the first person who pressed forward to the place. Colonel Benton had been prostrated by the awful concussion, having been standing immediately behind the breech of the gun. When I reached his side he was lifting a poor sailor in his arms whose
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left arm was shot off; thoughtless of himself, he thought only of the poor, suffering man. He was cool and collected. I asked him if he was wounded. "No, Hannegan," was his reply ; " but look at this poor fellow. Bring a surgeon to him, quick." Judge Phelps, of Vermont, was standing near Benton at the time of the explosion, and acted likewise with great coolness and courage. He declared publicly that injustice shall no longer be done to Benton's generous and noble heart ; that he will seek an occasion in the Senate to pay him a tribute. He is, as you know, a warm Whig. Benton and Phelps were standing im- mediately by the bulwarks which were swept away, and their hats were also carried overboard, with the bonnet of a lady who stood between them. Benton is out of danger, but not able to sit up. The force of the concussion struck his breast; had it struck his head, he must have been instantly killed."
When Mr. Hannegan was in the Senate, Bishop Simpson was President of Asbury University at Greencastle. Mr. Han- negan had a high appreciation of Bishop Simpson's power as a preacher, and invited him to go to Washington and speak to the " Godless Congressmen." The bishop went, and notwith- standing Mr. Hannegan's effort to get him an audience, he preached his first sermon largely to empty benches. But those who did hear him were charmed with his discourse, and his subsequent appointments drew crowded houses. He remained at Washington over a month, preaching every Sunday, and al- ways with much acceptability. Mr. Hannegan is entitled to the credit of first introducing Bishop Simpson to the leading men of the country, and of securing for him a hearing which was the commencement of his reputation as one of the best pulpit orators in the country.
In some respects Mr. Hannegan was a great man, but in oth- ers he fell far below several of his cotemporaries. He was like the comet that flashes athwart the heavens, dazzling the eye a moment with its brilliancy, and then disappearing. He and Jesse D. Bright were in the Senate together, and although he was Mr. Bright's senior in years and in public service, he did not exercise anything like the influence of that gentleman. either in the Senate or in the country. He was a more brilliant man than Bright, but he lacked the latter's strength of charac-
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ter and his knowledge of men. In speaking of the Indiana Senators of that day, it was always Bright and Hannegan, not Hannegan and Bright. Governor Willard used to say, "Start Hannegan down stream at high tide, and he can gather more driftwood than any man I know, but he isn't worth a curse to row up stream."
The following incident is related as illustrative of Hannegan's impulsive nature. A paper called the Fountain Ledger was started in Covington by J. P. Luse for the purpose of support- ing the Whig cause in the then strong Democratic county of Fountain, and defeating Hannegan. It became very bitter and personal in its war with the People's Friend, then published by Solon Turman. It was especially severe on Hannegan, and hence the editor incurred the enmity of him and his friends. After the election, which resulted in the defeat of Hannegan, Mr. Luse bought the Lafayette fournal and removed to Lafay- ette. Shortly after the unfortunate homicide of Captain Dun- can by his brother-in-law, Hannegan, occurred. It was ex- pected that Mr. Luse would embrace that opportunity to de- nounce Hannegan and inflame the public mind against him. On the contrary, he published a very mild, kind and consider- ate editorial, referring most generously to Hannegan, and ask- ing the calm judgment of the country on his awful deed. Some two years after, Mr. Hannegan accidentally met Mr. Luse at · Danville, Illinois, rushed up to him, embraced him, and in his impulsive and characteristic way evinced his deep appreciation of his kindness. Ever after, till Hannegan's death, they were friends.
In person Mr. Hannegan was below the medium height : he was firmly and compactly built, and in his latter days was inclined to corpulency. He had a ruddy complexion, blue eyes, and light brown hair. He was a charming companion, a fasci- nating talker, and a public speaker of true eloquence. He was not a profound man nor a great scholar, but what he lacked in profundity he made up in brilliancy, and his deficiencies in schol- arship were largely compensated for by his quick wit, his fertile imagination, and his power to express himself in the choicest of language. He was of Irish descent, and inherited many of the characteristics of that warm-hearted' and impulsive race.
