USA > Indiana > Jay County > Historical hand-atlas, illustrated : containing twelve farm maps, and History of Jay County, Indiana > Part 66
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He spoke against the treaty conveying to a railroad company. through its agent, J. F. Joy, the Osage neutral Indian lands, by which over two whole counties in Kansas were transferred to a corporation, in violation of the rights of settlers, and without any provision for setting aside any lands for school purposes.
In a speech in the House, delivered in support of the constitutional amend- ments, he declared it as his opinion that an act of Congress would he sufficient to give the right of suffrage to all citizens, and in the course of his remarks he said: "I have long thought that it was not only in the power, hut that it was the duty, of Congress to secure and protect the elective franchise to all the people against any attempt by any legislation of a State, or by force or fraud to limit, emharrass, or in any manner defeat its full, free and equal exercise hy all adult citizens, who had not forfeited the right hy the commission of some crime, whereof the party had been duly convicted by regular process of law."
He urged the strict enforcement of the law in the construction of the Union Pacific railroad, as a condition precedent to the payment to it of the subsidies that had been voted to it by Congress, and that all subsidies he withheld until the road was completed, in accordance with the law.
He opposed granting lands to railroad companies as a proceeding fraught with great danger to the interests of the people.
January 18, 1869, he introduced a bill in the House providing for an equitable selection and distribution of government employes in Washington, hy numbers and rank among the several Congressional districts and Territories, and in a speech in the House he showed the inequality in the distribution of these offices aud employments, and urged that the representative character of these employes was as much a source of information to the people as was the House of Representatives, and that as a matter of justice, such distribution should he equitably made.
General Shanks denied and opposed the doctrine that the treaty-making power of the government could, under the constitution, dispose of any part of the public lands, and he claimed that all sales hy means of treaties with Indian tribes, of the public lands, otherwise than to the government, were fraudulent and without authority of law, and in debate upon the subject in the House, July 2, 1870, he said: "I have investigated this questiou very carefully, and I do not believe that under the constitution of the United States there is any power granted to the treaty-making power of this government to dispose of one foot of public land to any person. That power is vested in Congress alone. There is under the constitution no power anywhere, except in Con- gress, to pass a title to an acre of the public lands."
He advocated the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau, believing it just and necessary to the freedmen for their assistance, and especially to enable
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those poor people to enter a life of self-support and industry, as they have done. The entire cost would he less than twelve millions of dollars, and as the late slaves mmbered about five million, a fraction over two dollars each would suffice to start them m life for themselves, after they and their ancestors had been held in bondage for two hundred and forty years in this country.
He opposed the pardouing of those persons who had engaged in rebellion against the government. until they should severally ask for that pardon, aud when the subject was hefore the Honse, February 1. 1871, he said : " As I understand this bill, it works a pardon, and it works that pardon without any request from the parties to be pardoned. . . . Christianity, in the school in which I learned it, never taught me to grant a pardon till it was asked. I helieve, sir, that He who should be the standard in such inatters, never granted a pardon till it was asked for. Even as He expired He forgave the man who asked His pardon, while the other went not into paradise, hecause be did uot ask it." Antl he therefore insisted that every individual desiring a pardon, should make written application to Congress, before his claim for pardon should be considered.
On the 11th of February, 1871, on the subject of restoring those pensioners of the war of 1812, who had at any time adhered to the enemies of the govern- ment, General Shanks said: " When we are forgiving those who uever did anything for the support of the government, I think we ought to forgive those who at some time have done something in defense of the country. I hope that no voice will he raised against this measure of forgiveness to those who, though in advanced age, may have sympathized with the rebellions acts of their children, have never themselves actively participated iu treason."
He is opposed to every phase and semblance of royalty, aud on the 27th of March, 1871, he introduced a bill providing for substituting the words "The People," in all writs issued from the United States Courts, in place of the words "The President," as at present, and ever since the organization of the government has heen the practice, taken from the old English writs, in which occur the words "The King." The hill was referred to the committee on judiciary.
