USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 21
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In 1843 he ran for Congress against Dr. John W. Davis, and was defeated. After this he was made prosecuting attorney of
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his circuit, and was a terror to the evil-doers of that section of the State. He prosecuted law-breakers as he did everything else, with the vim and energy of a great mind.
Traveling over the circuit, he became acquainted with its leading men, and in 1847 his party friends again determined to make him their candidate for Congress. His district two years before had given Dr. John W. Davis, Democrat, 2,930 majority. but this fact did not deter Mr. Dunn from making the race. He was then thirty-five years old, was in good health and capa- ble of great physical and mental labor. He made a searching canvass of the district, speaking in all the townships, and de- feated his competitor, Dr. John M. Dobson, twenty-two votes. This race and its result astonished everybody save the young Whig standard-bearer, who, from its beginning, believed he would win. He served his term in Congress with credit, and at its close intended to return to private life, but he was not per- mitted to do so, for his party friends nominated and elected him to the State Senate the year his term expired.
In the spring of 1852 he resigned his seat in the Senate while the Legislature was in session and went home to attend to his legal business. He continued in active practice until the sum- mer of 1854, when he again entered the political field. During that year the Know-nothing party sprang into life. It was composed of former Whigs, sore-headed Democrats and Aboli- tionists. Captain John A. Hendricks, who, until then, had been a Democrat, was nominated for Congress by a convention of political mongrels, most of whom had been Democrats. He at once took the field and commenced his canvass. Soon, how- ever, he learned that Mr. Dunn was also a candidate. The candidacy of the latter, so far as the world knew, was solely of his own volition. He had been nominated by no convention, but it was soon discovered that the mass of the new party was rallying to his support. Captain Hendricks was in a quandary what to do. He had long been an aspirant for congressional honors, and now when the cup of fruition was at his lips another snatched it from him. He saw his friends deserting him, and, knowing his race to be hopeless, he left the field.
Mr. Dunn entered the contest in 1854 somewhat as he had done that of 1847. Two years before the district had given
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Cyrus L. Dunham 931 majority over Joseph G. Marshall. But this had no terror for Mr. Dunn. He believed in his star, and went into the fight feeling confident of success. He visited all the townships in the district, sometimes speaking three times a day. He was in bad health, but his great will and determina- tion kept him up until the canvass closed. He was elected. beating Mr. Dunham 1,660 votes, but his success was a poor compensation for his broken health. The labor of this contest was so severe that it undermined his constitution and he was. never afterward a strong man.
In Congress Mr. Dunn occupied a somewhat anomalous po- sition. He was mainly elected by the Know-nothings, but the Whigs of the district who refused to assume the new party affil- iations voted for him. It will be remembered that the Know- nothing party had but an ephemeral existence. Out of its ruins sprang the Republican party, a party with which Mr. Dunn did not identify himself. In Congress he occupied an independent position, but generally voted with the opposition to the Democ- racy. He had made his canvass mainly in insisting that the Missouri restriction, which had been repealed, should be re- stored, and he remained faithful to that position. The anti-Ne- braska party in Congress nominated Mr. Banks for Speaker. but Mr. Dunn persistently opposed his election. Congress con- vened on the 3d day of December, 1855, and did not organize- until the 2d day of February following. During this interval great excitement prevailed throughout the country. One hun- dred and twenty-nine ballots had been taken for Speaker, when. Mr. Smith, of Tennessee, offered a resolution that the House proceed to vote three times, and if no one had a majority for Speaker, then " the roll shall again be called, and the member who shall then receive the largest number of votes, provided it shall be a majority of a quorum, shall be declared duly elected Speaker of the House of the Thirty-fourth Congress. The resolution passed, Mr. Dunn voting against it.
The final ballot was as follows :
For N. P. Banks, 103 : William Aiken, 100; Henry M. Ful- ler, 6; Lewis D. Campbell, + : Daniel Wills, I.
On this ballot Mr. Dunn voted for Campbell. During the contest he voted for Mr. Etheridge, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Pen-
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nington and Mr. Eddie, but never for Mr. Banks. His course during the organization of the House, no doubt, cost him the " chairmanship of a leading committee, a place he was well quali- fied to fill. His position in this Congress could not have been a pleasant one, for he was not in accord with those in control of the House, and it must have been with a feeling of relief that he left Washington for his home at the end of his term. His health was now so bad that he could do little else than remain at home with his family. He gradually grew worse until September of that year (1857), when he died.
