USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
614
HISTORY OF INDIANA
the liquor traffic.º The bill was defeated by a vote of 43 to 31.
In 1839 a petition by the Yearly meeting of Quak- ers was presented to the General Assembly asking that millers be not required, as was the case under the law of 1831, to grind grain intended for the dis- tilleries.1º A favorable report was made from a select committee by Elwood Fisher, of Switzerland, and a bill introduced but never pressed to a vote. In the same year, in response to a petition asking the prohibition of retailing, Robert M. Cooper, of Henry county, chairman of the Ways and Means committee, reported that it was inexpedient to legislate on the subject.11
The General Assembly of 1846 enacted a law per-
public virtue and practical Christianity."-Indiana Free Demo- crat, August 4, 1853.
9 House Journal, 1838, p. 592, seq. "It is the settled opinion of the committee that all our license laws should be repealed."
10 House Journal, 1839, p. 145: "The Quakers have now for many years made it an obligation of their discipline as a religious society, to abstain entirely, except in cases of sickness, from the use of ardent spirits, and have as a people been a shining exam- ple of sobriety to the rest of the community. They have demon- strated by their own experience the happy practical tendency of temperance to health, order, industry, and competence; and thereby given the first mighty impulse to the great cause of tem- perance reform, which for the last few years has made such progress in the civilized world. They have given, by their prac- tice, the most ample evidence of the sincerity of their profession, and in the present memorial only aim to secure the right of making a pecuniary sacrifice of a portion of their business for the support of their principles and testimony. They do not now, they never have in any case, sought to compel a conformity of others to their views. They simply request to be exempted from all agency in converting the bounty of heaven into what they justly consider a curse. Nor do they ask this privilege for them- selves alone, but for all others of like principles on this subject, of whom there is a large number."
11 House Journal, 1839, p. 878.
615
TEMPERANCE
mitting the voters of each township at the annual spring election to place on their ballots "No Li- cense" and if a majority of the ballots were so marked there should be no retailing during the fol- lowing year. Harrison and Rush counties upon "special request" were exempted from this act.12
During the session of 1849 a memorial with 10,- 000 signatures was presented to the General Assem- bly asking for state-wide prohibition. A select com- mittee reported such a bill with a local option feat- ure, but it was lost on third reading by a vote of 61 to 26.18
The agitation against the retailers rapidly gained strength. Organizations of the Social Order of Tem- perance and of Washingtonians were effected in every community. The evangelical churches placed themselves solidly behind the movement.14
The Whig papers, though their party was out of power, supported the movement, while the Demo-
12 Laws of Indiana, 1846, ch. VII.
13 House Journal, 1849, p. 760.
14 "We believe that the time has come for ali philanthropists to take a firm stand against the manufacture, sale and drinking of liquor. You might as well tell me that moderate drinking of hemlock is temperance as that the moderate use of ardent spirits is temperance. Temperance men in times past have directed their efforts against the drinking and retail traffic, while the great fountain of misery and death ran on. It strikes us very forcibly that the manufacturer and wholesale dealer must be stopped. We are told that this is a free country, but we deny that any man has the right to engage in a business that will injure his neighbor. As members of a community, we owe something to the great family of men, and the manufacture of ardent spirits is the great source from which flows upon the community a terrible stream of moral evil, which is spreading devastation, ruin, mis- ery, infamy, and death throughout the land, turning man into a demon, and every year robbing us of forty thousand citizens; we say in view of this that no man has the right to manufacture the stuff, and certainly no church ought to tolerate it a single day." -- Christian Record, February, 1852, J. M. Mathes, editor.
616
HISTORY OF INDIANA
cratic politicians insisted that the whole question was moral and should not be brought into politics.16
Governor Wright in his message of 1853 recom- mended legislation on the sale of intoxicants, though he had no specific remedy for the evil. He attributed the failure of the license law to the failure to enforce it. He specifically asked that drunkenness be made a crime and that drunkards be disqualified from mak- ing a contract or controlling property.16
The committee on temperance, however, recom- mended that legislation on the liquor traffic and drunkenness was inexpedient. Harris Reynolds, of Fountain county, chairman of the Senate committee on temperance, in response to a petition with over 7,000 signatures, introduced a bill providing for local option.
