USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 35
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There were some three or four houses in Shelbyville; only one public house in the place, kept by a man of the name of Williams. Next day court was held, some four or five cases for selling whisky without license were tried, and the Court adjourned. Col. John Hendricks was a younger brother of Gov. William Hendricks. He was one of the finest looking men in the State- six feet high, as straight as a rifle barrel, well built up, head large and ereet, high forehead, hair dark and thrown back in front, good features, eyes light blue, sparkling and intelligent; he was a noble specimen of the Anglo-Saxon race. The Hendricks family were early settlers of the State, from one of the central valleys of Pennsylvania ; were all fine- looking men, in character hospitable, noble, magnanimous, and gener- ous-and none of them more so than the subject of this sketch. I have known him long, and among all my acquaintances, I know of no man possessing a higher sense of honor, or a greater degree of high- toned moral and religious integrity. I saw him on yesterday, still crect, with hair as white as the drifted snow, his step firm, his coun- tenance wearing the smile of former years. May he live long to enjoy a green old age. Ile is the father of Thomas A. Hendricks, Com missioner of the General Land Office.
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WILLIAM HEROD-MICHAEL G. BRIGHT.
WILLIAM HEROD.
FOR years the subject of this sketch, William Herod, of Columbus, stood among the prominent men of the State, a leading member of the Senate, an active Member of Congress from the Indianapolis district. I knew him well, both in the State Senate and in Congress. Mr. Herod was a good, but not a brilliant speaker ; rather a plain matter- of-fact, common-sense man. He stood well at the bar, and very fair in Congress ; he made no attempts at eloquence, but confined himself to the question he was discussing. Mr. Herod is still living; he is above the ordinary size, well made, large, round head, dark hair and eyes, good features. When last I saw him he looked as if he had many years before him. May he live to enjoy them.
MICHAEL G. BRIGHT.
The subject of this sketch, has long been numbered among the promi- nent men of Indiana. Self made, with only an ordinary common Eng- lish education, obtained far from seminaries and colleges, he has risen, by his own native energy of character, to a high position at the bar, and in the political circles in which he moves. He is a warm Demo- crat. The great characteristic of Mr. Bright is energy. He never stands still, he never tires, possessed of a strong, vigorous, common- sense intellect, great physical force, and incessant application, he is always formidable. As a speaker he is plain, direct, clear, emphatic, forcible, interesting and effective. In person Michael G. Bright is above the common size, strongly built up, large head, broad forehead, full face, dark hair and eyes. Mr. Bright was an active, valuable mem- ber of our last Constitutional Convention, and contributed largely to the formation of our present constitution. I have selected from the Debates an extract from one of his speeches, to let the reader see his style ; he is now in the bloom of life, in fine health.
" Every member of the community holds his property, whether real or personal, subject to the rights and requirements of the State. It is a duty which the State owes to herself and to all the members who com- pose it, to maintain its sovereignty and its authority inviolate. It is a right inherent in sovereignty to take private property for public use without compensation being first made. The State is amenable to no one save to a sense of right. Although this right of the State to condemn private property for publie uses is undoubted, yet we provide that com- pensation shall be made, but not when to be made. And this is a point 24
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to which I invite the attention of gentlemen. The old constitution does not provide a time when this compensation is to be made by the State, and now shall we so frame this organic law that a jury shall be impan- neled, and damages assessed and compensation tendered, before the property can be taken, and must the public interest suffer ? Why the case put by the gentleman from Tippecanoe is a strong one. Suppose the State involved in war, an invading army is marching upon our frontiers ; the public service is in pressing need of horses or cattle, or perhaps of stone and timber for the construction of fortifications ; must the State wait until a jury has assembled and assessed the damages to the owner for the taking of this property ; surely we have no pre- cedents of individual hardships suffered through the neglect of the State to make ample remuneration for private property condemned for public uses, that we should go to the other extreme and engraft a pro- vision like this upon the new constitution. I undertake to say, that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, where private property is taken, the owner receives more than a fair and just compensation. But be this as it may, no instance can be found, where compensation has not been made according to law. The State was never so poor, involved as she has been, in embarrassment and debt, that she could not pay every dollar of compensation awarded as damages for the conversion of private property to publie uses. It is of comparatively small mo- ment to the citizen, whether this compensation is made now, or at another time, before or after the property is taken ; but, it is of great consequence to the State, that the progress of her publie works should not be retarded a day."
