USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 46
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ALBERT S. WHITE-JOHN PETTIT.
two afterward in executive session. I requested Senator Niles to move a reconsideration of the vote, which he did ; the motion carried without a count, the amendment was offered, and adopted unanimous- ly ; the vote taken on the ratification of the treaty, as amended, and carried without a single negative voice. Gen. Tipton was a most faithful Senator, always in his seat, ready to vote. He was not what is called an eloquent debater, still he was plain and strong as a speaker. He saw the question clearly, and marched directly at it without any rhetorical flourishes. He was a strong, if not an elo- quent debater, and was always formidable upon the subject he had in charge, and he seldom, or never interfered with the business of others, beyond a silent vote. The General left the Senate four years before my term expired. We parted warm friends; with the last grasp of my hand, as he bid me farewell, his voice choked, and the tears ran down his manly cheeks. I never saw him afterward. His remains repose in the cemetery at Logansport, on the banks of the Wabash. Peace to the brave dead.
ALBERT S. WHITE.
WAS the successor of General Tipton. We served together during the balance of my term. Mr. White was a small, spare man, of deli- cate constitution, a native of New York, thin visage, prominent fea- tures, large nose, narrow breast. He was a ripe and good scholar, a fine speaker, always prompt and vigilant. Ile served but a single term. I understand that he is now enjoying himself at his prairie home in White county, far removed from city and political life, where I leave him for the present, and say a word about another distin- guished ex-senator.
JOHN PETTIT.
JUDGE PETTIT was a large, fleshy man, below the common hight, heavy breast, broad chest and shoulders, large head, inclined to bald- ness, capacions brain, strong. full voice. He was a good lawyer, at one time District Attorney of the United States. Judge Pettit was but a short time United States Senator, but was quite prominent while there. He possessed talents of a high order. The manner of Judge Pettit, as a speaker, was not at first very prepossessing, but he gained upon his audienee as he progressed, and before he closed he was heard with close attention. Since the expiration of his Senatorial term, he has acceptably discharged the duties of circuit judge, and is now on the bench, in fine health.
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HENRY L. ELLSWORTH.
LET my right hand forget her cunning, before I forget my long- cherished friend, Henry L. Ellsworth, of Lafayette. Mr. Ellsworth is one of nature's noblemen. He is a son of Chief Justice Oli- ver Ellsworth, a brother of Governor William Ellsworth, of Con- nectient, and father of Henry W. Ellsworth, our late Charge d' Affaires, at Stockholm. Mr. Ellsworth was for many years Commis- sioner of the Patent Office, at Washington City, and without dispar- agement to others, it may be truly said that there never has been a more efficient head to that important department; ever at his post, with a mind especially adapted to that position, inquiring and intelli- gent, courteous and gentlemanly in his intercourse with all persons visiting the office on business, or for curiosity. Hle was respected and beloved by all. These remarks can only be appreciated by those who have visited the Patent Office at Washington City, and seen the crowd of visitors who daily flock to that most interesting department, stand- ing as it does, in my opinion, a thousand degrees above any private museum in the world, and worthy to be seen for days, by every citi- zen of the United States. When I am at Washington City, I devote my little spare time in the great deposit of the curiosities of nature and art. There Mr. Ellsworth was as completely at home as he now is, on his extensive prairie farms, looking over the waving corn, of a thousand acres in a single field. He will long be remembered by the farmers of the United States, as the person who gave the first impetus to the agricultural bureau, in the Patent Office, which has already done so much in the distribution of the seeds of every clime, among the people of the United States. I have known Mr. Ellsworth long and intimately, and I can say truthfully, that there are few men that I have ever known, who have squared their lives like him, by the golden rule. Long may he live to enjoy on earth his well-earned reputation.
GENERAL SAMUEL MILROY.
AMONG the first men of early Indiana, was the subject of this sketeh. He was a native of Pennsylvania, settled on the Wabash, in the county of Carroll, among the first ; soon became one of the prom- inent men in that part of the State. He held many important offices, was many years a State Senator. He was a man of great, good com- mon sense, always a safe and prominent legislator, of much influence in the body. General Milroy was not an orator, but he spoke plainly, clearly, well, always confining himself to the question under discus- sion. Indiana has lost few more prominent men than General Sam- uel Milroy. How rapidly are our great men passing away.