Raised to hard labor himself, General Shanks has always taken a deep interest in the welfare of those who toil for a livelihood, and ohserving a growing want of confidence and proper understanding between laborers and capitalists, the employed and employer, which must work injury to both, be sought to establish a hurean of labor statistics, as a hranch of the Interior Department, so that by frequent regularly published statements the people could at all times he fully advised of all matters pertaining to the various industries of the country and thus learn the relative advantages of labor and capital, and on December 11, 1871, and January 26, 1874, he introduced iu the House bills in furtherance of the objects stated, and providing for printed reports at regular intervals, from every county and from every town of five hundred population and over, showing the average price of land per acre. the current rates of lahor, grain, rents, interest on money, railroad fares, local and through freigbt charges, cattle, horses and other stock, and embracing details of all leading business interests and productive industry.
The measure proposed was not consummated, and thus no systematic organized effort has been made, to enable the wealthi-producing classes to be better informed on all matters vitally affecting their interests in the direction named, to the end of securing a better understanding. and thereby a more friendly relation between diverse, but mutually dependent, pursuits.
He opposed the practice of allowing claims against the government by special acts of Congress, frequently passed during the closing hours of the session, as an unsafe procedure, and he urged the necessity of sending such claims for examination to United States circuit courts.
He introduced a hill to provide for planting and cultivating trees in national cemeteries, and he held and enforced the doctrine that in the extinguishment of Indian title, hy treaty or other contract, the lands fall directly to the United States and come under the exclusive control of Congress, and not alone of the Senate.
Among the various matters that came hefore Congress for its action during his ten years' service in that body, General Shanks gave his earuest support to the laws authorizing the issue of treasury notes, commonly called "green- backs," and to make and maintain them as legal tender.
He advocated bills authorizing the issue of bonds on which to raise money to carry on the war for the suppression of the rebellion; all measures for raising volunteers for the army, white, colored and Indian. He supported and voted for lays providing for drafting men into the service ; to increase the pay of soldiers ; the laws passed for paying pensions to wounded and disabled soldiers ; the laws enacted for the collection of income tariff, and other taxes to carry on the war, and then the reduction of taxes after peace was declared ; actively supported in Congress, in his political canvassing, and when on duty in the army, thie proclamation of President Lincoln abolishing slavery, January 1, 1863; the law of April 16, 1862, abolisbing slavery in the District of Colum- bia ; the various laws granting bounty and extra pay to soldiers ; to investigate any and every department of the government, when there was reasonahle ground for helieving that either fraud or neglect attached to any officer or employe in the government service.
He zealously advocated measures having for their ohject the adoption hy Congress and hy the people, of the thirteenth, fourteentb and fifteenth con- stitutional amendments ; the act to enforce the right of all citizens to vote in pursuance of said amendments, May 27, 1870.
He favored all measures designed to recruit our armies by colored soldiers ; he opposed all rebel cotton claims ; he advocated the confiscation of the prop- erty, personal and real, of armed rebels, as well as of those actively favoring
rebellion, to the public use ; the repeal of the fugitive slave law ; all measures adopted hy Congress for the recoustruction of the States in rebellion, after its close ; the freeing of the slaves of rebels. as a measure of confiscation ; and at all times and on all occasions, as a member of Congress, as a private individual, and as a soldier on duty, he favored maintenance of the union of the States, at every hazard, at all sacrifices, and to the utmost limit of its resources in men and means, believing, as he did. that a severance of the nation by a force organized in armed rebellion to perpetuate human slavery, and make it the hasis and corner-stone of a confederacy, within the limits of the Uniou, was an utter and unconditional overthrow of republican government, not only in America, hut elsewhere, and that such disruption would go far toward the extinguishinent of the last hope of free institutions, or at least postpone indefinitely, their realization.
He favored and voted for the bill passed March 3, 1873, to readjust fees aud salaries of the legislative, judicial and executive departments of the govern- ment, which act, by the repeal of the laws allowing stationery, mileage, the franking privilege and other perquisites to members of the House and Senate, made a large saving to the government, as more fully shown by the following extract from the report of the judiciary committee of the House, made Feb- ruary 7, 1873, under resolution of the House, passed January 27, 1873, directing this committee "to investigato and examine into the pay and emoluments of the several officers of the executive, judicial and legislative departments of the United States government, etc."
