USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 23
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" ROCKVILLE, IND., 5th Jan., 1843.
" MY FRIEND-I have received your two letters and agree with you and others, and have remained at home.
" I am very anxious respecting the nomination on one point, and that is the question of harmony. Never was a party in better condition for a contest, and if we · pull all together,' suc- cess is certain. Then I hope there will be union and a hearty co-operation.
. Let me hear from you as soon as the nominations and busi- ness of the convention are over, and believe me to be most truly your obliged friend, T. A. HOWARD."
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TILGHMAN A. HOWARD.
" ROCKVILLE, IND., Jan. 16, 1843.
" MY DEAR SIR-I have received your letter, and two or three others, urging me to come to Indianapolis by the last of the pres- ent week, under the hope that the United States Senator would about that time be elected.
"Since my return from Indianapolis I have enjoyed poor health, and now it would be very painful to me, owing to the rheumatism with which I am afflicted, to travel there. Other things pressing upon me, connected with my private affairs and professional business, render it next to impossible that I should now leave home.
" I should be happy to be there, but I am satisfied that, so far as results are concerned, they will be the same whether I am present or absent. I have, therefore, concluded to trust my interests entirely to my friends. If any man may do this, I surely may, after the evidences which were afforded me during my four or five weeks' stay at Indianapolis this winter.
" I understand that counter-instructions have been gotten up in Monroe county in favor of a man who will vote for a bank and a high protective tariff. I am not acquainted with the par- ticulars, and have no right to censure or complain. If the peo- ple of these counties (Monroe and Brown) are for a United States bank and a high protective tariff, they surely have the right to say so, but I am not the man to aid in carrying out their measures. I would rather remain in the ranks with the real anti-bank party, and aid in still further laboring to prove to the mind of our whole people the impracticability, as well as the inconsistency of such an institution with the fundamental principles of our government, until there shall be no party re- maining in its favor, than to aid under any sanction or any cir- cumstances to entail such a corporation upon the country.
" I will thank you to show this letter to Henly, Harris, Ma- jors, Bright, and others of the Legislature who may feel any interest in knowing why I am not there. I shall be happy to hear from you. Your friend,
"T. A. HOWARD."
The two following letters exhibit General Howard as a father and a Christian :
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" WASHINGTON CITY, February 22, 1844.
" MY DEAR SIR-Before I left home, during the sickness of my favorite, who is now in her grave (a dear little daughter eighteen months old) I received your last letter. I started to this city the day after her death, and am now here, where I shall probably remain some time. I am engaged in promoting, as far as I may be able, the interest of our canal. I have writ- ten some of the citizens of your place on the subject. I expect to be at home in due time, and, unless my health should fail, visit the several parts of the State. I have not been here long enough to know what is going on ; but I shall be an attentive observer of men and things while I stay, and will likely trouble you with an occasional line.
" I remain, as ever, faithfully yours, "T. A. HOWARD."
" WASHINGTON CITY, March 12, 1844.
" DEAR SIR-I received your letter yesterday. I thank you for your kind and sympathetic expressions respecting my dear little girl whom I buried before I left home. I got a letter from my wife, a few days since, in which she seems perfectly resigned. It is a good thing to have the Christian's hope-it withdraws a veil when sorrow swells the bosom, and shows a vision so bright, so calm, so real, that the soul feels all its sorrows to be nothing compared with this overwhelming consolation.
" One word to you-I may be allowed to surmise and con- jecture. Stand erect, conscious of your rights in society and among your friends, and do not let any future event, or thing that man can do, disturb you. Your friend, HOWARD."
In 1844 the question of the annexation of Texas to the United States greatly agitated the public mind. Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Clay, both candidates for the presidency, wrote letters in which they argued against the policy of annexation. The fol- lowing letter of General Howard gives his views upon this subject :
" WASHINGTON, April 29, 1844.