481
SAMUEL W. PARKER.
SAMUEL W. PARKER.
INDIANA has produced few such men as the subject of this sketch. Samuel W. Parker was a student and graduate with John B. Weller, of California, at the Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He was a ripe seholar. Mr. Parker studied law, and was licensed to practice at Con- nersville, where I first saw him. He was a slim, flaxen-headed strip- ling, light eyes and brows, large white forehead, good features, head erect, the step quick and firm. Ile rose rapidly at the bar, until he stood among the first of his age. He was clear, strong, able, before the jury ; his voice was of great volume, when he brought it up to its full piteb. He always threw himself bodily into the cause of his client, making it his own. On the stump, as a public speaker, he stood high with his party ; few men, of his age, have made so many publie political speeches, of so mueh power. He was an ardent Union Whig, After ably serving his county in the State Senate, he was twice triumphantly elected a Representative in Congress from his district. While in Congress, the health of Mr. Parker was very delieate, still he took part in many of the important debates, in which he placed himself among the best of the speakers of the House. Mr. Parker is in good health living in his fine Whitewater mansion, adjoining Connersville, where I resided, before I left the Whitewater Valley, to make my home at the capital. The extracts from one of his Congress speeches, will give the reader some idea of Mr. Parker's style, and will be otherwise interesting :
" Nearly a quarter of a century ago, I was traveling over that mighty wilderness without a wood that stretches away from my own State, through Illinois, toward the setting sun. From early morning until near the closing in of the evening, I was out upon that great plain, without the sight of tree, or bush, or shrub, to indicate a spot where the pioneer's eamp-fire might be kindled for rest and refresh- ment, and where he might again take his latitude and departure for the long-sought site of his intended home. You may well suppose that it was a tedious day, and, as it wore to its elose, full of anxiety.
" And now, sir, after listening to the counsels and following the lead of others so long, in passing over the Grand Prairie-if you will allow the figure-of this debate, and having at lengthi obtained the floor, I feel like I were approaching ' the timber'-about to emerge from the wildering waste, where, by noting the course of the streams, the range of the hills and the moss upon the trees, as the pioneer 31
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does, I may determine my present position, and 'blaze ' the way I would travel. 1
" I stand here committed to the support of the adjustment meas- ures, and because I so stood before my constituents, it was, above all other things, that they sent me here. And, sir, before them, I estab- lished for myself that test as the 'qualifieation ' for my candidate for the Presideney, let him be presented to me by a National Convention, or in any other mode. But, sir, I do not go to a National Convention to learn what my polities, my principles, my obligations to my coun- try are. I claim the privilege, as an American citizen, as a Whig, to adjust those matters for myself. I am very sure I shall allow no such irresponsible body to do it for me. I tolerate that body in doing one thing for me, and only one, because I can not do it myself. When there are two or more pretenders for the Presidency among those whom I deem my political friends, I allow them to do whatever such a body may do-to clear the field of all who would be general officers, but one, and to place the banner of our hosts in his hands. I am a Whig. Am I now understood ?
" Now, Mr. Chairman, my friend from Georgia either confounds the Fugitive Slave law with the Constitution, or else he misrepresents- without design, I know-the position of the great mass-the millions of the North. Sir, you know the sentiments upon this floor. We have all manner of spirits here. But I think I might call up the members of this House now, and not one single gentleman, North or South, would answer and say that he stood upon this question as the gentleman from Georgia has laid it down. Where is the man at the North who denies the Constitutional right of the South to reclaim their fugitive slaves ? That was the proposition, and it was argued as sueli. Sir, I know the Northern people. My destiny was cast with them. It is with them now. I never spent three days where slavery existed by law, until I came to this capital last winter-never. Iknow those people too well to believe, for one moment, that doctrines of that kind are entertained among them. Sir, there are not to be found in this broad land hearts truer to the Constitution, in all its spirit, compromises and requisitions, than are to be found throughout this whole North to which the gentleman refers. That will never be dis- puted-no, never, where that people are known. Our Southern brethren may dismiss their fears, and we beg them to do so. They greatly misapprehend the North.