Increase of Presideut's salary, $25,000 00
Increase of Cabinet Ministers' salaries 14.000 00
Increase of salaries of Judges of United States Supreme Court, 18,500 00
Increase of salaries of Senators, members and delegates in
Congress, 972,000 00
Total increase, $1,029,500 00
Saving to the government, according to the official statement of the Postmaster-General, per annum, hy the abolition of the franking privilege, $2,543,327 72
Saving to the government by the abolition of mileage, sta- tionery, postage, newspaper account (estimated) 200,000 00
Total saving,
$2,743,327 72
Total increase,
1,029,500 00
Total net annual saving, $1,713,827 72
There was considerable saving, not included in the foregoing estimate, in the matter of numerous boxes to each member of the House, Senator, and delegate in Congress, together with flowers, roots, etc., all of which were excluded in the resdjustment of salaries, made by the law in question.
He opposed the proposed appropriation of sixty-five thousand dollars asked for to reimburse Williams and Mary college, in Virginia, for damages said to bave been done it during the rebellion ; and on the 13th of December, 1872, he introduced an amendment to the bill, providing for the admission to the benefits of the school, of all classes of persons, irrespective of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and enforced the justice of the amendment in an earnest speech.
Having severely condemned tbe practice, in the Indian department, of paying white claimants out of Indian funds, on ex parte showing for damages done, if done at all, by individual Indians, and having succeeded in securing the repeal of the law of 1802, under which the practice bad grown up, and which had impoverished many Indian tribes, throwing them on the charity of the government, and subjecting them to the ill-will of the people, on the 13th of June, 1872, he introduced a resolution, which was passed, instructiug the Secretary of the Interior to report to the House, specifically all such cases, with names, dates, amounts paid, and evidence of the justice of the claim. The resolution was not answered.
When the bill to secure civil rights to all persons under the constitution and its amendments, was under consideration in the House, it was persistently opposed by the Democratic members.
General Shanks offered as a preamble to the hill, the very words of the fundamental principles announced in the preamble and first plank of the Dem- ocratic platform of 1872. This amendment, and the bill itself, gave rise to an angry and dilatory debate, lasting several days, and leading ultimately to a continuous session of four days, causing what was known as the dead-lock. The General made twenty-five unsuccessful efforts to secure the adoption of his preamble, clearly germain to the hill, but he finally obtained a vote on it, and it was carried hy a vote of two hundred and eigliteen to twenty-six.
In relation to the troubles with the Modoc Indians and the tragic results connected tberewith, the General, on the 3d of February, 1873, introduced a resolution, which was passed, instructing the Secretary of the Interior to inform tire House fully of the cause of the difficulty, and be opposed the appointment of army officers as a commission to whoin to submit tbe investi- gation, and in the course of a speech on the subject. he gave the facts touching the deliberate murder, under a flag of truce, of Captain Jack's father, a chief of the Modocs, and forty others of the same tribe, by a certain Ben Wright, a wbite man, and associates. Captain Jack, though a mere boy at the time, nursed his grievance, and taught hy tbis act of perfidy practiced on his tribe, and smarting under a recent and existing breach of the conditions of a truce witb General Canhy, he retaliated for the murder of his father and his men, by the slaughter of General Canby and his companions.
On the 11th of December, 1873, he presented to the House a petition of three hundred citizens of Alta, Utah Territory, setting forth their grievances, and asking relief from the despotism and wrongs of the Mormon theocracy,
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PERSONAL HISTORIES-Continued.
On the 6th of May, 1874, he addressed the House in favor of making the eentennial exhibition a national and not a local affair, and he euforced his views in a clear presentation of faets.
He favored the appointment of a commission to examine and report all the facts connected with the proposal to secure San Domingo as a desirable point for furnishing coal and other supplies to our commercial marine, aud for hospital and other similar purposes for the accommodation of our seanien ; the law to increase the number of judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, with a view to protect the natiou fromu what he believed to be the danger of a political decision of that tribunal against the validity of the "greenback," or treasury notes, issued during the war.