" DEAR SIR-You will see Van Buren's and Clay's letters on Texas. I do not agree with either of them, as I regard the ac-
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quisition of Texas of great moment to the United States. Mr. V. B.'s letter has given great dissatisfaction to the Southern members here, and there is much confusion and misgiving in the party. A third man is talked of, and Cass often mentioned. I think Democrats should not be too prompt in taking ground against Texas, as it will react, and the country will go for it, or I am mistaken. I will write you again in a few days.
" Yours truly, T. A. HOWARD."
General Howard was correct. The country did go for Texas, the joint resolution for its annexation being approved by the President on the 2d of March, 1845. All the letters contained in this sketch, except the one which follows, were written to a personal and political friend in Indianapolis, and are now pub- lished for the first time. Their chirography is beautiful, their punctuation faultless and their style admirable, as the reader will see. They are an important contribution to the history of that time, and the author congratulates himself on being able to give them to the public.
In the summer of 1844 General Howard was appointed by President Tyler Charge D'affaires to the Republic of Texas. He left home on the 4th of July, and reached Washington, the capital of Texas, August 1, 1844. In a few days he was taken sick with fever, and, in fifteen days from the time of his arrival, he died. He breathed his last at the house of John Farquher, a few miles from Washington. He was buried in Texas, and for three years his remains rested in that far-off country.
In the spring of 1844 there was a great revival of religion at Rockville, General Howard's home. A gentleman of the town wrote Hon. Joseph A. Wright, then a member of Congress. asking his opinion of the revival. Mr. Wright showed General Howard the letter, and he at once wrote the inquirer as follows :
" MY DEAR FRIEND-I saw in your letter to friend Wright this line, 'Is this enthusiasm or is it reality?' This prompts me to drop you a line. I have asked myself in years past the same question ; and I believe that God has answered it to my moral nature. It is reality. My dear sir, I know of no man who more needs the soothing consolation of religion than you. It would bind up your wounded spirit, and shall I say how it is
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to be obtained? I answer, be assured of one thing: God ex- ists. Go to him in the silent hour, when he alone sees and knows your purpose ; falter not, but ask him, as the fountain of eternal truth, to solve the question, to open your heart and moral vision that you may see and feel whether these things be so. Read the words of Christ to Nicodemus, his Sermon on the Mount, his prayer for his disciples while in the garden of Geth- semane, and his whole mission, and continue to read and pray .. and you will find pardon, consolation and joy in believing."
General Howard was a member of the Presbyterian church, but he was not a sectarian. He believed there were many branches of the same vine, many paths leading to the strait gate. He was too great to be a bigot, too good to have no charity.
General Howard was always dignified in public. He seldom indulged in levity ; but notwithstanding this, he had the faculty of drawing all classes of men to him. The sober and the gay. the lettered and the unlettered, alike followed his fortunes.
Although General Howard never attended an academy or a college, he was a very learned man. He was acquainted with the civil law, with theology, history, politics, geology, miner- alogy, botany, philosophy, and the occult sciences. His mind was a vast storehouse of knowledge, it being questionable if there was another man in the State of such information as he.
During the canvass of 1840 a newspaper published at Green- castle sought to make political capital against General Howard by commenting upon his well-known opinions on temperance. When he spoke in that town he read the article and told the editor to get out another edition of his paper and throw it broad- cast over the State. "I want every voter to know my opinions on this question," said Howard. "I am willing to stand by them, and, if need be, fall by them."
On another occasion, when speaking, he read aloud a news- paper article charging him with a disreputable act. When done reading he threw the paper from him and proceeded with his speech. He could afford to thus treat the charge with silent contempt ; he stood too high to be affected by it.
In a debate with a gentleman who evaded the issues and went
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out after side ones, General Howard told the following story, and applied it to his opponent : " Once," said he, " a representative from Buncombe county made a speech in the North Carolina Legislature, in which he talked of many things entirely foreign to the matter before the House, and on being called to order by the Speaker, and told to confine himself to the question at issue. replied : 'My speech is not for the Legislature ; it is all for Buncombe.' 'All for Buncombe' became a common saying, and has remained such to the present day."
