USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 19
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taxation and other matters. It was necessary for us to say who should be admitted as co-partners. But if an individual State may say this, the relative position of the States is changed -the conditions at once broken and destroyed. Illinois admits, we will suppose, 10,000 per- sons to vote, who are aliens not naturalized, whom she has not had the consent of other States to admit. What is the effect upon New Jersey ?
It is this : that foreigners, strangers probably to our principles of government, our habits, our interests, -to our very language, may out-weigh and overcome the citizens of New Jersey in the choice of Chief Magistrate, and in all the management of all our public affairs. Is this fair ? Is it right? This doctrine puts it in the power of eer- tain States so to arrange, as that foreigners shall send enough to make up the majority of Representatives on the floor, in the other House, and may decide the choice of President. The States it is said, are too wise and just and will not do this. I do not say they will, but I would rather stand by the Union, and trust the principles of the Con- stitution than them. We agreed that there should be a uniform rule of naturalization - a uniform rule in New Jersey and in Michigan, in Delaware and in Illinois. But is the rule now uniform ? No. - And if the other States should proceed after the example set by Illin- ois and Michigan, we shall soon have as many rules as there are States. I am not willing that such an unconstitutional and pernicious doctrine shall pass without giving it my condemnation. I insist that it is a violation of the Constitution. Read the powers granted in that instru- ment to Congress, and see if, where similar language is used, the power is not always exelusive. This point has been brought before the Supreme Court, and there was no dissentient voice in regard to it. I dread the consequences of this doctrine, more especially when I see such a bill as this, tempting aliens to eome, giving them our lands, that the States may make them citizens. I am not willing that the members of the House of Representatives shall represent aliens, for in process of time, aliens may come to be a majority, and may choose any Chief Magistrate. This law may make them so numerous in Wisconsin and Iowa as to control your native vote and make laws for your States. I will not leave it to one State to say, that they shall be permitted thus to control the general interests of all the States. Whom may not some of the States make citizens ? Cast your eyes in certain directions, and you can readily see what might be done. And recol- leet that the moment a State has pronounced a man a citizen, the shield of the Constitution is placed over him for his protection, and he must be protected as a citizen, every where in all the States.
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SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD.
I entreat gentlemen to pause before they establish this doctrine. For myself, I will not hold out inducements either to our own citizens or to aliens to come and take possession of our publie lands. It is a proposition obnoxious to the laws and to the Constitution, and to all the fundamental principles of our Government and Union, and I must resist it. I am willing foreigners shall come and enjoy all the privi- leges which I do - I am willing to have them as neighbors, and as friends, and let them stand by our side in battle - but they must cease to be Aliens first.
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
VISIT TO MEMPHIS.
LATE in June, 1853, I left home for Memphis, Tennessee, on matters connected with the contemplated line of railroad from Indianapolis South by Evansville, and Henderson, Kentucky, to Memphis. When I arrived at Henderson the great barbecue was just coming off, in the grove back of the city, upon the occasion of the commencement of the IIenderson and Nashville Railroad. I accepted the offer of a ride to the grove where I found a very large assembly of ladies and gentlemen already seated under a beautiful bower, bands of music playing, companies of infantry marching, and counter-marching, troops of horse parading, and canuon firing, as I walked up to the bower. The president of the day invited me to take a seat on the stand; of course I could not decline; but the moment I reach the seat, he announced to the large audience that " A distinguished son of Indiana would address the audience." I was taken wholly by surprise, entirely unprepared, but there was no backing out, and I went ahead with an extemporaneous speech of some hour and a half. The attention was all I could have desired and the applausc more than I could have expected under the most favorable circumstances. The speaking closed. I received the thanks of the President, and his arm to the table, at the barbecue out in the grove. It was the first time I had ever seen a Kentucky barbecue ; I confess it come fully up to my expectations,-three tables some hundred yards in length, each covered from end to end with roast beef, mutton, whole pigs and calves, pies and puddings, bread and butter, indeed with all the substantials of life and the luxuries of the season, while good humor, hilarity, and pleasantness reigned. Henderson is a beautiful place located on a high bluff on the Ohio river some twelve miles below Evansville ; on the Kentucky side, it is the residence of the Dixons and Powells, and other distinguished men of Kentucky.