As an advocate, Mr. Dunn was always ready. He took no notes of the testimony in his cases, relying entirely upon his memory for his facts. He made the cause of his client his own, and in conducting his cases he was aggressive and bold. If such a course involved him in trouble with opposing counsel he let the trouble come. He had a difficulty with the late Judge Hughes, which grew out of a trial in court, and came near end- ing in a duel. He called Judge Hughes a pettifogger, and, re- fusing to retract, was challenged by that gentleman. He ac- cepted the hostile invitation, but before going upon the field friends interfered and the trouble was settled.
Mr. Dunn made more reputation in the State Senate than in Congress. In the Senate he stood head and shoulders above his fellow members, with the single exception of Joseph G. Mar- shall, and in some respects he excelled that distinguished man. He was a better scholar and a greater master of ridicule and in- vective than the Senator from Jefferson, but he fell below him in breadth of comprehension and ability to move the passions of the people. The one was scholarly, argumentative and witty. the other impassioned, profound and convincing.
In an admirable portraiture of this subject by Miss Laura Ream, in 1875, that graphic writer, speaking of his oratory, says : " His voice was clear and resonant as a silver bell. His style of speaking was very impressive, enforced, as it was, by a personal magnetism which can scarcely be imagined in this * age of tame leadership. His will was invincible, and he in- spired others with such confidence in his strength that any law case he undertook was considered decided in his favor before- hand."
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While in the Senate Mr. Dunn had a memorable debate with Colonel James H. Lane, then Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana, and afterwards a United States Senator from Kansas. David P. Holloway, a Senator from the county of Wayne, offered a reso- lution to present certain trophies of the Mexican war, then in the State Library, to a Catholic church in Indianapolis. In speaking on his resolution he animadverted on the Mexican war, and when he had concluded Colonel Lane took the floor and made a speech, in which he coarsely abused the Senator from Wayne. When he had taken his seat Mr. Dunn replied in a speech that will never be forgotten by those who heard it. He flayed the Lieutenant-Governor, taking off his hide, strip by strip ; that is, if words can be made to do such a thing. Before taking his seat he said he wore no shad-bellied coat like the Senator from Wayne (Mr. Holloway was a Quaker), and that he was personally responsible for what he had said. It was sup- posed at the time that Colonel Lane, who recognized the " code." would call Mr. Dunn to account for this speech, but he did not-letting it pass without notice.
The greatest speech Mr. Dunn ever delivered was at the Whig State Convention of 1852. A few days before the con- vention was held he resigned his seat in the Senate, and in this speech he gave his reasons for the act. The main one was the fact that his party being in a minority in the Senate, he was. without influence and unable to shape legislation. He was not the man to have influence with his political opponents ; he was too bitter and choleric for that. He denounced the course of the Democratic Senators, and said, with a single exception he parted from them with the greatest pleasure. That exception. he declared to be the Senator from Clark, Dr. Athon, for whom he said he had the warmest feeling. Dr. Athon, who was pres- ent, arose and said he highly appreciated the kind expressions. of the speaker. He severely criticised the action of Governor Wright in appointing Messrs. March, Barbour and Carr com- missioners to revise and simplify the Code. .. When these men. were appointed," said Mr. Dunn, "I was at a loss to know what place 'Squire Carr would fill in the commission. A little reflection, however, convinced me he had his place. March is to furnish the law. Barbour to read the version, and if Carr can.