This bill was defeated in the Senate. But a spe- cial house committee, headed by John B. Milroy, of Carroll county, reported a bill February 9, which passed the House, February 24, after an attempted fillibuster, by a vote of 53 to 43 and the Senate on call by 30 to 15. The members were very reluctant to go on record, but feared to oppose.17 The law pre-
15 The Free Democrat of Indianapolis, organ of the Free Sollers, supported : "There is a class who say Temperance is a moral question and should not be dragged into politics. We say it is moral and political. It has been a political question since the first grog shop was licensed to dispense liquid poison." No- vember 19, 1853.
16 Governor's Message, House Journal, 1853, p. 23. "Its hag- gard victims meet us everywhere. They crowd our almshouses, hospitals, jails, and penitentiaries. They throng upon every ave- nue of life, chilling us with an overpowering sense of their wretchedness and moral degradation. If the wails of the widow and the destitution of the orphan reach not our hearts, considera- tions of economy, in the administration of the law, should not be disregarded. Humanity and public policy alike demand a corrective."
17 Senate Journal, 1853, p. 525; House Journal, p. 749.
617
TEMPERANCE
vented retailing, that is, selling less than one gallon, except on an affirmative vote by a majority of the voters of a township at the April election.18 Several of the leading cities of the state voted dry in the fol- lowing April election, but the option feature of the law was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court, November 29, 1853, in a test case by a retailer named Maize, of Tippecanoe county, after which the state settled back to the old system.19
The fight went bravely on during the years 1853 and 1854. In each county meetings were held at which hundreds of men signed the pledge to drive the traffic out of the state.20 In Wayne county the law- yers resolved not to defend any one charged with violation of the liquor laws.21 At a meeting in Indi- anapolis a committee was appointed to make a report on the liquor business. There were found forty-four retailers, of whom thirty-three were Germans, three Irish, three colored, and two native Hoosiers.22 The Germans resented this interference with their pri- vate business and ordered a boycott of all business men who opposed them and they agreed not to sup- port any candidate who affiliated with the anti-liquor party.
A state convention of the temperance workers met at Madison, September 27 and 28, 1853, and issued a set of resolutions.23 By the end of the year eighteen newspapers, all Whig and Free Soil, were
18 Washington Democrat, April 22, 1853.
19 Indianapolis Journal, December 6, 1853. The substance of the decision was that the General Assembly had no right to legislate by referendum. The full text of the decision is given January 5, 1855.
20 Indianapolis Journal, August 19, 1853.
21 Washington Democrat, Feb. 10 and 17, 1853.
22 Indianapolis Journal, Nov. 16, 1853.
23 Indianapolis Journal, Oct. 1, 1853.
618
HISTORY OF INDIANA
supporting the cause.24 The Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance held a meeting in Temperance Hall, Indianapolis, October 26, 1853, and issued a call for a State Temperance convention to meet at Indi- anapolis on the second Wednesday of January, 1854.25
The People's party in 1854, having succeeded in electing a General Assembly favorable to prohibition that body on February 16, 1855, placed on the statute books a sweeping prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicants.26 The law, however, was never given a trial. A test case was brought in Indian- apolis and rushed through the supreme court, where, in an opinion by Judge Samuel E. Perkins, the whole law was overthrown.27
This decision left it clear to the propagandists that they must limit their efforts to regulation. The General Assembly had repealed the old license law, so that there then remained nothing on the statute books to limit or regulate the liquor traffic.28
At a meeting of the leading men of the temper- ance party a call was ordered for a convention to meet at Indianapolis, February 22, 1856.29 This meeting, presided over by John A. Matson, of Put- nam county, issued a set of spirited resolutions. The
24 Indianapolis Journal, Dec. 30, 1853.
25 Washington Democrat, Jan. 20, 1854. The resolutions sum up the arguments for and against a Maine Law: Can't enforce it; personal liberty ; vested capital; loss of employment ; uncon- stitutional ; moral question for church. For it: Unhealthful ; causes crime ; demoralizes society ; provokes lawlessness ; unlawful. 26 Laws of Indiana, 1855, ch. CV.