JESSE D. BRIGHT.
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FOR twenty years prior to 1860, Jesse D. Bright was a leading- man in Indiana. He was the autocrat of his party, and ruled it as absolutely as did Governor Morton the Republican party when in the zenith of his power. Indeed, in many respects these men were alike. Both loved power and knew the art of getting it; both loved a friend and hated an enemy, and both knew how to reward the one and punish the other.
Mr. Bright was born in Norwich, New York, December 18. 1812, and came to Indiana when a boy. His family located at Madison, and there young Bright grew up to man's estate. He had a good constitution, and was one of the healthiest and strongest men in the town. He was fond of athletic sports, and was always ready to test the strength and endurance of any who chose to challenge him. He would accommodate them with a friendly tussle or a regular knockdown-just as they pleased to have it. I do not mean by this that he was quarrelsome, for he was not ; but I do mean that he had muscle and grit, and was not loth to let it be known. His physique was splendid. He weighed about two hundred pounds and had a well-proportioned body, save, probably, a little too much fullness in the abdomen. His face was cleanly shaven, and his clothes fitted him well and were of good quality. He had a good head and a good face. and he stood straight upon his feet and carried himself as one having authority. He was imperious in his manner, and brooked no opposition either from friend or foe. Indeed, he classed every man as foe who would not do his bidding. and made per- sonal devotion to himself the test of Democracy. He had natu- ral talents of a high order, but was deficient in education and
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cultivation. In his public speeches he was a frequent violator of grammar and of logic, but his manner was so earnest and his delivery so impressive, that what he said found a lodgment in the minds of his hearers. He was the Danton of Indiana Democracy, and was both loved and feared by his followers.
Mr. Bright was the best judge of men that I ever knew. In- deed he seemed to have an intuitive knowledge of men and their thoughts. He seldom or never gave his confidence to a man that abused it. He often withheld it from gentlemen of his own political household and bestowed it upon those of another faith. As an illustration of this fact the following incident is narrated : One evening in 1852 the editor of a Whig paper was in Mr. Bright's parlor on invitation, when the door-bell rang, and Mr. Bright said : " I must ask of you the favor to step into another room ; that is John A. Hendricks at the door; I don't want him to meet you here ; he wants my influence for Congress ; I must humor him, but I can not trust him ; he is uncertain anyhow, and if he is not nominated by the Democrats will leave us and go over to the opposition ; if he sees you here he will suspect where you get some of your items about Joe Wright. Mr. Hen- dricks was not nominated by the Democrats, did go over to the opposition, and in 1856 was the candidate of the " People's" party for Congress in the Third District, and was defeated by the late Judge Hughes. He was killed at the battle of Pea Ridge during the rebellion, and his photograph may be seen in our State Library. He was a son of ex-Governor William Hen- dricks, and a cousin of Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks.
Mr. Bright was an earnest man, and whatever he undertook he did with all his might. There was nothing " 'alf and 'alf" about him. He struck out from the shoulder, right and left. and his blows were those of a giant. He never conciliated ; he demanded absolute obedience ; he permitted no divided al- legiance, and the Democrat that looked with favor upon his rival, Governor Wright, committed an offense for which there was no atonement. In those days Governor Wright was a strong man with the people of Indiana. His character was en- tirely different from that of Mr. Bright. He had not the bold- ness nor the courage of the Senator, and in the battle for the leadership had to go to the wall. Bright hated him with a
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healthy hatred, and was disposed to make war on him "to the knife, and the knife to the hilt." However, through the inter- position of friends a truce was established ; but it lasted only a short time. The late James Blake and Judge S. E. Perkins once published a card in which they said that all matters of dif- ference between these Democratic leaders having been sub- mitted to them for settlement, were satisfactorily and honorably adjusted. How hollow the truce ! The fires smouldered and soon broke out again. Both wanted to go to the United States Senate, but the matter was finally settled by the return of Bright and the appointment of Wright as Minister to Berlin.