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understand, it will be within the comprehension of all." He took up the Democratic nominees for State offices one by one and thoroughly dissected them. He was particularly se- vere upon Governor Wright. Seeing the Governor in the hall. Mr. Dunn said : " I am glad you are here, Governor. Don't leave until I am done. I propose going through you with a lighted candle that all may see what a mass of putrefaction and political rottenness you are." When he came to speak of Judge Davidson, he said: "My objection to Davidson is that his eyes are too close together. When you farmers buy a horse you don't choose one whose eyes are in the middle of his head. You know that such a horse would run against the first fence- corner he comes to. You should exercise as much care in vot- ing for a Supreme Judge as you would in buying a horse," But :space forbids me further following Mr. Dunn in his criticisms of the Democratic candidates. When he was done with them he proceeded to speak of the Whig nominees. Mr. McCarty, who had just been nominated for Governor, was sitting but a few feet from the speaker. Mr. Dunn drew a dark picture of the condition of the Whig party until Mr. McCarty consented to be a candidate, and then, rising on tip-toe, and bending his body forward and pointing his finger at the nominee, he ex- claimed with the power of a Booth :
"Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by the sun of York ; And all the clouds that lowered upon our house, In the deep bosom of the ocean buried."
It is a great pity that this speech was not taken down at the time and preserved. It embodied the wit and drollery of Cor- win, the invective and sarcasm of Randolph, and the eloquence of Clay, in one symmetrical whole. It lives only in the recol- lection of those who heard it, and, happily for the author, he was one. These men will be gone after awhile, and then this great forensic effort will be forgotten, or remembered only as it is handed down from father to son.
During the first State fair held in Indiana, just after the Oc- tober election, 1852, the Democracy had a jollification meeting at the State capital. The Whigs, believing the time and occa- sion inopportune, and smarting under their recent defeat, cre-
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ated so much " noise and confusion" that the speakers could not be heard. The speaking took place on Washington street. opposite the Wright House, where a large number of leading Whigs were staying. Joseph E. McDonald and Ashbel P. Willard, who had just been elected Lieutenant-Governor, at- tempted to speak, but their voices were drowned by the noise of the tumultuous crowd. During Willard's attempt to speak. Mr. Dunn, who was on the balcony of the Wright House, over- looking the crowd. appealed to those about him to stop their noise and let Mr. Willard speak. Some of those who saw him standing and gesticulating thought he was urging on the mob. The Democrats, after awhile, countermarched down Washing- ton street, and stopped at the State-house square, where the speaking was resumed without further interruption. Both Col- onel Gorman and Governor Willard charged Mr. Dunn with having incited the disturbance, and criticised him severely for it. The Sentinel, next morning, had an account of the meeting and reported what the speakers had said. Mr. Dunn sought Messrs. Gorman and Willard and told them they were mistaken in attributing to him sympathy with the mob, that he had done all he could to quell it. Governor Willard expressed himself as entirely satisfied with Mr. Dunn's statements, and published a manly letter withdrawing his offensive language. Colonel Gorman also promised to retract the charge, and the next day he published a card in the Sentinel, which, after giving an ac- count of what he had said, closed as follows : " In a personal conversation this morning with Mr. Dunn, he assures me that my information was incorrect, and that he tried to suppress the confusion and noise. I publish this to allow him the full benefit of his denial, and to place myself in the right." This card did not satisfy Mr. Dunn, but, on the contrary, incensed him the more. He addressed Colonel Gorman a letter, in which he asked to be informed if he was the author of the card signed with his name. Colonel Gorman replied in a somewhat lengthy letter acknowledging the genuineness of his card. and, after answering other questions propounded, he closed as follows : " If this is not satisfactory, it is out of my power to make it so on paper." That it was not satisfactory is evidenced by the following letter :
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" BEDFORD, Ind., November 8, 1852.
"' HON. W. A. GORMAN : Sir-Yours of the 5th inst. is just received, and is, I regret to say, objectionable in several re- spects. It is my purpose now to take the advice of some expe- rienced friend in regard to the whole matter, and adopt such steps as may be due to my obligations to society.
" Being called to Louisville, Ky., the last of this week, I shall be happy to find you at the Galt House, in that city, at 10 o'clock A. M., on Saturday next. Respectfully yours,
" GEORGE G. DUNN."
To which letter Colonel Gorman made the following reply :
" BLOOMINGTON, Ind., November 9, 1852.
" HON. GEORGE G. DUNN: Sir-Yours of this date is before me. I will be at the Galt House, in Louisville, agreeably to your written request, on Saturday next, at 10 o'clock A. M., where my friend will receive any communication you may be pleased to make. Respectfully, your obedient servant,
"W. A. GORMAN."
