USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
In 1840, the year of the Harrison political tornado, Mr. Wright was elected to the State Senate. In 1843 he was elected to Con- gress, and two years afterward was beaten for that office by Ed- ward W. McGaughey 171 votes. In 1849 he was nominated for Governor, and defeated John A. Matson 9,778 votes. In 1852 he again ran for Governor, and defeated Nicholas McCarty 20,031 votes. In 1857 he was appointed United States Minister to Prussia, and served four years as such. In 1862 he was ap- pointed by Governor Morton United States Senator, and sat in the Senate until the next January. In 1863 President Lincoln appointed him a commissioner to the Hamburg Exposition. In 1865 he again went to Prussia as United States Minister. and remained there until he died. His death occurred at Berlin, March 11, 1867, and his remains were brought to New York, and there buried. This is an epitome of the life and death of Joseph A. Wright.
Governor Wright will be best remembered as Governor of Indiana. His service in Congress, one term in the House and one year in the Senate, was too brief for him to make much
97
JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.
impression there. As Governor, he was an important factor in shaping legislation and moulding public opinion in his State. It was while he was Governor that the constitution under which we live was made. It was while he was Governor that the State Agricultural Society was formed,. and it was while he was Gov- ernor that the Free banking law was passed, and the charter for the Bank of the State of Indiana granted. In 1852, on the or- ganization of the State Board of Agriculture, he was chosen its President. He was re-elected in 1853 and in 1854. He took great pride in the work of this society. He used to quote the saying of Horace Greeley, that " the man who makes two blades of grass grow where but one had grown before, is a public ben- efactor." Agriculture was a "hobby" with him. From the fact that he had never been a farmer his political opponents made sport of his farming pretensions. They used to tell a story on him, which is too good to be omitted here. It was said that in one of his speeches before an agricultural society, he advised farmers to buy hydraulic rams to improve their sheep ' The story, although apochryphal, had great credence at the time. Another, which was true, will bear repeating: Some one brought him a bunch of hog bristles, taken from the paunch of a cow. He exhibited this as a great curiosity, and was wont to descant upon it for the edification of his farmer friends. At last it was discovered that the cow from which the bristles were taken was in the habit of browsing near a pork-house where hog's hair was spread to dry. While eating grass she had swallowed the bristles, and, as they were indigestible, they re- mained in her stomach until she died. This discovery spoiled the Governor's lecture on the cow.
Governor Wright was an anti-bank man, and opposed with the whole weight of his influence the free bank law and the bill chartering the Bank of the State of Indiana. He vetoed both these measures. but the Legislature passed them, notwithstand- ing his opposition. The bill to charter the Bank of the State passed the Senate at the session of 1855, in its closing hours. and when the Senate had adjourned the Governor ascended the President's chair and made a bitter speech against the bill. asserting that it was passed by corruption and fraud. This
7
98
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
speech caused much bad feeling between the Governor and the members of the Legislature, and also the Lieutenant-Governor, who had been an advocate of the bill. The Legislature having passed the bank bills over the Governor's veto, he sought to bring the laws into disrepute, and thereby impede the organiza- tion of banks under them. He commenced a suit in the Marion Circuit Court against John D. Defrees and others for the pur- pose of having the charter of the Bank of the State declared null and void. The case was decided against him, but he ap- pealed to the Supreme Court, and that tribunal affirmed the judgment of the court below. Having exhausted all legal measures, he was compelled to retire from the contest, which he very reluctantly did. But he renewed the fight in the Leg- islature of 1857. In his message to this Legislature he said :
"The means and appliances brought to bear to secure the passage of this charter would, if exposed to the public gaze. exhibit the nakedest page of fraud and corruption that ever dis- graced the Legislature of any State. While men of pure and honorable sentiment were led into its support in the belief that the approaching close of the existing bank required them thus early to provide a successor, others supported it upon promise of stock, equivalents in money, or pledges as to the location of certain branches. To make up the constitutional vote in its · favor the names of members were recorded on its passage who were at the moment absent, and many miles distant from the ·capital."