27 Beebe v. State, Indiana Reports, VI, 501. Judge William Z. Stuart in a separate opinion held only the prohibition on man- ufacture void. Judge Samuel B. Gookins In a separate opinion held the law good.
28 Laws of Indiana, 1855, ch. CVI.
29 State Journal, Jan. 24, 1856.
619
KNOW NOTHINGS
fight, however, waned. The Democrats regained control of the General Assembly in 1856, and Decem- ber 21, 1858, at a called session formally repealed the prohibition law of 1855.30 On the fifth of March, 1859, the old license law was again put back on the law book of the state where in substance it remained until the adoption of the 18th Amendment. As a parting shot a House committee in 1861 asked that an asylum for inebriates be established by the state to take care of the victims of the liquor habit.81
§ 110 KNOW NOTHINGS
Along with the agitation against slavery and the liquor traffic there sprang up a movement known as Knownothingism to limit immigration. The move- ment arose and ran its early course in New York city, but beginning to spread about 1845 it had by 1854 become national. The party founded on this issue had nothing in common with either the anti-slavery or the anti-liquor party. The movement took on the form of a secret society with all the provisions of grip, password, ritual and obligation. The first of
30 Laws of Indiana, 1858, ch. XV.
31 House Journal, 1861, p. 787. "It is a well-known fact that long-continued inebriation produces mental aberration, delirium tremens, and insanity, of which thousands die annually, and the number of the victims and the magnitude of the evils are con- stantly increasing. * * * The state has decided to continue the system of licensing persons to sell Intoxicating liquors (whether wisely or not, your committee do not now propose to Inquire), and the revenues derived from that source amount to over sixty thousand dollars annually. That the legitimate result of the system is to make drunkards, produce disease and death, is a proposition too plain for argument. If, then, the State be in any manner responsible for the existence of the disease, or if it continued to produce the existing condition of things, ought it not to use the money thus derived to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunate victims of the policy of licensing such establish- ments?"
620
HISTORY OF INDIANA
these lodges in Indiana was organized in Dearborn county sometime in February, 1854. Before the close of the year their triangular pieces of paper could be seen on the streets of almost any town in the state, pointing mysteriously to the place where the lodge, wigwam or council met.
The Democratic newspapers rose in wrath at these "ill-omened birds of the night." The old Whig newspapers also joined formally in deploring such meetings, but remained strangely cool and serene. By the middle of the summer of 1854 it was estimated that in the state from 30,000 to 50,000 members be- longed. The Democratic party was apprehensive of danger. In Masonic hall, Indianapolis, July 11, 12 and 14, the new party held a state convention. Many leading Whig editors and politicians were present- out of mere curiosity, they explained. None of them apparently knew anything about the order. Judge William J. Peaslee, of Shelbyville, presided. God- love S. Orth became leader of the order in the state. The old patriarch of the Methodist church, Rev. James Havens, was chaplain. There is no doubt that the society in Indiana was composed of the oppo- nents of Democratic power. Its close affiliation with the Peoples' party in 1854 was shown by the fact that a large number of the delegates to the Know Nothing council remained as delegates to the Peoples' conven- tion which met immediately after the council ad- journed. The ticket nominated by the Peoples' con- vention had previously been selected in the Know Nothing council. The Democrats of 1854 made their campaign largely against this unseen foe. Governor Wright, Jesse Bright and Graham Fitch were espec- ially severe in their denunciation of this "party with one idea," this "dark lantern party," these "birds of the night," "owls" and "midnight conspirators."
As far as can be ascertained from the newspapers
621
SWAMP LANDS
of the time, both friendly and hostile, the party stood for the repeal of all naturalization laws, the election of none but native Americans, a purely American common school system, opposition to the Roman Catholic church, opposition to all secret societies composed of foreigners, and a general emphasis on all strictly American ideas and institutions.32
The Know Nothings played a part in the national election of 1856, but by 1858 the slavery question had almost completely overshadowed it. It drew nearly all its support from the old Whig party, its other source being the Free Soil faction of the Democrats and the more radical members of the Protestant churches. The new Republican party swallowed up its organization and membership in Indiana so that by 1860 its strength was gone. Its constitution pro- vided that all its members should be Protestants of good character, over twenty-one years of age and na- tive born. The resolutions of the Indiana Grand council of 1855 declared against the extension of slavery, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, for a prohibition law and for free schools, free speech, a free Bible, a free press, and endorsed Millard Fill- more for President.33
§ 111 SWAMP LANDS .
