USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 5
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35 Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, 160.
627
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
the State university where were a number of young men from the southern states attending school.36
The so-called Underground Railroad was an im- provised system. Only a few men were regularly employed by the anti-slavery league and most, if not all, of these were stationed on the Ohio river. Stories have come down of highly educated young men spending years in shacks along the banks of the Ohio, fishing, examining the river, or studying science, or making secret trips into Kentucky, selling notions to the farmers. On prominent points on the bank of the Ohio where they could be seen up and down the long reaches they kept their fires burning throughout the nights. Mysterious flames of light often flashed out from the Kentucky side, exciting the curiosity of these scientists, so much that they at once pushed off in their skiffs to investigate. One of these silent fishermen watched the long reach between Evansville and Henderson. Fugitives crossing here passed north by Princeton toward Bloomingdale, following either White river or the Wabash. From Bloomingdale they made their way either to Toledo, Michigan City or into the state of Michigan. A second important crossing was in the neighborhood of Owensboro and Rockport, whence the slaves made their way north by Peters- burg, hiding there in the coal mines, and thence either by Mooresville or Morgantown, or by Plainfield and Noblesville. At Louisville, New Albany and Jeffer- sonville many crossed, hiding with friends in the hill country back of New Albany, whence after their pur- suers had gone, they made their way north by Salem and Bloomington. A regular ferryman was stationed near Madison and Vevay, from which ferry the fugi- tives scattered throughout Jefferson, Ripley and
36 H. L. Smith, in Indiana Magazine of History, XIII, 288.
628
HISTORY OF INDIANA
Jennings counties, making their way thence by the Madison & Indianapolis railroad to Indianapolis, by the Michigan road to Greensburg, or still more fre- quently to Newport in Wayne county, where Levi Coffin, prince of conductors, assisted them on to To- ledo and Detroit. A large number of fugitives cross- ing at Covington and Cincinnati dodged back into Indiana to elude their pursuers, whence from Wayne and Fayette counties they passed on with those from Madison and Vevay.
No definite numbers can be given for these escap- ing slaves, but it is certain there were thousands of them.
As far as alleviating the miseries of the slaves or settling the slavery question is concerned the results of the Underground Railroad are negligible. The great influence must be sought in the changed atti- tude of the people on the question of slavery. It is the consensus of opinion that an overwhelming ma- jority of the people of southern Indiana in 1850 were indifferent to the evils of slavery, at least so long as the evils were restricted to the southern states; but the continued agitation produced by negro hunters rapidly aroused the indignation of most of the peo- ple. The appearance of one of these black wretches, naked, hungry, friendless, chased by haughty, swag- gering horsemen with dogs, excited pity, disgust and at last indignation ; so that by the end of the decade the slave chasers were hated by all men and women except those pecuniarily interested. The slave own- ers of Kentucky and Tennessee, conscious of their own personal rectitude and their legal rights, were also indignant that a whole people, as they viewed it, should conspire to rob them of their property and violate the plain law of the United States. Espec- ially were the United States marshal and his assis-
629
IMMIGRATION
tants, whose duty it was to help catch the refugees, held in contempt by the people of Indiana.37
§ 113 IMMIGRATION
The years from 1848 to 1860 were marked by heavy foreign immigration into the Ohio valley. Indiana received fewer of these immigrants than any other state, yet the character of the state was more affected than at any other time in its history. At the close of the period there were 118,184 foreign-born persons in the state, almost one in ten of the total. Of these, over half or 66,705 were from Germany. Ireland ranked next with 24,495; then England with 9,304; France with 6,176. The Germans came from all parts of the empire, Prussia leading with 12,067. An examination of the annual immigration reports shows that the volume of immigrants into the United States increased rapidly from 1844 to 1854 when it reached 427,833, its highest mark before the Civil war. It fell sharply then to 154,640 in 1860.
The Irish, French and English, though totalling 40,975 in Indiana, were so well dispersed over the state that they soon were lost in the general mass. Large numbers of the Irish, after building the canals and railroads, located on farms. Irish neighborhoods could be found for a generation or two in which many of the customs of old Erin were maintained, but no great effort was ever made to perpetuate their
37 The best accounts of this work are: The Underground Railroad, by Col. William M. Cockrum. His father at Oakland City and his nelghbor, Dr. John Posey, of Petersburg, harbored scores of slaves and sent them on their way to freedom; Remi- niscences, by Levi Coffin, who was the leader of the anti-slavery people of Wayne county. The Quakers were especially sensitive to the sufferings of the slaves and their homes were always open to them. The county histories contain a vast amount of this material, mostly in traditional form. The old newspapers are the best sources, though only a small part of the entire material ever found Its way into print.
630
HISTORY OF INDIANA
culture. They soon joined heartily in all American sports, labors and duties, taking active part in poli- tics. In fact these late Irish comers found about as much Irish blood in America as they left in Ireland. The same observations will apply to the French and English in even larger degree. In the county his- tories and here and there in the newspapers one comes across evidence of these neighborhoods, but they soon melted away.38
The Germans as a rule settled in the towns, form- ing compact neighborhoods, in which they retained their German language and customs as long as pos- sible. They held out longest of the immigrants against the Americanizing tendencies. In Indianap- olis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Laporte, Lafayette, New Albany and other places they published news- papers, conducted schools, churches and business in the German language. Their secret vereins, forced upon them by centuries of tyranny in Germany, in which they did about what the older settlers were do- ing in their singing schools, spelling matches and other social pastimes, were objects of suspicion to the natives. They combined business and politics whenever they took any interest in the latter.