As has already been stated, General Howard died and was buried in Texas. But the people of Indiana were not willing that his dust should commingle with foreign soil. The Legisla- ture of 1847 passed an act directing the Governor and General Joseph Lane " to have the remains of Tilghman A. Howard re- moved from their place of burial in Texas, and reinterred at such place in Indiana as his family might desire." The act was approved by his friend and former partner, James Whitcomb, then Governor of the State. The will of the Legislature was carried out, and the remains of Howard disinterred and brought to Indiana. They remained awhile at Indianapolis, receiving high honors. From thence they were taken to Greencastle. where like honors awaited them. They were then removed to Rockville, his old home, and interred in his orchard. Previous to placing the coffin in the ground, Professor William C. Lar- rabee, afterward Indiana's first Superintendent of Public In- struction, delivered a eulogy upon the dead statesman, replete with beautiful thoughts. It closed as follows :
" Take him and bury him among you. Bury him where the primrose and the violet bloom in vernal beauty, where the rose of summer sheds its fragrance, and where the leaves of autumn fall, to protect the spot from the cheerless blast of the wintry winds. Bury him in that rural bower on the hillside, within sight of his quiet cottage home. Bury him by the side of the pretty child he loved so well-the beauteous little girl, who. years ago, died suddenly, when the father was away from home. Bury him now by her, that child and father may sleep side by side. Ye need erect no costly monument, with labored inscription, over his grave. On a plain stone inscribe the name of Howard, of Indiana's Howard, and it shall be enough."
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General Howard stood among the people of Indiana as did Saul, the son of Kish, among the people of Palestine. Al- though so very tall, his form was symmetrical. His hair and eyes were coal black, and his complexion corresponded with them. His nose and mouth were large and expressive; his forehead broad and high, and the whole contour of his face de- noted energy and intellect of the highest order. In private life his deportment was simple, his conversation delightful, and he enjoyed the pastimes of the social circle with the zest of youth to such an extent that he sometimes half reproached him- self with the remark that he " was afraid he should never be anything but a boy." Howard was a great man and a good one, and made a deep impression on the State of his adoption.
JAMES H. CRAVENS.
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JAMES HARRISON CRAVENS, one of the ablest of the men who changed public sentiment in Indiana on the slavery question, was born at Harrisonburg, Rockingham county, Virginia, Au- gust 12, 1802. When a boy he was self-willed and self-reliant ; was independent, plucky and thought for himself. His father de- signed him for the law, but in order to tame and take the wire edge off him, put him with a gunsmith, intending it only as a temporary expedient, but when the father wanted him to quit work and go to school, he obstinately remained throughout his whole apprenticeship and learned the trade. Afterward he went into the law office of Judge Kinney and studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1823, and soon after removed to Franklin, Pa., and commenced the practice of his profession. He met with reasonable success, but the reports which reached him from the West made him dissatisfied with his location and prospects. He had confidence in his ability to successfully compete with the young men who were leaving the older States for Western homes, and his subsequent career proved that he did not overestimate his parts. He left Pennsylvania in 1829, and came to Indiana, locating in Jefferson county.
An incident of the journey, which illustrates some very inter- esting phases of character, is furnished by a member of the family now living at Franklin, Indiana. Before removing he had bought the black woman, "Aunt Mary," at the sale of effects of his wife's mother. Soon thereafter, having decided to come to Indiana, he determined to take the slave woman along. Mary had a husband, or a " man," who belonged to another master. Not wishing to part them Mr. Cravens bought
IS
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the man, Tom, for $600. He provided a " carry-all " and horse and started the two blacks for Madison, Indiana. As robbers frequently halted the stages in those days crossing the mountains, and as Mr. Cravens had about a thousand dollars more than enough to defray the expenses of himself and wife and the blacks to Indiana, he had such confidence in the hon- esty of the old woman " Mary," that he gave her the $1,000 in gold to secrete upon her person, telling her not to let "Tom " know she had any money about her, other than a few dollars to defray expenses. Well, they all left Virginia the same day. Cravens and wife, by stage, arrived about two weeks before the negroes. The former's friends at Madison learning what he had done with his money laughed at his " foolishness," and said he would never see his money nor negroes again. In due time, however, the blacks arrived at Madison, and the old woman "Mary " handed over the package of money saying, " Here, Mars fim, is yo money." The money proved to be all there as when given in charge of the old black woman. The two ne- groes would have sold for more money than all Cravens was worth besides. But his anti-slavery notions were such that he would never sell into slavery any human being.