By an act of Congress, September 28, 1850, de- signed to enable the states having "swamp lands" within their limits to reclaim them, Indiana received over one million acres of such land. The secretary of
32 This text is based on a paper entitled "Know Nothings of Indiana," prepared by Carl F. Brand. He had access to a large number of Indiana newspapers and made a thorough, scholarly study of the movement.
33 Indianapolis Journal, July 17, 1855; for the platform of 1856 see Journal, July 18, 1856; for that of 1857 see Journal, Feb. 18, 1857. These, together with the rituals, are given in Mr. Brand's paper, "Know Nothings of Indiana."
622
HISTORY OF INDIANA
the interior was authorized to make out plats and accurate lists of such land for the use of the governor in each state. The proceeds of the sale were to be applied exclusively, as far as necessary, to the re- claiming of such land by means of levees and drains.
Indiana at first undertook to place the land upon the market at a fixed price per acre. It was not long, however, until rumors of great frauds were in circu- lation and at last the state legislature was forced by public sentiment to order an investigation. A legis- lative committee reported irregularities implicating either directly or indirectly, some of the leading poli- ticians as well as several state and county officers. The report showed frauds varying from the open transfer, illegally, without compensation to the state of thousands of acres of land to the embezzling of fees by state and county officers. In the first manner fourteen thousand dollars were reported to have been taken from the treasury, while at least seventy-five thousand dollars had been retained illegally by state officers from money received from the sale of land. The report also showed that extravagant sums, amounting to many thousands of dollars, had been paid to individuals appointed to make selections of land for the state; showed a loss to the Swamp Land fund on account of frauds in the issuing of patents of about ten thousand dollars; and that the officers of the state retained ten per cent upon the gross amount of sales of swamp land made by the counties over and above their fee, without authority by law for doing so.
In Jasper county alone over one hundred and twenty-four thousand acres of land were illegally deeded away without compensation to the state in any form. Jacob Merkle, treasurer of Jasper county (1853-7), was charged by the committee with having illegally withheld one hundred thousand dollars and having compromised by giving his notes for twenty-
623
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
four thousand dollars. These notes were never paid and later misappropriations made him a defaulter of over one hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. While thus indebted to the state he was appointed by the governor a Swamp Land commissioner of his county. This was by no means the only case and is cited here only for illustration.
In Lake county frands were committed by Swamp Land Commissioner Childs, in connection with the county treasurer. In this case several thousand dol- lars were paid out on ditch contracts which were never fulfilled. Reports were also made of extensive frauds under former commissioners in the same county.
Evidence was found likewise as to frauds in re- gard to the management of the Swamp Land inter- ests in Pulaski county, while over nine thousand dol- lars was paid illegally to Benjamin Reynolds and other partners in White county on fraudulent claims. No action was ever taken in the matter by the state, though its loss through these frauds has been vari- ously estimated at from seven hundred fifty thousand to two million dollars.
§ 112 UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Ever since the earliest settlements in Indiana there had been some trouble over the rescue by their masters of runaway slaves. The matter had been aggravated by slave dealers kidnapping free negroes in Indiana and selling them into slavery. Under the old Fugitive Slave law the citizens of Indiana aided the fugitives or not just as they preferred without much danger from the law. However, under the · Fugitive Slave law of 1850 any citizen, if requested, had to join in the capture of the fugitive. A large number of Indiana citizens were conscientiously op-
624
HISTORY OF INDIANA
posed to this and an attempt to compel usually put them actively on the other side.