Mr. Bright chose the law for a profession, and was early ad- mitted to the bar. At that time the Madison bar was the ablest in the State. Marshall, and Sullivan, and Stevens, and the elder Bright, and several other distinguished men were mem- bers of it, so when the young lawyer opened his office, business was slow in coming. He never mastered the philosophy of law, and did not equal his brother Michael as a lawyer, but he spoke well, and, being popular with the people, succeeded in getting a fair amount of business.
The county of Jefferson was Whig, and Mr. Bright was a Democrat of the strictest sect, but notwithstanding this he was elected Probate Judge of the county, and held the office for vears. Subsequently he was appointed United States Marshal for Indiana, and it was while in this office that he laid the foun- dation of his political career. His business took him all over the State, and he made friends wherever he went. His knowl- edge of mankind was such that he never, or very rarely, mis- took his man, and the friends he made were bound to him with hooks of steel. Afterwards, when he needed these friends to help on his political fortunes, he knew where to find them, and they failed him not.
Away back in the forties, the Whigs of Jefferson county nom- inated Williamson Dunn for the State Senate. He was a pio- neer of the State, and commanded a company of rangers in the war of 1812. He was a man of great physical and moral cour- age and unquestioned integrity. But he was a Presbyterian elder and held to the faith and teachings of Calvin with the
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greatest tenacity. He was ultra on the Sunday question, and was very active in trying to stop the Sunday mails. This caused dissatisfaction with his nomination, and the disaffected brought out Shadrach Wilber, also a Whig, as an independent candi- date. The fight waxed warm between the supporters of Dunn and of Wilber, and much bad blood was aroused. When the blood was seething a new Richmond entered the field. He saw his chance and embraced it. He knew the passion between the friends of the other candidates was too intense to be allayed, so he entered the lists and won the fight. That Richmond was Jesse David Bright.
In the State Senate Mr. Bright took rank, at once, as the leader of his party. In fact, he was a born leader of men. He always stood at the fore-front of the line.
In 1843 Mr. Bright was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with James Whitcomb. He canvassed the State thoroughly, speaking in every county. He had not the grace nor the eloquence of his chief, but his speeches were equally or more effective. He had an earnestness of manner, and a cer- tain rough and turgid eloquence that won the people's favor. and when the canvass closed he had established a reputation as a politician second to none in the State. He was elected, and came to Indianapolis the leader and beau ideal of the young Democracy.
No one in his party disputed his right to lead, and no one out- side of it, except his great compeer, Joseph G. Marshall, dared cross swords with him in the city where he lived. His success in doing what he attempted was proverbial. He filled his office well, presiding with fairness and dignity, and so won the affec - tions of the Senators and Representatives that they soon elected him to the Senate of the United States. At this time [when elected to the United States Senate], he was barely eligible to a seat on account of his age, he being the youngest man that had ever taken a seat in the Senate.
In 1850 he was a candidate for re-election to the Senate. Robert Dale Owen, who was also a candidate, openly charged him with having attempted to secure his return by bribery. Be- ing advised of this charge a few days before the election he ap- plied to Postmaster-General Campbell and obtained a special
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order to be taken to the Ohio river in the United States mail coach. [At that time no railroad crossed the mountains.] At Wheeling he took a steamer for Cincinnati, and from that city telegraphed to Madison to have an engine and car ready to con- vey him to Indianapolis. When he stepped ashore in the city of his home he at once boarded the car, which awaited him, and was borne to the State capital as fast as steam could propel him. Great was the wonderment among the politicians at Indianapo- lis when they saw him upon the streets of that city. They thought he was at Washington, and expected the election to come off in his absence. He sought Mr. Owen, and soon sat- isfied that gentleman that he had been misinformed about the alleged bribery. Mr. Owen thereupon withdrew from the race. and Mr. Bright was re-elected without further contest.