ROBERT DALE OWEN.
THE name of Robert Dale Owen is associated with much of the bis- tory of modern Indiana. He is a son of Robert Owen of Scotland, the founder of the Social Community at New Harmony, Indiana. Robert Owen left behind him two sons, when he returned to his native coun- try. Robert Dale the subject of this sketch, and David Dale, the dis- tinguished Geologist of the West. Robert Dale Owen is small in stature, large high forehead, light hair and eyes, prominent features of the Scottish cast. His mind strong, comprehensive and vigorous, highly improved by education and reading. He had been for years a prominent member of the Legislature of our State, and an active mem- ber of Congress from his district, when he was returned a delegate to the Convention of 1850 to form our State Constitution. It was there that his powers were fully developed to the people of Indiana. The
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" RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN."
published volumes of debates of the Convention are filled with his views upon the important questions that arose in the construction of the organie law of the State. Mr. Owen however threw his main strength upon the question of the rights of married women. I have therefore selected from his speeches in convention, an extract from the one on that subject. He is now the representative of the Government at the Court of the two Sicilies, in the meridian of life.
" RIGIITS OF MARRIED WOMEN."
" I CONFESS to my anxiety regarding the fate of the seetions that have just been read. No subject of greater importance than that to which they refer has come up since we met here. No subject of greater importance will engage our attention till we close our labors and go hence. As in estimation, next to the right of enjoying life and liberty our Constitution enumerates the right of acquiring, possessing, pro- teeting property. And these sections refer to the latter right hereto- fore declared to be natural, inherent, inalienable, yet virtually withheld from one half the citizens of our State.
" Women are not represented in our legislative halls-they have no voice in selecting those who make laws and constitutions for them. There may be good reasons for that. I enter not on the inquiry. One reason often given for excluding women from the right of suf- frage, is an expression of confident belief that their husbands and fathers will surely guard their interests, and see fair justice meted ont to these, the special objects of their care.
" I should like to have a little more confidence in this opinion than experience has given me. I should like, for the honor of my sex, to believe that the legal rights of woman are, at all times, as zealously guarded as they would be if women had votes to give to those who watch over their interests, and to withhold from those who pass by and neglect them. I impute to no gentleman the deliberate intention to render less than justice to the other sex, merely because they have not the right of suffrage. I but say that self-interest is a marvelous sharpener of the wits, and causes us to think of, and enables us to discover many things, which, without its quickening influence, might escape our observation. But let us turn to the question more immediately before us. Let us pass from the case of the widow and look to that of the wife; and let us inquire whether the interests of the one are better cared for by law than those of the other. The old doctrine of the common law, that the legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage-the same doetrine that has existed for centuries in England-still substantially regulates, in a majority
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of the States, the relation of husband and wife, as to property in a general way. The legal effect of marriage is :
"First. The husband becomes entitled, from the instant of the mar- riage, to all the goods and chattels of the wife. His right is absolute, unconditional. IIe may sell every part of the wife's personal prop- erty, whether owned by her before marriage, or coming to her after marriage, except only her necessary apparel. A married woman can not, therefore, legally sell the smallest article of personal property ; she can not legally give away the most trifling trinket, no matter whether it was inherited, or the produce even of her own labor. A farmer's wife can not, in her own right, sell the poultry she has raised, or the butter she has made, even if a husband neglect to provide for his children, and the wife, by her labor, support them, the produce of her labor is his. Say that he has squandered what money he had in dissipation ; and that, in the meantime, his wife, faithful to her home duties, has contrived, by constant labor as a seamstress, perhaps, or a washerwoman, to supply his place. Suppose that she has laid by in her trunk,-the same trunk, perhaps, in which her mother had packed, with careful hands, on her daughter's marriage day, the little property she had to give her, -- suppose that the wife had laid by in that trunk a few dollars, hardly and bitterly earned, saved with difficulty as a scanty fund, to furnish clothing for her children against the inclem- ency of the winter. And suppose (alas! how often is the case a real one), suppose that the drunken husband comes home in the evening, breaks open the trunk and carries off the money ; is that larceny ? Has he stolen ? By no means. He broke open his own trunk; he took-so the law declares-his own money. * * * But in secur- ing to married women rights of property, we must bear in mind that those rights bring with them duties. The laws of New York, Wis- consin, and other States, seem to have been framed in forgetfulness of this ; but the civil law admits and provides for it-requiring that the wife shall bear a portion of the marriage expenses. This proportion varies according to the necessity of the case and the means of the wife. To meet this the constitutional provision should declare that the property of married women shall be declared to them, under equit- able conditions. It is for the law afterward to determine, in detail what these conditions shall be."