Messrs. Dunn and Gorman met at Louisville, as agreed upon, and referred their difficulty to Professor John H. Harney and Mr. George A. Caldwell, who, after examining the correspond- ence, published a card announcing a settlement on the follow- ing terms :
" We are of opinion that the note of Colonel Gorman to Mr. Dunn amply exonerates that gentleman from all participation in the disturbance of the meeting referred to, and sufficiently ex- plains the purpose of the card published in the Sentinel, and that nothing remains to disturb the peaceful relations of the par- ties except the language in which the notes are couched and their general tone.
"Mr. Dunn objects to the concluding sentence of Colonel Gorman's note of the 3d instant, and to the language in other passages, as offensive.
"' Colonel Gorman objects to the general tone of Mr. Dunn's previous note of the 30th ult., and especially to the call upon him to retract.
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"Mr. Dunn cheerfully withdraws the word ' retract,' and sub- stitutes the word ' correct,' or any other word not deemed offen- sive, and disavows any purpose of giving offense by his note of the 30th, his only object being to obtain a respectful vindication of himself from whatever was injurious in the matters referred to in the note. Whereupon, Colonel Gorman promptly with- draws anything offensive in his note of the 3d.
" Therefore, the whole difficulty, we are happy to announce, is amicably and honorably settled.
" JOHN H. HARNEY, " GEORGE A. CALDWELL."
And thus the matter ended.
Mr. Dunn was fond of fine stock and did much to improve the strain of horses and sheep in his section of the State. He was one of a company which imported the first Norman Perche- ron horse brought to Indiana. He purchased in Ohio a flock of Cotswold and Southdown sheep at $27 a head, an enormous price for that day. He took good care of his stock, giving it his personal attention and spending much of his time in looking after its comfort.
One of Mr. Dunn's chief characteristics was his contempt for shams and a love of independent thought. On the leaf of an old Latin dictionary used by him while at college, he wrote, “ I des- pise your opinion." One day his oldest son, then a boy, put on his father's watch. Looking at the lad the father said: "If you go on the streets with that watch people will ask, as Cæsar did of a small lieutenant, 'Who tied you to a sword?'-or watch."
Again quoting Miss Ream, I give her description of his home. and also his death scene. as follows :
" Towards the latter part of his life he built a house in the country, in the center of a magnificent tract of land. The large domain abounded in rich and diversified scenery, especially on the line defined by a range of cliffs nearly two hundred feet in height and really picturesque, if not grand, in appearance. But Mr. Dunn built his house in the heart of a grove of royal growth, a bit of pasture land to the north, an orchard and the door yard
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the only clearing. The house that he built was a story and a half in height, but there its modest pretensions ended. There was a great hall as wide as an ordinary house, and the rooms opening out of it were fit for the audience chamber of a king. The ceilings were lofty and elegantly frescoed, the furniture of these rooms was in keeping, and the out-door complement. which the great windows added to their state, were views of the forest, meadow and sky. It was a home for a prince, for a poet ; it proved the last earthly abiding place of a kingly soul. When it was noised abroad that George G. Dunn was dying the peo- ple from all the country round came to see him. The lane lead- ing to the house was lined with the horses and wagons belonging to the friends who had come to bid him good bye. Among the number was one Robert Rout, a man yet living, but weather tanned and wrinkled ; why, you could not lay a pin-point any- where on his face that would not touch a wrinkle. Well, when Robert Rout heard that Mr. Dunn could not live long, he came and took up his abode near. He said little or nothing, and his presence was only noticed when his ready hand or step an- swered to the sick man's need. The very last day of Mr. Dunn's life he observed Rout hovering about the room, and said : 'Rout, take that glass pitcher and go to the well and bring me a drink. Draw it from the north side of the well, Rout : I want it cold and fresh.' The fond and faithful friend did his bidding, and when he came back into the room, the glass pitcher filled to the brim and running over with the drops of water sparkling like diamonds in the sunlight, the dying man looked at him for a moment with grateful, tender eyes, and said : 'Rout, 'tis well, 'tis very well. Rout, you shall be cup-bearer when I am king.' The voice which uttered these words had lost none of its melody, but the strength to swallow was gone, and the water was put down from his parched, feeble lips untasted. The act which followed was not less in character-as brave as it was human. He turned his face to the wall-himself shutting out and bidding farewell to the world, the day, sunlight and friend- ship."