In 1856, his second term having expired, he again sought a re-election, but the Republican members of the Legislature refused to go into an election. They had met the Democratic members in joint convention to canvass the votes for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, and when that was done took their leave and refused to go into joint convention again.
The Democratic members adjourned to a fixed day, and when it arrived again met, but did nothing but organize and adjourn until another day. The intention had been to elect the Senators [two were to be chosen ] at the second meeting, but Mr. Bright. refused to accept an election unless satisfied it would be legal. of which he had his doubts. At his suggestion, the question was referred to Samuel E. Perkins, James Hughes and Joseph W. Chapman, all eminent lawyers and jurists, who subsequently reported to a caucus that an election held under the circum- stances existing would be legal. The Democratic and American members of the two houses soon after this met in joint conven- tion and elected Messrs. Bright and Fitch to the Senate. The next Legislature, being Republican, declared this election ille- gal, and chose Henry S. Lane and William M. McCarty as Senators, and these gentlemen went to Washington and claimed their seats. They were, however, refused admission to the Senate by a party vote, with the exception of Senators Doug- las, Mason and Broderick, Democrats, who voted to admit them. This vote of Douglas made Mr. Bright his enemy for
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life, and in 1860 he opposed Mr. Douglas's election to the Pres- idency with all the influence and power he possessed.
In the Senate of the United States Mr. Bright did not rank high as a debater, but he was good at committee work, and won and maintained a respectable standing. He was popular with the Senators, and enjoyed their personal friendship. Be- tween him and Henry Clay there was a warm attachment, and more than once was he the guest of that gentleman at Ashland. When Mr. Clay introduced his omnibus bill, and the Committee of Thirteen was raised, Mr. Bright had a place upon it. He stood by the author of this bill during the bitter fight over it, and when it went to pieces clung to the fragments. Such was his standing that on the death of Vice President King, in 1853, he was elected President pro tempore of the Senate. He filled this office until the inauguration of John C. Breckinridge, in 1857, and thus for four years stood within one step of the Pres- idency.
While President of the Senate he did not assign Sumner, Chase and Hale to places upon the committees, and when asked his reason for failing to do so, replied : "Because they are not members of any healthy political organization." He did not see the seeds of the great Republican party which were then sprouting and about to burst through the ground.
In 1857, when forming his cabinet, President Buchanan of- fered Mr. Bright the secretaryship of State, which office he de- clined.
At the time of Mr. Bright's entrance into political life, and for many years afterward, public sentiment in Indiana was strongly Southern. Northern Indiana was but sparsely settled, and the immigrants to the southern and central parts of the State were mostly from the South. Mr. Bright lived on the southern border, and in sentiment and feeling was a Southern man. He owned a farm in Kentucky, well stocked with negroes, and was thus identified with the South by interest as well as feeling. Once he had the temerity to bring one of his slaves to Madison. put somehow or other she got away, probably by the help of Chapman Harris or Elijah Anderson. A Senator from a free State, he was the owner of slaves and a representative of In- diana, his largest material interests were in Kentucky. Dur-
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ing most of the time for many years he lived at Washington and in Kentucky in the midst of slavery. So it is no wonder he be- came politically permeated with the virus of that abominable institution. When the war came and slavery was about to be destroyed, he had no heart for the contest. All the Southern Senators, save those from the border States, excepting Andrew . Johnson only, left Washington and went home to help on the rebellion. Mr. Bright did not believe that war would restore the Union as it was, and therefore he opposed the war. He wanted the Union to stand dominated and controlled by South- ern men, and rather than have any other Union he was willing to see the country go to pieces. It is but just to say that he was not a secessionist per se, and would gladly have had the. Union remain as it was. He knew that war meant the destruc- tion of slavery, and, being a slaveholder, he opposed the war. Just before the commencement of hostilities, but when it was apparent that the conflict must come, he wrote a letter to Jef- ferson Davis, the provisional President of the Confederate States, introducing an old friend and former fellow-townsman. The letter was as follows :
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