The next morning our steamer stopped at Paducah at the mouth of the Tennessee, where I landed and met my old friend Lynn Boyd, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress. It was arranged that I should speak that evening in the court-house ; posters were soon up over the city, and at candle-lighting I met a crowded house, spoke some two hours. Got aboard of the boat before she left, at daylight stepped ashore at Cairo, ran down the Mississippi a day and night, and landed safely at the beautiful city of Memphis. This is one of the finest locations on the Mississippi river between St. Louis and New Orleans, and is destined to become one of the largest cities in the Southwest, especially since the completion of the
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great Memphis and Charleston Railroad. On the evening of the first of July, hy request, I addressed a large andience of the citizens of Memphis over two hours in one of their halls. It was beginning to be feared that the yellow fever would visit the city, the news from New Orleans had for a few days become alarming; I determined to leave on the first boat for home, but learned that there would be no boat up before Saturday night, the third of July. Saturday morning had come, when Col. Williamson, president of the Little Rock Rail- road, invited me to ride out with him on the train of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad to La Grange, where there was to be a cele- bration of the opening of the road to that place. I consented and we took our seats on an open, hind car, where we had a full view of the surrounding country as we passed. The country from Memphis to La Grange was beautifully picturesque,-fine groves surround the dwellings of the planters, extensive cotton-fields were just coming in bloom, the first I had ever seen. The day was pleasant and the ride delightful ; at eleven o'clock we reached the station at La Grange, and left the cars for the grove where the stand was erected on rising ground, with the extensive shaded seats in front. Col. Williamson and myself were walking toward the stand when we were met by the president of the day. "Good morning, Col., I am glad to see you, we are in a bad fix." " How so." " We have an immense assembly, the ladies are seated, our orator has not come and we have nobody to address them." " You are not so badly off as you think, here is a man that can speak to your audience," pointing to me. The president .- " Can you speak ?" " Yes, a little." "Will you address that audience?" " If you say so." " What is your name, and where are you from ?" " My name is Oliver H. Smith, I live in Indiana." "That will do, how soon can you be ready to speak ?" " I am ready now." We walked to the stand, ascended the steps to the platform, and before I reached the seat, the president at the top of his voice, " Ladies and . gentleman, I have the pleasure of introducing General Smith, of the State of Indiana, who will now address yon." I made no such pre- tensions to military title ; but in the South, military men stand all the time a head and shoulders higher with the people than common men, and it is proper for the president in introducing a total stranger, in his own justification, in case I had failed, to have my military title to fall back upon. I immediately arose and bowed to the audience. As I threw my eyes around me from the stand, I beheld the most splen- did preparations I had ever seen for a celebration. We were in the midst of a beautiful grove, the front bower covering the extended seats, overhung with bushes, and evergreens the fine companies, the
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
city guards, the infantry in full uniform stationed in front, and on the sides, the dragoons defiling, and moving around the bower with their beautiful horses, and splendid uniform. The bands of music, on either side of the stand, on the right at a distance the smoking barbecue in an adjoining grove was plainly in sight. My eye measured ten thousand on the ground. The bands were playing Hail Columbia, the music ceased.
" Ladies and gentlemen, I am a stranger in the State of Tennessee. I am a candidate for no offiee, and politics is not my theme, therefore you have nothing to expect from me to day but the truth, and I have nothing to ask of you but the courtesy of a hearing. You have a great State, rich in all that nature can bestow upon you, if you are not pros- perous and happy it is your own fault. I have listened to your bands of music, as they played the national air of Hail Columbia, but the still more delightful music to your ears should be the rumbling of the cars and the whistling of the locomotives of the flying trains as they greet your ears, that should speak in a language not to be mis- understood, that Tennessee is rising from her long slumber, resolved to enter the field of enterprise with the Northern States. You now stand upon the same platform the Northern and Eastern States stood on years ago ; then the great men were merged in politics, as you are, now they are engaged in the great enterprises of the day, and the country is rising in population and power. The time was when the patriotic sons of Tennessee rallied under the standard of their hero and repelled the enemy, in the glorious battle of New Orleans. A greater enemy to the State of Tennessee than the British army, has long fettered her pros- perity, commanded by a greater general than Packenham,-I mean Gen. Apathy, Gen. Indifference. And a greater general than Gen. Jackson, may command your forces,-I mean Gen. Will, Gen. Deter- mination." This is but a sketch of the commencement of the speech. The speech lasted an hour and a half, and was frequently applauded. Col. Haskell, Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Tresevant, Mr. Prior, and Dr. Booth, made short speeches, the bands played Yankee Doodle, and we all went to the sumptuous table in the adjoining grove, where every thing was done up in the finest style of a Tennessee barbecue. I returned that evening to Memphis and at twelve o'clock at night stepped from the wharf-boat upon the Steamer Columbus, direct from New Orleans, upward bound, with a number on board low with the yellow fever ; several died on the passage. That dreadful epidemic was then just making its appearance in New Orleans. As connected with this sketch I give the notice of the celebration that appeared in the Mem- phis press, on the next Tuesday, the 5th of July.