Mr. Dunn's literary library was large. It was composed of standard classical historical works and English political pamph-
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lets and essays. and books treating on American history and politics.
Mr. Dunn left no manuscript copies of any of his speeches. nor, indeed, any manuscript whatever. He filed his letters care- fully, leaving some five or six books of correspondence. He was a great lover of Shakespeare, and often quoted him in his speeches. He was also familiar with the Bible, and, in address- ing juries. was in the habit of drawing largely from its pages.
In person, Mr. Dunn was tall and commanding. He had fair complexion, blue eyes and light hair. His talents were great and varied, and he is entitled to stand in the front rank of Indi- ana lawyers and statesmen.
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WILLIAM W. WICK.
BUT few men of early Indiana were better known than Wil- liam Watson Wick. He came to the State in 1820, being the first lawyer to locate in Connersville, and from that time until 1857 he was almost continuously in public life. He was a man of marked peculiarities. He had a sunny disposition, was of a genial nature, thoroughly understanding human nature, and knowing just what to do to maintain his hold upon the people. I can not give a better summary of his life, up to 1848, than the following letter written to a Texas gentleman named Payne. Payne had read one of Judge Wick's congressional speeches, and was so impressed with its quaint humor and ready wit that he wrote to Hon. D. S. Kauffman, then in Congress, asking about Judge Wick, and saying he would like "to know all about him." Mr .. Kauffman gave Judge Wick the letter, and under date of June 12, 1848, the Judge sent Payne the follow- ing autobiography :
" William W. Wick is a full-blooded Yankee, though born in Cannonsburg, Washington county, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1796. In 1800 W.'s father, a Presbyterian preacher, settled in the woods in the poorest township in the Western Reserve of Ohio, adjoining the Pennsylvania State line. Here W. lived, going to school, toiling at ordinary labor, and indulging in day- dreams till the time of his father's death in 1814. He then re- nounced all interest in his father's estate (which was only some $3,000), and took himself off. Till spring, 1816, he essayed to · teach the young idea how to shoot' in Washington county, Pennsylvania, when he descended the Monongahela and Ohio in a ' broad-horn' to Cincinnati. He taught school and studied.
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first medicine and then law, till December, 1849; read chemis- try principally by the light of log-heaps in a clearing, and law of nights and Sundays (wrong so far as Sunday is concerned ). December, 1819, settled in Connersville, Indiana, as a lawyer, and made and sent his mother a deed for his interest in his father's real and personal estate. December, 1820, was chosen clerk of the House of Representatives of Indiana, and served till January, 1822, when he was chosen judge of a new circuit, just formed, and removed to Indianapolis, where he has ever since resided. In three years he resigned the judgeship, be- cause it was starving him, and was chosen Secretary of State, served four years, then chosen circuit prosecuting attorney, then judge again. He has also figured as quartermaster-gen- eral, and is a now a brigadier. He has committed much folly in holding offices, and only escapes the condemnation of his own judgment in consideration of the fact that he was never green enough to accept a seat in the State Legislature. In 1835 W. changed his politics ; his party did not leave him-he left it. [In this he differs from most great men. ] In 1839 he was chosen an M. C. as a Democrat, and as successor to Col. Kinnard, who died from the blowing up of a steamboat when on his way to Washington. [Colonel K. had been in Congress for some years.] In 1843 and 1847 W. was nominated and elected to Congress. He was a candidate for Congress in 1831, and got beat. Right. He was once a Clay candidate for elec- tor, and got beat. Right. In 1844 was a Democratic candi- date for elector-successful. Right.
" In the intervals of the above engagements he practiced law ; never made much at that ; did not know how to scare and skin a client. In 1821 he married a wife, who died in 1832. He has a son and daughter married, and five grandchildren living. His youngest boy (a third child and all), went last year ' to see the elephant' as a private in the Illinois volunteer regiment- then he was near seventeen years of age. He went without leave, but (good boy ) he wrote for and got leave after he was gone. He has acquired Spanish enough to write a good Span- ish letter, and unassisted by W.'s name, has worked his way. He is now clerk to the depot quartermaster at the city of Mexico. Says the climate in Mexico is better than in Indiana.
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