" Mr. Chairman, we may as Whigs forego the great cardinal articles of our faith. We may permit the veto, the one-man power,
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SAMUEL W. PARKER.
to demolish and override, with imperial prowess, the Representatives of the people in Congress. We may endure the oppression of the toiling millions of our own countrymen, by holding them down in the homeless, penniless, breadless poverty and thraldrom of the for- lorn subjects of European princes, throwing no kind arm of protee- tion around their industry, and see our country bled and exhausted into hopeless bankruptey and ruin, as it would be, were it not for the yet unexhausted resources of its virgin soil, its opulent mines, and the irrepressible energies of our people. We may tolerate the shame- ful inconveniences, the fatal disasters, springing from a criminal neg- leet to improve our national harbors, lakes, and rivers, where hecatombs of our people, with their wealth, are annually engulphed-calamities mere to be dreaded than ocean pirates, highwaymen or bandit hordes ; but the union of our States, the brotherhood of sections, the harmony of our people, are essential to our national existence. We may not forege this. Peace and harmony within are essential to all associa- tiens of men. And even
' Devils with devils damned firm concord hold.'
"Se you will mark that, sir; no man shall have my vote for the Presidency unless he stands firm on the ground of the Compromise. " Twenty-three years ago, when I went to the State of Indiana, before this calamitous excitement had sprung up between the free and the slave States, there was a deep interest there as elsewhere, which pervaded the whole community, in regard to the lamentable condition of the free black man ; and the people seemed on the point of repeal- ing some of the ' black laws,' enlarging their liberties, and giving them many powers and privileges which they had not. But this unfortunate question arese-and what has been the consequence ? Sir, Mr. Clay never made a truer remark than he did to the people of my district ten years ago-when he told the congregated thousands that met and greeted him there, that this slavery agitation had put back the cause of emancipation fifty years !"
The House being in the Committee on the Whole on the state of the Union-Mr. PARKER said :
" I would address myself gladly, on this occasion, if I could, to all my fellow-citizens of the South, to all of the North. I am ef neither the North er the South ; but still I am from a free State-one bap- tized as such, and sanctified, I hope, by the glorious Ordinance of 1787, in which I think I have cause for exultation-I am sure I have still greater cause in the fact that I come here from the Great North- west.
" Mr. Chairman, I have sometimes contemplated that marble group,
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at once beautiful and sublime, which rests upon one of the projections of the eastern portico of this Capitol, and thought I saw a patriotic embodiment there, which probably did not occur to the fervid fancy of the artist. That stalwart pioneer, with gigantic proportions, a brave heart, strong hands, and the bearing of a hero, is no inapt rep- resentation of that section of this confederacy whence I come. See how he holds in his mighty grasp, harmless as an unweaned child, those two savage arms, one pointing South, and the other North, each armed with the implements of death. The fond mother as she bends over her sleeping child, fears no evil; and so securely are they pro- tected, that the watch-dog looks kindly on !
"Sir, should the time ever come-which may God in his mercy forbid !- that the fell demon of discord shall call out his legions from the South to conflict with those of the North, that good genius of the Mighty West will be there and see that the Union receive no detri- ment. The spirit that dwells in that virgin land is not of the South alone, nor of the North alone, but of both-of all-it is, and will ever be of the Union ! There, sir, it occurs to me, are cradled up pre- eminently the hopes of the Union. There if any where on this con- tinent, is the anchor-ground for the good ship, in which the fathers freighted all of government that is dear to us-when the tempests of faction shall have mingled the ocean and the sky. That region is already the happy home of the one-fourth of all our millions; it will be the still more happy home, I trust, of unnumbered millions yet to spring up there, and pour in there from the earth's ends. Sir, such another home for Freedom the blessed sun of Heaven never shone upon.