Upon the delivery of this message the Senate raised an in- vestigating committee of five, at the head of which was Horace Heffren, the Senator from Washington. The examination of the committee was thorough and exhaustive, and, although some suspicious transactions were discovered, nothing was developed to justify the sweeping charges of the Governor. A majority of the committee reported that many dishonorable things had been done by the speculators who engineered the bill through the Legislature, and recommended that the charter be revoked. Mr. Heffren, the chairman, dissented from the opinion of a majority of the committee, taking the ground that one Legis- ture had no right to review and pass judgment upon the acts
99
JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.
of another. The investigation and reports of the committee practically amounted to nothing, for the bank was organized. and made for itself one of the most honorable records known in the history of banking.
Governor Wright was more fortunate in his contest with the free banks than with the Bank of the State. He sent a mes- senger to a small town near the Illinois line with some $2,000 of the bills of a bank located there for the purpose of testing its bottom. The messenger demanded payment of the bills. and the bank being unable to redeem them, suffered the dis- honor of protest. The result justified the Governor's often ex- pressed opinion, i. e., that some of the free banks were merely banks of circulation. His action in testing the solvency of a single bank brought on a crisis with the system. Those which could not stand the test of solvency-the redemption of their bills-were forced to suspend and wind up their affairs. For some time the value of Indiana free bank bills was an uncer- tain quantity. The banks of Indianapolis fixed a price upon these bills, and this price was as fluctuating as the mercury in March. It often varied as much as ten per cent. a day ; some- times down, and then up. This state of affairs continued until all the illegitimate banks were closed, leaving only those stand- . ing which had been organized with capital, and were under the control of reputable men.
Until the summer of 1861 Governor Wright acted and voted with the Democratic party. He favored the compromise meas- ures of 1850, being their zealous advocate. During their pend- ency in Congress he invited John J. Crittenden. then Governor of Kentucky, to visit Indiana. This eminent Kentuckian was warmly received wherever he appeared, and when he returned to his home he took with him the best wishes of the people of Indiana. It was believed at the time that this visit did much to allay sectional animosity and assuage the bad feeling existing between the North and the South. About one year and a half after Governor Crittenden's trip to Indiana Governor Wright was invited to visit Kentucky. He accepted the invitation, and at Frankfort was received with great honors .. The welcoming address was made by Lazarus W. Powell. then Governor of the
100
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
State, one of the most eloquent men of that time. In his reply, Governor Wright said :
"Governor Powell, you refer to the invitation extended to Governor Crittenden to visit our State in 1850, and have al- luded to me in connection therewith. That invitation, sir, came from the people of Indiana, and it was due to the exalted worth, talents and services of your then distinguished Executive. It was peculiarly appropriate, in the dark hour of our country's history, when the tempest of disunion frowned in the political horizon, that the people of two States like Kentucky and In- diana, differing in their institutions, should meet together. smoke the pipe of peace, and pledge themselves to the support of the constitution. It was eminently proper. in this dark and trying hour, that the heart of this nation should speak, and when Kentucky and Indiana spake, the heart did speak.
" On crossing the beautiful Ohio, yesterday, I was reminded of the custom of some of the aboriginal inhabitants of this coun- try, in performing the marriage ceremony of the tribe. The bride stood upon one side of the stream and the groom upon the other, their hands plaited together, and the clear, living waters of the rivulet, emblematical of their virtue and purity, and tend- ing to a common union, the great ocean of love. Kentucky and Indiana have clasped hands upon the Thames and the Tip- pecanoe, and at Buena Vista, and for forty years, in peace and in war, they have been shaking hands; and to-day (shaking the hand of Governor Powell) they renew the covenant afresh. that Kentucky and Indiana will live by the bond of their union. the ark, the covenant, the pillar. the cloud, the constitution ! They theoretically and practically carry out the doctrine of non- intervention, each State attending to its own municipal affairs."
During Governor Wright's official term the Washington Monumental Association requested the several States to con- tribute blocks for the Washington monument. At that time there were but few stone quarries open in Indiana, the principal ones being those at Vernon, in Jennings county, and at Saluda Landing, in Jefferson county. Governor Wright had a block from the Saluda quarry properly dressed and prepared at Mad- ison, and sent to Washington. It bore this inscription, dictated
IOI
JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.
by the Governor : "Indiana knows no East, no West, no North, no South; nothing but the Union." The stone was placed in the Washington monument, a work which was com- menced over thirty years ago, and is still unfinished.