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JESSE D. BRIGHT.
JESSE D. BRIGHT.
THE reader at this day must be familiar with the subject of this sketch. Jesse D. Bright is emphatically a self-made man. In despite of the obstacles he has had to encounter for the want of an early education, he has, by the force of his native powers, risen step by step, from obscurity to the high position of the President of the Senate of the United States. In person he is large and museular, a strong physical formation, full breast, large expanded chest, full face, large square forehead, hair and eyes dark, five feet ten in hight, mouth wide, head large. Mr. Bright possesses great energy of ehar- acter, with good common sense, and an iron will, giving a strong impetus to his movements. Nature has done much for him, and he has done much for himself. He stands, perhaps, first among the leaders of the Democratic party in the States. It is understood that he was offered and declined a seat in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan. As a speaker, Mr. Bright is strong, loud, forcible, impulsive, some- times eloquent ; his forte, however, is in dealing with facts, and pre- senting them in a strong, common-sense point of view to his hearers. He always commands attention, by his earnest manner and strong array of facts.
I have already said, in these sketches, that I have no political ends to serve, and entirely exclude politics from them. My great objeet is to be faithful to the truth of facts and of history, for after times as well as the present. Mr. Bright has been rather a business than a speaking member of the Senate. He is now in fine health, scarcely having reached the meridian of life.
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HENRY CLAY.
NO MAN in the United States, since the days of Gen. Washington, has filled a larger space in the public mind than Henry Clay. From the mill-boy of the slashes of Virginia, he rose, by the foree of his great native powers and his untiring energy, to fill the civilized world with his fame. From my earliest recollections of the prominent men of the nation, the name of Henry Clay has been familiar. I read of him in 1812, while at the head of the great Republican party, leading the friends of the administration of Mr. Madison, in support of the war with Great Britain : I had noticed him in 1816 still leading the Republican party in support of a sound national currency, and the protection of American industry : I had marked him at the treaty of Ghent, as one of the leading spirits in restoring, by treaty, an honor- able peace between Great Britain and the United States : I had read his speeches ;- when, for the first time, I saw him on the fourth day of July, in the year 1817, on the publie square at Lexington, Ky. The next day, I heard him argue a ease before the jury, in opposition to Mr. Breckenridge. He was then comparatively a young man, tall, slim, light hair, high retreating forehead, large wide mouth, promi- nent features, narrow chest, long neck, head erect, step elastie, intelli- gent grey eye, smiling countenance, warm grasp of the hand. I was introdneed to him, and from that day forward to his death, I was one of his devoted personal and political friends. It was not, however, until March, 1837, when we met in the Senate of the United States, that I beeame personally intimate with Mr. Clay. Our position was such, as members of the Whig party, as to bring us much together, not only in open Senate, but in the executive sessions and Whig caucuses, where he spoke freely, with no possible restraints upon him. I can truly declare that I never heard a word from him inconsistent with true patriotism and love of country ; his very soul seemed attnned to lofty strains of patriotie devotion to our glorious Union and love for the American people.