At that time Madison, the capital of Jefferson county, was the leading town of the State, and contained a number of men who were, even then, noted for their ability. Marshall and Sullivan, the two Brights, Robinson and others resided there. and it would seem that the new comer's chances for success at the bar were meager indeed. He had settled on a farm some twelve miles from Madison, and had a law office in town, and between the two his whole time was employed. He was an ardent Whig, and took a deep interest in public affairs. Two years after he located in Jefferson county, in 1831, he was elected to the Legislature, defeating David Hillis, afterward Lieuten- ant-Governor of the State. The next year he was a candidate for re-election, defeating James H. Wallace, an able and popu- lar man. He was now on the high road to political fortune. He was farming and practicing law, but his hand had not for- gotten its cunning, and he could make a gun, and for that mat- ter, could shoot it, too, as well, or better than any other man in the county. These accomplishments added to his popularity,
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and particularly endeared him to the men who lived in the val- leys of Indian Kentuck.
Mr. Cravens had an ambition to reach a leading place in his profession, and realizing the fact that the Madison bar was the ablest in the State, he determined to leave Jefferson county, and go where competition was not so strong. Therefore, in 1833, he removed to Ripley county, and remained a citizen of it while he lived. He opened an office at Versailles, and soon had a large and lucrative practice. Like most lawyers of that day. he took an active interest in politics, and although not an office seeker, he was always ready to speak for his party. In 1839 the Whigs of Ripley elected him to the State Senate, and the county never had an abler or more faithful representative. His reputation as a speaker was such that he was placed on the Harrison electoral ticket in 1840, a position of honor, and one to which the leading Whigs of the State aspired. Indiana never had so able an electoral ticket as the one upon which he was placed. Jonathan McCarty and Joseph G. Marshall were the electors for the State at large, and among the district electors were Joseph L. White, Richard W. Thompson, Caleb B. Smith and James H. Cravens. These men made the hills and valleys of Indiana resound with praises of "Tippecanoe and Tyler. too," and when the election was held and the votes counted it was found that Indiana had voted by a large majority to make her first territorial Governor the chief executive of the national government .: It was in this campaign that Mr. Cravens became- known throughout the State as one of the ablest debaters in it. During the canvass he and Robert Dale Owen had a joint dis- cussion at Bloomington, which is still remembered, and will be while those who heard it live. As is known, Mr. Owen was the most learned and cultured of all the public men of Indiana of his time, but, as a debater, Mr. Cravens proved his equal. When the debate between them ended, Dr. Wylie, then presi- dent of the State University, publicly complimented Mr. Cra- vens on the ability he had displayed, and at the same time spoke in high terms of Mr. Owen's talents and learning.
The spring after General Harrison's election Mr. Cravens was nominated for Congress, and elected over his competitor. Colonel Thomas Smith, by over one thousand majority. He
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took his seat at the called session which convened soon after President Harrison died and Mr. Tyler, the Vice-President, had become the acting President. Mr. Tyler soon broke with bis party, and failing to establish a party of his own, he natu- rally drifted to the Democracy. Mr. Cravens had often sounded his praises upon the stump, and had voted for him in the elec- toral college, but when he separated from the party that elected him, Mr. Cravens denounced him from his seat in Congress as well as from the stump at home. In his family Bible he made this record :
"For the Tyler vote I have sorely repented, and hope my country will forgive me. J. H. CRAVENS."