In the report of Postmaster General Barry. made in '1830. under the caption of " Contracts made for carrying the mails." the following may be found : "The Postmaster General re- ports route No. 10, from Brownstown to Terre Haute, Ind., once a week, 134 miles, awarded to Alfred J. Athon, at $398. Joseph A. Wright bid $334 per annum. Wright was not sufficiently known nor recommended: therefore his bid was rejected." Mr. Wright was then a young lawyer of Bloomington, and be- ing badly in need of money sought to make a few dollars by getting a mail contract. As will be seen, he was not sufficiently known for his bid to be regarded. What a commentary on the possibilities of life is this! The man who was then too insig- nificant to be considered, afterward sat in both branches of the Legislature of his State, and for nine years was its Governor. Not only this, but he served in both houses of Congress, and twice represented his country at a foreign court. I have told the reader who the unsuccessful bidder was; can he tell me who was the successful one, and what became of him? I im- agine not.
Governor Wright was a Democrat of the straightest sect. He stood high in the councils of his party, and contested with Jesse D. Bright for the leadership, but without success. He was strong with the people, but weak with the leaders. Mr. Bright always kept the upper hand of him, and when he aspired to the United States Senate, in common parlance, Mr. Bright sat down upon him. The rivalries of these party leaders begat bad blood, and Mr. Bright was outspoken in his denunciations of the Governor. In a letter. now in possession of the author, he thus speaks of him :
·· While the Governor is active in getting up his certificates to prove a lie the truth, I am wagging on in the even tenor of my way, a firm believer in the correctness of that old, time-honored maxim. . Truth is mighty and will prevail.' He has begged a truce out of Governor Whitcomb. I understand. The latter shows he is a man of peace : though very timid. he will make
IO2
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
good all he has uttered or written as to that prince of liars and hypocrites."
Governor Wright was in Europe when the rebellion began, but he warmly espoused the cause of the government, and did much to create a correct sentiment at the court to which he was accredited. He returned home in the fall of 1861, reaching Indianapolis on the 7th of September of that year. He was warmly received by his old neighbors and friends, General Du- mont making the welcoming speech. The next February Mr. Bright, his old rival and enemy, was expelled from the United States Senate, and Governor Wright was appointed to the place. Will Cumback wanted the appointment, but Governor Morton said there was poetic justice in Governor Wright's taking the place of Mr. Bright, and he gave it to him. The appoint- ment only lasted until the meeting of the next Legislature, and the Democracy, having a majority in that Legislature, elected Hon. David Turpie to fill out Mr. Bright's unexpired term. Thus it will be seen that as a Democrat, Governor Wright never reached the Senate. It was only after he had cut loose from his party and affiliated with those he had ever fought that he reached the coveted honor.
In 1863 Governor Wright was appointed by President Lin- coln Commissioner to the Hamburg Exposition, and remained some time abroad. Two years after this President Johnson ap- pointed him Minister to Prussia. This was the second time he represented his government at Berlin. He made many friends at the Prussian capital, among them Baron von Humboldt, with whom he maintained a very close intimacy. As previously stated in this sketch, he died in Berlin while United States Min- ister there.
Governor Wright was an able canvasser. He had the faculty of getting at the people and getting hold of them. In his speeches he used to say the people were more interested in se- lecting good County Commissioners than good Congressmen. He was a member of the Methodist church, and many believed he used his church connection to advance his political fortunes. In the canvass of 1852 he went to Madison and remained there over Sabbath. On Sunday morning he attended Third Street
103"
JOSEPH A. WRIGHT.
Methodist Church, and afterward dined with William Griffin, a leading Roman Catholic. In the afternoon he attended the Wesley Chapel Sunday-school, and delivered a lecture to the scholars ; and in the evening he attended the services of Wes- ley Chapel. Thus it will be seen that he put in his whole time on Sunday, and when the votes were counted that fall it was found that he had carried Jefferson county, Whig though it was. His most effective electioneering was done in the circles of his church.