"'Oh, 'tis a noble heritage, that goodly land of ours ! It boasts, indeed, nor Gothic fane, nor ivy-mantled towers. But then its interlinking lakes; its forests wild and wide; And streams, the sinews of its strength, that feed it as they glide; Its rich primeval pasture grounds, feuced by the stooping sky ; And mines of treasure yet undelved that 'neath its surface lie; Magnificent materials! How hath the hand of man
Been following out the vast design of the eternal plan! Oh, surely, a high destiny which we alone can mar, Is figured in the horoscope where shines that risen star !'
" Let the country look there, and be in strong hope in the hour of its deepest peril.
" I would invite the attention of all who hear me, of all my coun- trymen, if I could, to the obvious conservatism that must be garnered there, arising from the nativities of the inhabitants, as shown by the late census tables. ' Men out of every nation under heaven ' are there,
485
SAMUEL W. PARKER.
as if gathered to the world's Pentecost. Let me give you a few items as to my own State, and, ab uno disce omnes.
" I say nothing now of the 54,426 natives of foreign lands, who are not with us by the accident of birth, but because they loved our homes and institutions so well they could sunder the thousand tender ties of kindred and friends and fatherland, to come and dwell among us, and who say unto us from the depths of honest and happy hearts, ' thy people shall be my people.' But look to the American born. Of these, there were, in 1850, 541,079 native Indianians, out of an aggregate population of 988,416 souls. Of the residue, there were 10,646 from New England ; 24,310 from New York, 7,837 from New Jersey ; 44,245 from Pennsylvania ; 10,177 from Maryland ; 41,819 from Virginia ; 33,175 from North Carolina; 4,069 from South Caro- lina; 12,734 from Tennessee; 68,651 from Kentucky. The aggre- gate from all the free States among ns was 213,727. The aggregate from all the slave States was 176,575.
" Sir, does not this exhibition furnish an inhabitant of that region for near forty years a catholic voucher to speak on this occasion as a Union man ? If these multiplied thousands from the free States and from the slave States of this Union, be now of Indiana-the thous- ands very nearly balanced too-who, I pray you, may plead for the Union now, and here, if one from that heart of the Great West may not ? Controlling affections bind these thousands from the older States to Indiana now. But where are their other innumerable and strong affections entwined ? Where are ' the old folks at home,' of the many, very many, sons and daughters from those other States, whose hearts are warmly throbbing there ? Where the brothers and sisters, the early friends of those sons and daughters? Where the enchanting scenes of their childhood, which fond memory never for- gets ? Where the graves of their ancestors, and the dear relatives and early friends, ' loved and lost ?' Sir, those affections run out like adamantine radii, to every spot where Americans have found a home, over all this blessed Union, binding all its parts together with the strongest cords of earthly love. And you will only dissolve that Union-make foreign States of those now joined together, when you hear our heart-strings break !
" Now, sir, where does the path of wisdom lead us ? It is said that the act of 1820 is no compromise, is no compact ; that it has no more binding effect than any other law. The last generation did not say so-we never did, prior to the year 1854. But grant it; we all must acknowledge that it was an act of peace, and being such, whatever else it may or may not be, shall we destroy it ? I would not give
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myself to that work for the wealth of the continent. Why, sir, all our law-books tell us that twenty years of quiet and uninterrupted occupancy, under elaim of title, will settle the title in the occupant. This has been the soil of Freedom, nearly double that number of years, and Slavery, who alone could question the title, put the oecu- pant in possession. He marked the boundary himself; said he yielded it forever. And there in your statute-book is the evidence of the aet, the bond binding it all. Sir, a forcible ejectment of Freedom now, to let Slavery enter, seems to me the most stupendous outrage that could ever occur where laws are made, and where Christians live. We do not treat our own savages thus.
" Mr. Chairman, it seems to me eminently just and proper to submit this question to the people before we aet upon it here. They are the fountain of all our power-for them we act. So momentous a matter as this should have their consideration before it has our determina- tion. In this aspect of the case, it is without a parallel in the history of our legislation, if we assume to dispose of it now. But sir, the peo- ple will look to it; we can net 'erush it out' of their cognizance. Our action will but serve to inflame them ; and woe betide him in the free States ou whom their fires fasten. Those fires will convert all to cinder where they go, as they do in those 'primeval pasture-grounds' of ours, when they eatch and ride upon the wing of the wind. De gentlemen say it is right in principle, and therefore, we will pass the bill regardless of consequences ? I say it is wrong in principle, and as such it should be resisted. But admit the principle to be right, it may be established in a wrong manner, a wrong time and place. We all love money. It is right to acquire it in an honest way ; but, it is wrong to take a bribe-the wages of sin-to murder and rob for gain. My purpose is not to employ strong language offensively to any one ; but to make my point the more readily palpable.