He supported the aet of July 14, 1870, to refund one billion dollars of the national bonded debt, at a lower rate of interest, the new bonds not to be disposed of at less than par; the act to compel railroad companies having land grants to keep their lands in market at not above a maximum priee of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and to provide for a reversion of the lands to the government in default of the conditions of the grant being com- plied with ; favored the repeal of internal revenue taxes, except on spirits and tobaceo, they being luxuries and not necessities ; supported the act giving the net proceeds of the sales of publie lands to the several States as a permanent public school fund ; an act appointing a committee to fully examine, consider and report on the question of railroads as a channel of commerce between the States, with a view to the proper adjustment of all matters connected with the subjeet ; advocated the act for the admission of women to practice law in the United States courts ; opposed the so-called eivil service reform, in so far as related to the appointment of a permanent, or other committee to pass upon the qualification of applicants for office, believ- ing. as he did, that the heads of departments, if they understood their duties, could make better selections of employes for their several services, and for the further reason that really meritorious and well qualified applicants would, under the proposed arrangement, have to wait for places, while persons of inferior ability aud less qualification, might seeure appointments, as the sequel shows they do, and quite as mueh through personal favoritism as under the usual plan of selection, and finally because, even if the ideal scheme of visionary reformers (?) were susceptible of practical application, a more than questiouable proposition, the whole procedure would be out of harmony with the spirit of republicau institutions, which do not contemplate pensioning in office for life a lot of favored drones who might happen to get into place, and who would doubtless feel secure under the reform (?) tenure of office, whether they merited eontinnance in position or not.
Jannary 20. 1874, he introduced a bill, the second one, to provide for a survey for a sbip canal, from the southern part of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, at or near the mouth of the Ohio, at Cairo, Illinois.
He offered an amendment, which was adopted, to the bill granting priv- ileges for depot grounds, to the Central Pacific Railroad Company on the island of Yerba Buena in the bay of San Francisco, California, seenring to any and all other roads that might desire like accommodations on said island, the same privileges granted to the Central Pacific Railroad Company. the intention being to prevent an exclusive monopoly by the latter company of this island.
He advocated all measures tending to repress polygamy in Utah, having in his visits to that Territory been an eye-witness of the corrupting influences of that institution, and the failure so far to abolish it, the General considers a disgrace to the country.
During one of the General's most extensive official visits, of nearly six months' duration. among the Indians in Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Utab, Montana, Idaho, Washington Territory, Oregon, California and British Colum- hia, his younger son, C. M. C. Shanks, then a lad of only thirteen years, accompanied him, aud although the exposure was severe, and the thousands of miles of horseback travel was trying even to a hardy man, the boy held out wonderfully, and in his journeyings and personal observations of men and things, he gained a fuud of information that will be both lasting and valuable, aud he materially assisted his father in colleeting many curiosities that now fill the General's cahinet.
One of the objects of the General's visit was to learn the temper of the surrounding tribes of Indians towards the whites touching the trouble with Captain Jack, chief of the Modocs, and in the accomplishment of his purpose, his boy, by freely mingling with the younger Indians, with whom he was quite a favorite, secured valuable information, whieb might not otherwise have heen obtained, and which enahled the General to speak of matters in his talks with the Indians in a manner that surprised them at his knowledge of their affairs.
In completing this trip, the General's young son crossed the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains four different times, and at the present time-winter of 1880-'81-in such brief intervals as he can command from his studies at school at Spieeland Academy, Henry county, Indiana, he delivers leetures, detailing his observations and experiences of travel, and of Indian eustoms and modes of life.
. Sinee his retirement from Congress, he has given more attention to his law hnsiness and to his private affairs, necessarily neglected while engaged in official duties, hnt he consented to serve in the Legislature of the State and was elected to the House in 1878, and was appointed a member of the judiciary committee, and took an active part in its lahors, and during the session among the measures introduced by him was one increasing the value of personal property exempted from execution, from three hundred to six hundred dollars, and he also made an able report in advocacy of woman suffrage, basing his argument not only on the right of suffrage, as inherent iu all adult sane per-
sons, citizens of a republic, but on the fourteenth amendinent of the constitu- tion of the United States, on the constitution of Indiana, and on the Declaration ยท of Independence, and even those members of the committee who objeeted to signing the General's report, frankly admitted that its arguments were unanswerable.