Governor Wright was tall and raw-boned. He had a large head, and an unusually high forehead. His hair was light and thin upon his head, his eyes blue, and his nose and mouth large- and prominent. He was an effective speaker, mainly on ac- count of his earnestness and simplicity. He was not an elo- quent man, and did not compare with Willard as a stumper, but the people liked to hear him talk, and listened attentively to what he said. While not the greatest man in the State, he was one of the most influential ; and, to his honor be it said, his in- fluence was exercised for the public good. Economy and hon- esty in public life, and morality and religion in private station, had in him an advocate and an exemplar.
ASHBEL PARSONS WILLARD.
- -
ROBERT POLLOCK, author of "The Course of Time," died before he was 28; Lord Byron, of whom it had been said,
" He laid his hand upon the ocean's mane, And played familiar with his hoary locks,"
died at 36 ; William Pitt was Prime Minister of England at 25. and Ashbel P. Willard was Governor of Indiana at 36. What a lesson for young men !
Ashbel Parsons Willard was born October 31, 1820, in Oneida county, New York. He was educated at Hamilton College, and studied law with Judge Baker in his native county. He emigrated to Marshall, Michigan, in 1842, and lived there for a year or so. He then made a trip to Texas on horseback, and on his return stopped at Carrolton, Kentucky, and there taught school for a while. After this he went to Jefferson county, Kentucky, and took a school near Louisville. His spare hours were employed in reading, and the knowledge he gained at this time was of great benefit to him in after life.
The contest for the presidency in 1844 between Clay and Polk was an exciting one, and in no part of the country did party spirit run higher than in Kentucky, the home of Clay. Young Willard was a Democrat by birth and by education, and was firmly grounded in the faith. He had a natural love for politics, and he soon left the school-room for a more excit- ing theater. He commenced stumping for Polk, and during the campaign spoke at New Albany, just across the river from Louisville. He made such a favorable impression that many of the first men of the town solicited him to come and settle among
.
105
ASHBEL PARSONS WILLARD.
.
them. What they said impressed him, and next spring he left Kentucky and took up his abode at New Albany. He lived there until he died, except when at the State capital attending to his official duties.
He opened a law office at New Albany, but clients were tardy in coming, and to get money to pay his necessary expenses he supplemented his professional income by a small salary received for writing in the office of the county clerk. The first office Mr. Willard held was that of common councilman. He took pride in the place, and won the good opinion of the people without respect to party. The next year, 1850, he was elected to the State Legislature, and from that time until he died he occupied a conspicuous place in the public eye. On the organi- zation of the House he was chosen chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and thus became leader of the House. We now find him, at thirty years of age, the acknowledged chief of his party in the popular branch of the Legislature, and never was chieftain more lovingly followed. Alert and watch- ful, he was always ready for the contest. He could parry a blow or give one with as much dexterity as an old knight of the lance. His address and manner were so captivating that before the session closed he had made prisoners the hearts of his fellow members. Those who did not like his politics liked the man, and when the members separated and went to their homes they took with them the fondest recollections of the gallant young leader of the House.
When the Democratic State Convention of 1852 convened. the delegates were met by an overwhelming public sentiment demanding the nomination of Willard for Lieutenant-Governor. The demand was recognized and the nomination made. Joseph A. Wright, the nominee for Governor, was an able and popular man. but he was not the equal of Willard on the hustings. Indeed, I only state a fact well known to those familiar with the public men of that day, when I say that, as a political stumper. Mr. Willard had no equal in the State, with the exception of Henry S. Lane. There were men who surpassed him as de- baters and logicians, but none who matched him in impassioned oratory, with the exception named. He was elected and, at the next session of the Legislature, took his seat as President of the
-
106
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
Senate. As a presiding officer he was courteous, prompt and decisive. He was a warm partisan, and his decisions were sometimes influenced by party zeal; but, on the whole, he averaged well. In politics he met fire with fire, and believed in doing evil that good might come. Witness his casting vote in the Senate in 1855 on the resolution to go into an election for United States Senator. The People's party, having a majority on joint ballot, nominated Joseph G. Marshall. of Jefferson. for United States Senator. The Senate was a tie, and, by the casting vote of Lieutenant-Governor Willard, refused to go into an election. There can be no justification for this act. The most that can be said in its defense is that the Lieutenant- Governor followed a line of bad precedents. Several times in the history of Indiana politics has a legislative minority failed to discharge its constitutional duty by refusing to go into an election for Senator. Happily the law has been so changed as to break up this reprehensible practice.