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VISIT TO MEMPHIS.
THE RAILROAD CELEBRATION.
Saturday last was a great day for La Grange, and will mark a new era in the history of that thriving village. The number of persons in attendance is variously estimated at from six to eight thousand, and but for the heat and dust, the time would have passed off most delight- fully. The preparations were commodious and ample, and not a sin- gle accident occurred to mar the harmony of the occasion. Speeches were made by Hon. O. II. Smith, of Indiana, Cols. Haskell, Lindsay, Tresevant, Pryor and Dr. Booth, after which the vast multitude repaired to the grove where the tables were spread, and partook of a most ele- gant dinner, prepared gratuitously by the public-spirited citizens of La Grange and vicinity. Memphis was largely represented on the occasion in the persons of the City Guards, Fire Companies, and last, though not least, a goodly number of her fair daughters. Three trains of cars left during the morning, every one of which seemed a living mass of human beings, and it is estimated that at least two thousand of our citizens took passage upon them. It was our fortune to get a stand (for we could not get a seat) on the 8 o'clock train which carried up the Guards and Fire Companies, who, with their engines, banners, uniforms and gay plumes, made one of the most imposing spectacles it has ever been our good fortune to witness.
Mississippi was also represented by a splendid company of horse- men from Lamar, who in connexion with the City Guards, went through some very fine and striking evolutions during the day, adding greatly to the interest of the occasion. We left the ground on the first train after dinner, and are unable to speak of what transpired afterward. Altogether it was, to us at least, a most pleasant day, and we can not ascribe too much praise to the publie spirit of the citizens of La Grange, and to the interest which they have manifested in aiding and pushing forward one of the greatest works of the age, the Memphis and Charles- ton Railroad. May they in due time reap their reward.
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EARLY INDIANA TRIALS.
SILAS WRIGHT.
THE subject of this sketch was one of the greatest men in the nation. I had the pleasure of sitting by his side for six years in the Senate, and the honor of a close, personal intimacy with him; we differed politically, but personally we were friends. In person, he was about a fair, medium size ; strongly made, full, ample chest, large head, capa- cious forehead, inclining to baldness, hair thin, amber light, eyes dark- blue; features fine; dress plain, manners retiring, almost to diffidence. Gov. Wright possessed a mind of the first order in the body. As a speaker, he was plain, strong, clear, sometimes eloquent; not what the galleries call eloquence, his was the eloquence growing out of facts, plainly, forcibly presented, soft words and hard arguments. His mind was not the Niagara pitching over the cataract, raising clouds, and creating rainbows to the mental vision of his hearers, but rather the steady flow of a strong current of the Mississippi, bearing upon its bosom the wealth of nations. Gov. Wright had great weight with his party, he really led, while he seemed to follow. Ilis great attachment to Mr. Van Buren was well known; while he was chair- man of the Committee on Finance, a Senator charged him with taking his cue from Mr. Van Buren, at the White House. Mr. Clay rose and jocosely remarked, " I rise, Mr. President, to correct the Senator. I do not know that there is any cue in the case, but if there is it is more likely that the White House took the cue from the chairman of the Committee of Finance." Gov. Wright, bowing, "A high compli- ment, Mr. Clay."