In my sketch of Gen. Jackson and Henry Clay, I have given to the reader the characteristics of the mind of both these great men. As an orator, Mr. Clay stood pre-eminent among the distinguished men of the Senate. There was a strong infusion of declamation in his style, that gave to his speeches a charm of delivery, which no other man could imitate. His manner was always suited to the subjeet. He was aware that true eloquence is the child of knowledge. He asked me one day, while Mr. Webster was speaking, in what greatness consisted. I tried to answer him. He interrupted me:
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HENRY CLAY.
" In preparation. No speaker was ever great without preparation. I seem to speak off-hand, so does Mr. Webster; yet we both speak with preparation, and never without it on important subjects." At times Mr. Clay was very uncommon ; then his voice would raise, his eye flash, his cheeks color, his system become animated, and he would pour forth a flood of impassioned, high-toned eloquence that would hold the audience spell-bound.
I was present during the memorable intellectual contests in the Senate, of Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Calhoun, known as the "war of the giants." I had every opportunity of seeing and hearing these great men in the warmth of the excited debates of the session. Mr. Clay always rose with the occasion, and eame fully up to the high expectations of his friends. He possessed great moral and per- sonal courage, and never, for one moment, rested under what seemed to him to be unjust personal allusions, or imputations. On one oeea- sion Mr. Webster alluded to the absence of Mr. Clay on the passage of Gen. Jackson's force bill, against Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Clay, with evident feeling, rose, and fixing his eyes on Mr. Webster, said : "It is true, Mr. President, I was arguing a case in the Supreme Court when that bill passed. Had I been here I should probably have voted for it ; but sir," glaneing fire at Mr. Webster, who had made a speech in favor of it, " no new-born zeal could have induced me to be seen standing on this floor making speeches for that administration." Mr. Webster evidently quailed under the stern, defiant rebuke of Mr. Clay.
At another time, William R. King had repeated some severe remarks he had heard from others against Mr. Clay. The moment Mr. King took his seat, Mr. Clay rose, addressed the president, and in a loud, firm voice, said : " I pronounce the statement of the Sen- ator from Alabama false." Mr. King sprang to his feet. " Mr. Presi- dent, the Senator from Kentucky," and without proceeding further, took his seat, and immediately wrote a note, and handed it to Senator Lewis F. Linn, who stepped across to Mr. Clay, just as the Senate adjourned. I happened at the moment to be standing by the side of Mr. Clay. As Mr. Linn approached Mr. Clay remarked : "Ah ! a challenge, I presume. My friend, Mr. Archer, will attend to that," and passed out of the side door of the Senate chamber. The result was, that the remark of Mr. Clay was construed to mean, that the information Mr. King had received was false, not that Mr. King had stated a falsehood ; such was Mr. Clay's own version of the matter. The challenge was withdrawn, and Mr. Clay and Mr. King continued friends while both lived.
Mr. Clay evidently felt himself entitled to be the leader of the
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Whig party ; the measures of the party were his measures, the cur- rency question, the protection of American industry, the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the States; these were his measures, and he felt, as did many of his friends, that he ought to have been elected to represent them. Mr. Clay never fully acquiesced in the result of the Whig convention that nominated Gen. Harrison in 1840, nor of the subsequent nomination of Gen. Taylor. He said to me that they were sacrifices of the Whig party to a supposed avail- ability ; still, after the election of Gen. Harrison, no man in the nation was more warmly the friend of his administration. He often conversed with me about his political life, and especially in relation to his vote for Mr. Adams, in the House of Representatives, for Presi- dent, over Gen. Jackson. Ile spoke with feeling of the influence of that vote, of his taking office under Mr. Adams, and upon his subse- quent political life. We were alone one evening in his room, when he brought up the subject, and remarked : " In voting for Mr. Adams I followed my own matured and deliberate judgment. I believed, all things considered, he would make the best President; his great experience, pure life, high character, thorough acquaintance with our foreign relations, pointed him out as the man for the times. I was not mistaken in him ; he made a first-rate President. In accepting the office of Secretary of State under him, I acted upon the advice of others and against my own wishes. The political consequences to myself never weighed a feather, it was solely a question of duty to the country. Mr. Adams was taken from New England. I had voted for him. The West required a member in the Cabinet. The eye of both parties was turned to me. I was solicited, urged by dis- tinguished men of both parties to take the position, for the benefit of the country. I yielded, and the moment I had taken the office, the cry of bargain, intrigue, and management, between Mr. Adams and myself, was raised by the very men opposed to me, who had urged me to take the office. A partisan press seized upon the charge, connect- ed it with the infamous Kreemer cards, every word of which was false, so far as it charged bargain and corruption, or improper motives between Mr. Adams and myself; and although it has been refuted again and again, I suppose it will follow me to my grave, Mr. Smith. My conscience is clear, and that is worth a thousand times more to me than the applause of the world unjustly obtained." Mr. Clay was greatly rejoiced at the success of the Whig party in 1840. He looked upon the result as the triumph of his long cherished measures, and when the extra session commenced, after the decease of General Har- rison, and the accession of Mr. Tyler to the Presidency, he boldly
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laid down the measures of the party for the action of the members of the party. This was called by some dictation. It was no more so than the messages of the President to Congress; it was merely sug- gestive and advisory.