In 1856 Willard was nominated for Governor. Two years before the Know-nothing party had swept the State. Willard had antagonized it from the first, having fought it bitterly and unrelentingly. It had gone to pieces, but those of its members who entered the Republican party took with them an intense hostility to the Democratic candidate. Oliver P. Morton, then a young lawyer of Wayne county, and afterwards the great war Governor of Indiana, was Willard's opponent for Governor. The contest between them was memorable. It was a battle of giants. Morton fought with the battle-ax of Richard Cœur de Lion, and Willard with the sword of Saladin. The sword con- quered, and the young man who, eleven years before, had come to Indiana poor and friendless, was now the Governor-elect of a great State. I shall not speak of Governor Willard's admin- istration of the State government further than to say that it commanded the approbation of his political friends and met the condemnation of his political enemies. The time is too recent to examine it without political bias, so I will pass it by.
In the summer of 1860 Governor Willard's health gave way. It had been bad for years, but his strong will enabled him to keep up and attend to his official duties. The last speech he attempted to make was at Columbus, this State. At that time
107
ASHBEL PARSONS WILLARD.
the Democratic party was suffering from internal disorders. The Nebraska bill had disrupted it, and the wonder is that a man of Governor Willard's discernment and sagacity did not see it was doomed to defeat. But he continued hopeful of its future, and did all he could to insure its success. He attended many of its conventions and labored hard to heal its wounds. He went to Columbus as a peacemaker, but he had his labor for his pains. The convention, after much wrangling, nominated Dr. William M. Daly, a Methodist preacher, for Congress. The delegation from Jefferson was intensely hostile to him, al- though that county was his home, and, when the nomination was made, one of the delegates arose and proposed three cheers for McKee Dunn, the Republican candidate. To hear a mem- ber of a Democratic convention propose cheers for a Republican was, indeed, shocking to Willard, and he at once mounted the rostrum and commenced to speak. His voice was as musical, and he controlled it as artistically as ever, but in the midst of an impassioned appeal for harmony he suddenly stopped. He was taken ill, having a hemorrhage of the lungs, but the bleed- ing soon stopped, and he left the room.
Soon after the convention at Columbus Governor Willard went to Minnesota in quest of health. But the trip had been too long delayed to do him permanent good. Disease was eating at his vitals, and refused to release its hold at the bidding of the bracing air of the Northwest. On the 4th of October, 1860, he became suddenly worse, and on the evening of that day breathed his last, and there went from the face of the earth one of the brightest intellects of the day.
Governor Willard was the first Governor of Indiana to die in office. The people, without respect to party, paid homage to his remains as they passed through the towns and cities of the State. They were brought to Indianapolis, and for three days lay in state, being viewed by thousands who loved the young man eloquent. On the day after the October election, 1860, they were taken to New Albany, his old home, and there in- terred.
Some incidents illustrating Willard's character, and his power as an orator, may appropriately conclude this sketch of his life and death.
108
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHIES.
On the Saturday before the presidential election in 1856, Governor Willard went to Madison to deliver a political ad- dress. It had been announced that he would speak in the Court-house, but the deputy sheriff had let the Fillmore men have it that evening for the purpose of holding a political meet- ing. There was but a handful of these men, and it was be- lieved that this was but a ruse to prevent Governor Willard from speaking. A party of Democrats, headed by Joseph W. Chapman, went to the deputy sheriff and charged him with be- ing a party to the trick. They told him that Willard should have the Court-house, and if he-the deputy sheriff-did not open its doors, they would break them down. Judge Chapman and his friends went to Governor Willard and told him the situation, and what they intended to do. He said there should be no trouble, and that he would speak in the market-house. His friends objected to this, but he remained firm, saying that as the Democracy was " on top " it could afford to be generous. That evening he addressed an immense crowd in the market- house in his happiest vein. He was never more eloquent and effective. During the delivery of his speech he was interrupted by huzzas for Fremont. Some of his friends started for the offender with a view of putting him out of the house, but Wil- lard stopped them, saying : " Let him alone. Enjoy the music while you can. After Tuesday 'hurrah for Fremont' will be the dearest music you can buy."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.