Gov. Wright had one advantage over most Senators, he was always cool and collected, nothing could disturb him or throw him off his balance. I never saw him so excited as even to appear so, much less to make him lose sight of the proprieties of debate. He was said to love his ease, and to spend his vacation in the country, at his home, fishing and gunning ; this may be true, but if so, his active mind was no doubt drawing to it and arranging the materials for the next ses- sion, of which he always had at command an inexhaustible store.
As I became familiar with him, he indulged in first-rate anecdotes, with which I could fill the space I have allotted for this sketch. On one occasion he was in the Senate of New York with Gen. Erastus Root. The General was fond of personal display in his dress. One morning he came to the Senate with buff breeches, white silk stock- ings, knee and shoe buckles. Gov. Wright bet a bottle of wine that he could make the General go home and take off the breeches, and put on plain pantaloons, without speaking to him on the subject ;
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SILAS WRIGHT.
It seemed to be a very fearful risk, but to the sequel. The Governor stepped up to the General, and taking him kindly by the hand, said, " Good morning, General," then turning his eyes upon the buff breeches, and looking them over for a minute, "how do you do?" then re-examining the breeches with a quizzical look, paying no attention to what the General said, but continuing his remarks, now a word, then a look at the breeches. The General at length left abruptly, was absent some minutes, and returned dressed in a plain pair of black pantaloons. The wine was drunk with a hearty laugh, in which the General joined.
On another occasion, while the Governor was Comptroller of New York, a penny paper, every morning for months, had been publish- ing scurrilous articles against him, without his having taken the least notice of them. One morning the Editor met him, and, apologizing for the article of that morning, remarked that he had ascertained that it was not true. " I do not understand you." "Why I have found out that the artiele I published this morning about you was not true." " Me ! you haven't been writing against me, have you ?" " Yes, for six months." " I have not heard of it." " Then I'll write no more."
The Governor told me how he got along with his enemies when they wrote against him : "If they publish the truth about me, I say nothing ; one half of the people will say it is all a lie, one fourth will never see it, and the current affairs of the next day will cover it up from the sight of the other fourth. If it is a lie, I let it bury itself, unless the author is worthy of my attention, and I think I can make capital by exposing him."
It is known that Gov. Wright declined accepting the candidacy for Vice President of the United States, on the ticket with Mr. Polk, for the reason that his friend, Mr. Van Buren, had been defeated at Baltimore by the two-thirds rule, and the friends of Gen. Cass, and Col. Polk had then been nominated over him. Had Gov. Wright continued to stand aloof from that contest, and refuse to let his name be used as a candidate for the office of Governor of New York, at that time, no one doubted but that Mr. Clay would have carried the State against Mr. Polk, but the great popularity of Gov. Wright, who was opposed by Millard Fillmore, and the election eoming on for Gov- ernor and President at the same time, the tickets became identified, and the l'olk and Wright ticket succeeded over the Clay and Fillmore ticket by an inconsiderable majority. I have good reason to know that it was on his part, a great sacrifice to party, that he made with great reluctance, preferring to remain in the Senate. He died while filling the office of Governor of New York, in the meridian of his years.
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Had he lived, it was evident that the eyes of the Democratie party were looking to him as their candidate for the Presidency.
I give for the eye of the reader, as I have of other Senators, a few extracts from one of his great speeches, on Mr. Clay's resolutions, to show his style of argument.
EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECH ..
"A single other preliminary remark would bring him to an exami- nation of the resolutions themselves, and of the merits of the questions raised by them. He was relieved from some of the most serious diffi- eulties which had, upon some former occasions surrounded this subject of an adjustment of our tariff of duties upon imports, by being able to approach the discussion with the conviction that two great, and leading, and important principles in regard to it, were now perfectly settled and universally admitted, by all men of all parties, in this coun- try. They were the following :
"1. That revenue should be the object and indueement for the imposition of duties upon imports, and that every other consideration should be merely incidental to this great and necessary object.