While General Shanks was a law student, be was invited to speak on the subject of temperanee at a place known as Kidder's School House, near Port- land. and it being his first attempt on that subject, he was naturally embar- rassed, as all young speakers are. He utterly failed, and went away so chagrined that he resolved to go home and resume farming, but bis respected preceptor, Judge Hawkins, advised him against his newly-formed resolve, and twenty-nine years afterwards he finished that undelivered temperance effort, at the request of old citizens who bad witnessed his former failure.
In the fall of 1861, not far from the Osage river in Missouri, an intelligent slave abandoned his master to join Fremont's army, which had just passed that way. General, then Colonel, Shanks, who had by General Fremont's order superintended the crossing of his army over Osage river on the bridge built by the former at Warsaw, was ridiug alone in the night to overtake General Fremont.
[After overtaking General Fremont, by order of the latter, General Shanks joined and accompanied the command of the brave Zagony, the fearless cavalryman, wbo was moving to Springfield, Missouri, at which place there was made that memorable and gallant charge against a rebel force of two thousand one hundred by not over one hundred and fifty under Zagony, and participated in by General Shanks. The charge was a success. the rebels being put to flight and utterly routed.]
And while riding along in a dense undergrowth, quite alone, as he supposed, and moving rapidly, some one in front of him passed hurriedly into the brusbwood, and, on being hailed, did not answer. Both remained quiet. Then General Shanks said, "I am of the Union army; speak, or I shall fire." The answer came, "I'se not of any army, I'se a culled man." "Where are you going?" inquired tbe General ; to which inquiry the other asked : "Is you shure you is of Fremont's army?" " Yes," said the General, " I am sure, come, go with me." He did so, and, after riding to camp, turned his master's horse loose to go baek, saying : "I wants my freedom, but not his hoss."
After General Fremont's removal, General Hunter, who succeeded him, directed that the army should fall back from Springfield, Missouri, and Colonels Lovejoy. Hudson and Sbanks with a wagon, teamster, and the eolored man, started for St. Louis, and when near the master's farm they were compelled to camp for the night, when they were visited by the master aud other slave-holders, looking for their runaway slaves, and having but one wagon and tent with no guards, the tent was unloaded and put up at once and the late slave ordered into it, and the slave-bunters were ordered off, and the four whites stood to their arms and the negro took the ax, and in this way they watched aud waited till morning. Colonel Lovejoy was anxious to get the negro out of the State and take him to his bome in Illinois. In the morn- ing Shanks said to Lovejoy: "You are an old abolitionist, how do you propose to hide this man while we pass his master's house?" as they would have to drive within thirty feet of the door. The arrangement was left to Shanks, who said : " I will give you a specimen of underground railroad practice," and he accordingly directed the negro to stand in the center of the covered wagon- bed and pile artieles all around himself as they were handed to him, and thus hidden he passed his master's door unobserved. When they arrived at St. Louis, Lovejoy stayed at his hotel, while Shanks, with the team, baggage and negro proceeded to the river to cross, but on reaching the ferry, there being a striet military order from General Halleck, then in conunand there, to let no negro pass, tbe captain of the boat hesitated about permitting the negro to go over, upon which Shanks said to him : "Sir, move this boat, or I will arrest you at onee." The bont moved, and after the negro, team and all the baggage were safely located. Shanks returned to the city without the servant. He was reported to Halleck, and hy one of the latter's staff was ordered to appear at beadquarters, hut he informed the staff officer that he bad business of importance on hand and was on his way to Washington City. Lovejoy took charge of the negro, and when he uext went to Washingtou at the ensuing session of Congress, he informed President Lineon, in Shanks' presence, of the whole proceeding, to the great amusement of all.
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