No man ever felt more keenly, than did Mr. Clay the desertion of Mr. Tyler ; he had set his heart upon the party measures to be carried into effect at the extra session, which had been called by Gen. Har- rison a few days before his death. He had entire confidence in Mr. Tyler and his Cabinet, as he frequently expressed himself to me in our conversations. Mr. Clay was the fast friend of the American policy, the internal improvement of the country, within the powers of the Constitution. He denied the salt water doctrine on the subject, that all improvements must be made in aid of commerce, upon the scas and lakes, or below ports of entry. He maintained that it was Constitutional to protect the industry of the American people, by levying duties upon importations of like kinds of foreign articles, if necessary, whether for revenue or not. Ile maintained this doctrine, as necessary and proper in self-defense, against foreign restrictions. He insisted that by protecting our home industry we would have a home market, and would keep our specie at home, as a circulating medium, instead of sending it abroad to pay for foreign luxuries, breaking our banks, and impoverishing our people. Mr. Clay was a warm friend of a National Bank. Ile did not believe that we could do the business of the country with a metallic circulation alone, nor that the local banks could be confided in, for a sound circulating medium, of uniform value. ITis model bauk was the old Bank of the United States, chartered by Congress. He always regretted that the Bank of Pennsylvania was called the United States Bank, as the identity of name misled the public; the one had discharged the duties of a bank of issue, discount and deposit, for the Government and people ; had received and transmitted the funds of the Govern- ment over the length and breadth of the Treasury requirements with- out charge, and without loss ; had paid every dollar of deposits, redeemed all its issues with specie, without the loss of a dollar to the Government or people; had afforded a circulating medium of par value co-extensive with the metallic bases. Such was the bank that found favor with Mr. Clay and the Whig party : the Bank of the United States, of Pennsylvania, of which Mr. Biddle was president, was brought forth in fraud, sunk under the weight of its own iniquity, and wound up in bankruptcy. This bank neither Mr. Clay, nor any of his party, sustained for a moment.
I have sketched under the head of John Tyler, some of the causes
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that produced the final party catastrophe, in the separation of the executive department of Mr. Tyler from the great body of the Whig party. The Whig manifesto, on that occasion, by which Mr. Tyler was declared no longer to be worthy to be associated with the Whig party that had elected him, was highly approved by Mr. Clay, as was the resignation of the Cabinet of Mr. Tyler. He told me at the time that no honorable man could remain associated with Mr. Tyler, with- out incurring a portion of his disgrace. I remarked, " What then will become of Mr. Webster, who stays with Mr. Tyler." " Mr. Web- ster has a large capital to go upon ; his friends will believe that he has excusable motives to keep him there; the treaty with Lord Ash- burton will be good apology, but Mr. Webster will not be able to remain there long without becoming Tylerized himself." And so it turned out, Mr. Webster resigned and Mr. Calhoun took his place.
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