" 2. That the wants of the Government, economically and properly administered, should be the measure of revenue to be raised from any source, or in any manner. There had been a time within his remem- brance, when both these principles were strongly contradicted, and when protection to domestic interests was the ground upon which imposition of duties were urged, and the revenue to be derived was a merely incidental consideration. Indeed, when these plain principles were first announced, in the message of a late President, as those which should guide and govern this branch of legislation, they were looked upon by many as hostile to domestic interests, if not unpatriotic in themselves. They soon, however, came to be more carefully and maturely considered, and the consequence has been their universal adoption. They are enacted by the Compromise law. They are found soundly and distinctly put forth in the Finance Report of the pres- ent Secretary of the Treasury, and he was glad to meet with their strong repetition in a late report from a committee of the House of Representatives, on the subject of a fiscal agent. These great and leading principles he hoped he might consider as ' stakes ' already set, and they should be kept carefully in the eye and mind of every states- man who attempts to mark out future action upon this all important
* * * subject." * * * * *
Mr. W. said, " Gentlemen might suppose these were opinions of his own, theoretically formed. They were not so, solely ; but he had
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SILAS WRIGHT.
already facts to rest them upon. A correspondent in New York, had transmitted to him an extraet of a most sensible letter from capitalists, in Holland, who had already made investments in American securi- ties. It showed a minute nnderstanding on the part of these saga- cious gentlemen, between cause and effect, in these matters of credit here, which, he regretted to believe, were much too limitedly known, and much too little appreciated, by ourselves. Senators must not for- get that money-lenders are the most cautions of men-that they watch the policy and providence of those to whom they give credit; and that confidence in them, once wounded, is a sickly plant, and can only be restored to vigor and health again, by the most careful and faithful culture, and the most active and substantial nutriment. * *
"Another, and still more important consideration, weighed heavily with him. The practice of sending Congressional speeches bad in- creased within the last few years to an enormous extent, and had come to be a matter expected by the constituent and demanded from the rep- resentative, as a part of his official duty. It had gone to such excess within the last few years as, in his judgment, to have become injurious instead of being beneficial, to the constituent body, and most palpably so to the business of legislation here. The great mass of Congres- sional speeches now take their character from this practice. They are made not to be listened to by the body to which they are addressed, but to be read by the constituents to whom they were sent. Hence they are necessarily political and partisan to much too great an extent, and much beyond what they would be, if simply intended for the legislative body. The debates are protracted too in length by this practice, for the speaker is well aware that the debates upon the ques- tion can never reach those whom he wishes to address, and hence he is compelled, in his single speech, to give so full a view of the whole gronnd of debate, as to enable the reader to appreciate the force of his remarks and his views. This, too, must be repeated by each speaker, because his speech is to go to a different class of readers. Mr. W. had not for a long time entertained a doubt that this practice of eireu- lating the Congressional speeches under the franks of the members, had contributed more than any one single cause to the constant inerease of the duration of the long session."
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ST. LOUIS CONVENTION.
IN the month of October in the year 1849, the great Pacific Railroad Convention was about to be held at St. Louis. The Eastern stage arrived with several distinguished men, Mr. Stoddard, Mr. Lowe, Mr. Vancleve from Dayton ; and we all left together for St. Lonis in the stage. Our ride over a bad mud road was not very pleasant; but we made all up by good humor and hilarity. The second day we entered the Grand Prairie, stretching across the State of Illinois ; it was the first time I had ever seen it; to say it was grand, would not convey an idea, it was magnificent to my eyes, one grand view all around us, not a tree to obstruct the sight to the horizon ; here and there in the dis- tance, was seen the cabin of the settler, with its curling smoke ; now and then, the deer and the prairie-wolf would spring up and run away at the top of their speed; flocks of prairie-chickens flew whizzing through the air, and occasionally, wild turkeys, with their straight necks and upright heads, were seen above the grass of the prairie. I had seen the broad waters of Erie and Michigan, the Atlantic ocean, the Falls of Niagara ; but thought the Grand Prairie scarcely surpassed by either. What is it yet to be, when settlement and cultivation shall mark it for their own ? In the evening, St. Louis with her steeples and towers, was seen in the distance across the Father of Waters - Bloody Island, as it were in the channel, between Illinoistown and the city. We were soon at the Planters House, a first-class hotel, crowded with guests from all parts of the United States and Europe, of every, language, kindred and tongue. St. Louis was even at that day a great commercial city, but she was only the infant in the cradle, giving promise of the future man.
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