" Now sir, let me refer the committee to a memorable speech of Mr. Clay. It was made very unexpectedly by him near twelve years ago, in my district, and in the presence and hearing of some acres of my constituents. He was passing from the State of Ohio to the capital of my own State, in fulfillment of a long-promised visit. At the city of Richmond, in my distriet, where the masses for many years had almost idolized him, he was intercepted by an immense multitude. He stop- ped and addressed them at length, in those thrilling and patriotic strains that he alone could use. As he was about retiring from the stand, a gentleman, with a taste I shall not characterize, as the organ of the Abolitionists, presented to him a petition, numerously signed, praying the man to manumit his slaves. At the time, I had a seat by
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his side, saw and heard all that passed, and will carry the scene vividly before me as long as I live. His friends, Governors Crittenden and Metcalf, of Kentucky, also sat near him. Mr. Clay threw out the lengthened roll, handed it to a friend to be read aloud to the multitude, and as the reading progressed he was obviously most profoundly moved. His friends seemed anxious and desirous to speak to him ; but with flushed face, flashing eye, and his whole form dilated, he turned aside his friends, and in one of his own mighty moods, arose again, self- poised, self-sufficient, and for near half an hour poured forth a volume of such rich and patriotic eloquence as was never surpassed, even by him, before. Go read it, gentlemen of the North and of the South, in the volume of his speeches ; bind it to your heart of hearts, and love your whole country as you may, you will love it better then. Would to God the old patriot were living and here, to speak for me and all of us this day ! But, 'though dead, he yet speaketh.' Hear hin briefly on this occasion :
"' I desire no concealment of my opinion in regard to the institu- tion of slavery. I look upon it as a GREAT EVIL, and deeply lament that we have derived it from the parental Government, and from our ancestors. But here they are : and the question is, how can they be best dealt with ? If a state of nature existed, and we were about TO LAY THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIETY no man would be more strongly opposed than I should be to incorporate the institution of slavery among the elements.'
"Sir that is precisely the work on which we are now engaged. Where ' a state of nature' now exists; on a virgin soil, where a slave never trod, though sarages have roamed there from the ' primal morn.' we are 'about to lay the foundation of society' for the millions of civilized and Christian people that will soon congregate there for a home forever for themselves and their children. What ought we to do ?
"Turning from the slavery feature of this controversy, let me implore you, gentlemen of the committee, to lay no rude hand on the compro- mise of 1820. Its illustrious authorship invokes our reverence ; time has sanctified it. The tranquillity it has shed upon the whole country should embalm it in our affections. I have shown how firmly rooted, and yet how antagonistic, are the slavery sentiments of the North and of the South. They can not be eradicated now. They may be never. If we be wise then, we will turn our backs upon this great trouble. Yes sir, as the sons of Noah covered their drunken father-we will seize the mantle of all the compromises, and walking backward, throw it over this enormous shame of our ' LAND OF THE FREE.'
" Where is this thing leading us? What is to be the result? The gentlemen from Georgia and North Carolina (Messrs Stephens and
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Clingman), tells us to pass this bill, and henceforth all slavery agitation ' will speedily subside !' Gentlemen, do not deceive yourselves ; rejeet this bill ; spurn it from among us ; tread it under your foot as you would
'the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe, With loss of Eden.'
" And then, if you continue to stand by the Compromise of 1850, as you told us you would, we may have peace. We had it to an almost unexampled degree, ' when this serpent entered our bowers.' We must not shut our eyes to the future. The storm that has been howling through these IIalls, and over the country, for the last few months, is but the first gentle whisperings of the tempest that will soon be upon us, if we pass this bill.
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