In Congress Mr. Cravens stood by and supported John Quincy Adams in his fight for the right of petition, and in many other ways testified to his belief in the rights and equality of all men before the law. He hated oppression in all its forms, and he hated that which was known as human slavery with an intensity akin to madness. In it he saw nothing good ; for it he had no charity whatever. But his party was thoroughly permeated with its virus, and when he went before a convention and asked a nomination for re-election he was put aside, and one with dif- ferent views upon the question of slavery selected. He knew he had been badly treated, but he accepted the situation with- out complaint. In 1846 a Whig convention nominated him for the State Legislature, but a large portion of his party rebelled against the nomination. The objection to him was on account of his pronounced anti-slavery principles, and so hostile were many Whigs to him for that reason that they demanded his withdrawal from the ticket. That there might be no mistake as to his views upon the slavery question, he published an ad- dress, from which I make the following extract :
" I understand that a portion of the Whigs of our country charge me with being what they call an 'Abolitionist.' If I knew in what sense they used the term abolitionist, as applied to me, I would give a simple answer, 'Yes,' or 'No;' but, inasmuch as I do not know what meaning they attach to it, in reference to me, I deem it proper, in 'justice to them as well as
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to myself, to give my views of slavery as it exists in the United States :
" I. I consider slavery a great moral and political evil.
"2. I am opposed to the extension of slave territory.
"3. I am opposed to the admission of any more slave States into the Union.
"4. I believe the admission of slave States into the Union out of territory acquired since the adoption of the Federal con- stitution to be a violation of the spirit of that instrument.
" 5. I believe that whilst we are expending $1,000,000 annu- ally for the suppression of the 'African slave trade,' we ought not to spend millions for the promotion and extension of the · domestic ' or American slave trade.
"6. I believe that Congress has the power to regulate the inter-state slave trade, and ought to exercise it.
"7. I believe that Congress has the power of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia (the seat of the national government), and ought to exercise it whenever a majority of the citizens of the District desire it to be done, and that the · slave mart' there ought to be abolished immediately.
" 8. I believe that whenever a proposition is made to the na- tion to extend the peculiar institution, either directly or indi- rectly, that it then becomes, so far, ipso facto, a national ques- tion ; and that the non-slaveholding States, and their citizens individually, ought, in self-defense, both in a moral and political point of view, to make use of every constitutional means within their power to prevent so great an injustice.
"9. I am utterly opposed to the abolition of the liberty of speech, and of the press, and of the rights of petition.
"IO. I believe the slave States and slave owners have con- stitutional rights in reference to their slave property, with which the free States can not and ought-not to interfere, nor ought their citizens, individually, to meddle with them, such as per- suading a slave to escape from his owner, concealing them after they have escaped, and running them from the place clandes- tinely or otherwise, with a view of aiding them in finally making. their escape.
"II. I would not arrest and return to his owner, nor harbor. nor conceal a fugitive slave.
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"12. I should be more than gratified to see the slave States adopt some system of gradual emancipation by which we, as a people, should be entirely rid of slavery in some twenty-five or thirty years.
"13. I do not believe the Whigs have, nor am I prepared to believe they will, incorporate a pro-slavery article in their po- litical creed. Should they do so they will drive many good and true men from their ranks in grief and sorrow."
At that time there was quite a number of abolitionists in Rip- ley county, the leader of whom was Stephen S. Harding. They met and resolved to support Mr. Cravens for the Legisla- ture, whereupon several leading pro-slavery Whigs determined he should be driven from the ticket. Their antagonism caused him to ask for the reassembling of the convention which had nom- inated him, and when it met he placed his declination before it. It, however, unanimously indorsed him, and he continued a can- didate. He was elected, and in the Legislature made a strong fight against the Butler bill ; but it passed, notwithstanding his ·opposition. As will be remembered, it was a bill to compro- mise the debt of the State upon the basis of the surrender of the Wabash and Erie canal to the bondholders for one-half the debt, and the issuance of new bonds for the remainder.
Mr. Cravens opposed the Mexican war because he believed it was waged in the interests of slavery. In 1848 the Whig convention of his congressional district passed a resolution jus- tifying the war, and offered him the nomination for Congress upon the condition that he would indorse the platform. He replied at once, " No, gentlemen, I will not do it. If it was in your power to give me a seat in Congress for life I would not do it." Where is the man now in politics who would not indorse his party's creed, when by so doing he could go to Congress?
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