About this time a secret association of eastern Abolitionists sent agents to strategic points along the Ohio river border to assist the fleeing slaves. Thus encouraged, many slaves succeeded in reaching Canada. Due to their success in escaping, coupled with the persuasion of Abolition agents, the slaves throughout Kentucky and Missouri became restless and thousands made the break for liberty. Those persons who were actively engaged in the rescue work soon banded together into chains of stations across the state, which the refugees followed toward Canada. These routes came to be known as "under- ground railroads." It was the duty of those persons at one station to hide, to protect, and in due time and opportunity to forward the negro to the next station. Every obstacle was placed in the way of the master who came in pursuit. In the conflicts between these men the sympathy of the neighborhood was invari- ably on the side of the slave. The masters or slave hunters by means of liberal rewards soon developed a class of professional slave catchers in southern Indiana. These slave catchers were strictly within their legal rights, but necessarily soon forfeited their reputation in the community, if indeed, they ever had any. A few instances will show how these incidents affected the communities in which they happened and through them the whole state.
In the early fifties there was great demand for laborers on the southern end of the Wabash and Erie canal. Two free negroes who lived near Owensboro came up to work. On one occasion as they were on their way home from Point Commerce and had reached Washington they were approached by a man who informed them he was on his way to Rockport with a two-horse team and would be glad to have
625
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
them ride with him. After a few minutes parley the white man said he would be ready in a few hours at which time another white man had joined the former. The party set out about four o'clock, reaching Pet- ersburg at sunset. Their conduct on the road and at Petersburg excited so much suspicion among the Abolitionists there that a rescue party was organized by Dr. John W. Posey. The kidnappers were joined at Petersburg by other confederates who, all togeth- er, started for Rockport about three o'clock next morning. Somewhere near Winslow the colored men were overpowered, bound and gagged. The rescue party gathered some new recruits, hastened on past the kidnappers, and in northern Warrick county se- cured a writ from a squire and arrested them. The kidnappers then produced a handbill, apparently printed several weeks before at a town in Tennessee, accurately describing the negroes. The rescuers knew this had been printed in Washington, while the negroes were waiting, but no one could swear to it; so the men were permitted to proceed with their vic- tims. Having thus failed by legal means, the rescu- ers sought a favorable place where a few hours later they liberated the negroes by force.34
A slave named Rachel lived with her husband and several children at Lexington, Kentucky. Her story was the common one. After twelve or fifteen years under indulgent masters the owner of her husband was compelled to sell him to New Orleans. She had little time to grieve until her own master died, leav- ing her and her children to mount the auction block. Soon a Mississippi planter put her to work in the cotton fields. Having spent her previous life in her mistress's kitchen she was unable to do a creditable
34 This story was first published in the Washington Sun, from which it was copied by a number of other Indiana papers. It is best told by Col. W. M. Cockrum, Pioneer Indiana, 574.
626
HISTORY OF INDIANA
day's work and was whipped daily. She ran away and in four months had walked by night to Lexington where she hoped someone would buy her and keep her near her children, the youngest of which was only three. She was soon recaptured by her owner, hand- cuffed and hobbled by a chain and ball riveted on her ankles. On her way to Louisville she crept out of the wagon, shackled as she was, hid in a ravine, made her way by night to the Ohio river opposite Madison, crossed and found a refuge a few miles back in Indi- ana. Driven from there by her pursuers she passed on from station to station till she reached the home of Levi Coffin at Newport. Here she remained safe for nearly six months while the sores caused by the iron bands on her ankles healed. She was an intelli- gent woman and scores of people heard her tell her experiences.35
"Toney" escaped from his owner in Kentucky and made his way north along the New Albany & Chicago railroad as far as Monroe county. Here he was nabbed by a band of professional slave hunters. The Underground Railroad agents of the neighbor- hood secured a writ from the circuit court and freed the victim, but the simple-minded negro immediately joined other members of the kidnappers who prom- ised to take him to Canada. Toney observed with fear that they were taking him south, but did not have an opportunity to escape until he had been led back almost to Salem. Here he slipped away and hid in a corn field until night, when he again turned north. This time he fell into more friendly hands. He hid in the neighborhood of Bloomington till the hunters had left his trail, when, hidden under some sacks of wheat in a farmer's wagon, he embarked for Mooresville. The incident aroused great interest at
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.