Organized effort was made to perpetuate their language and customs. Few Irish or French chil- dren, born in Indiana, either learned or cared to learn any but the English language, but the Germans almost invariably learned the German, the parents insisting that it be taught in the schools and used in their own churches. In 1858 and 1859 they secured the publication of the state laws in the German lan-
38 For a French settlement, see article by Alice Green, Indi- ana Magazine of History, XI, 64. For an English colony, see Dr. John M. Poucher, Indiana Magazine of History, XI, 211. Around Leopold and St. Croix in the center of Perry county there is a large settlement of French dating from this period.
631
IMMIGRATION
gauge,89 and in 1869 they secured a law giving them the power to demand the teaching of the German language in the common schools.40
Marion county had 6,395 foreign-born population in 1860 out of a total of 39,855; Laporte county, 5,008 out of 22,919; Vanderburg, 8,374 out of 20,552; Floyd, 3,836 out of 20,183; Lake, 2,649 out of 9,145; Tippecanoe, 4,126 out of 25,726; Allen, 6,842 out of 29,328; Dearborn, 5,871 out of 24,406; and Dubois, 2,764 out of 10,394. Each of these counties still has a strong German element where the customs of the fatherland are revered. The Germans as a rule be- came business men. They introduced and have largely carried on the brewing business in the state.41
39 Laws of Indiana, 1859, ch. LXXII.
40 Laws of Indiana, 1869, ch. XV.
41 While not strictly belonging to this section, the statistics of the birthplace of Indiana's American-born population as given In the census of 1860 are given here because of its bearing on this and the following chapter. There were born in:
Alabama
358
New Hampshire. 1,072
Arkansas
223
New Jersey
8,202
California
56
New York.
30,855
Connecticut
2,505
North Carolina 26,942
Delaware
2,301
Ohio 171,245
Florida
20
Oregon
8
Georgia
561
Pennsylvania
57,210
Illinois
7,925
Rhode Island.
455
Indiana
774,721
South Carolina
2,662
Iowa
1,844
Tennessee
10,356
Kansas
62
Texas
95
Kentucky
68,588
Vermont
3,539
Louisiana
557
Virginia
36,848
Maine
1,293
Wisconsin
679
Maryland
9,673
District of Columbia ...
222
Massachusetts
3,443
Territories
29
Michigan
3,701
At sea
94
Minnesota
161
Not stated.
1,710
Mississippi
350
Missouri
1,679
Aggregate native .... 1,232,244
632
HISTORY OF INDIANA
§ 114 WOMAN'S RIGHTS
The women began an active campaign during the fifties to secure some measure of political self-protec- tion. In the winter of 1843 the subject was brought before the public by a petition to the Assembly.1 This was referred to the Judiciary committee, which a few days later made it the basis of some coarse humor, inspired evidently in a bar room.2 The House promptly rejected the report and appointed a special committee, which seems never to have reported. The petition asked only the right of married women to retain property owned by them before marriage.
No further progress seems to have been made till 1846, when, under the leadership of Andrew L. Os- born, married women were given the right to make wills,3 and in the same year by a bill by James Gilluce exempting the wife's property at the time of her marriage from liability for the debts of her husband.4
In the constitutional convention of 1850 there was an attempt made to write the statute of 1846 into the constitution, but without success. In 1853 agitation for woman suffrage began. The movement culminat- ed in a state convention at Indianapolis, October 27, 1854. Mrs. Smith, of Dublin, presided and Mrs. Frances D. Gage, of Ohio, was the principal speaker. The resolutions protested against all laws and social customs restricting women. They hoped for full equality with men in all fields of honest endeavor, especially in education and politics." The tone of the
1 House Journal, 1843, p. 394.
2 House Journal, 1843. p. 452.
8 Senate Journal, 1846, p. 141.
4 Laws of Indiana, 1846, ch. VI.
5 Indianapolis Journal, Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, 1854. "The right of suffrage is, in our opinion, the basis of our enterprise, since we do not seek to place woman under man's protection, but to give her the power to protect herself."
633
WOMAN'S RIGHTS
whole meeting, especially the speech by Mrs. Gage, was strangely suggestive. The women seem like peasants of the sixteenth century pleading for liber- ation and the attitude of the press and the members of the General Assembly was not such as one can speak of with pride. Even so gentle a man as Berry Sulgrove, editor of the Journal, speaks of the meet- ing, which he attended, with a coarseness not com- mon to him.
In 1859 an attempt was made to exempt the per- sonal property of wives from execution for the debts of their husbands and also allow them to have the wages they and their minor children earn in case the husbands are spendthrifts. The Judiciary committee report on this modest bill shows the prevailing view at the time." On January 19, 1859, the two Houses assembled together to hear an address on woman suffrage by Mrs. Mary F. Thomas, who at the same time presented a petition from the women of the state. The General Assembly did her the honor to print her address in both journals.7 Perhaps the women would long ago have received their due in this
6 House Journal, 1859, p. 505. "Said bili proposes to estab- lish two distinct aovereignties in every family, making the wife co-equal in dignity and power with the hushand, and thus to de- stroy the last vestige of the doctrine of the Common Law, which supposed a man and a wife to be one. It goes so far as to pro- hibit a married man from selling, exchanging, or in any way part- ing with his personal property, without the consent of his wife first had and obtained, and in case he should have the temerity to dispose of the same, the wife may, in her own name, sue for and recover such property. The committee are not yet prepared to establish the right of woman upon so broad a basis, and therefore recommend that the same be indefinitely postponed."
7 Senate Journal, 1859, p. 186. The address is an admirable statement of the plea for suffrage. The only answer the Assembly had was that it would mar the beauty of the Common Law.
634
HISTORY OF INDIANA
matter had it been in the power of the General As- sembly to grant it directly.8
§ 115 ELECTION OF 1854
The preceding sections will give the reader some sense of the difficulties of the period in the political field. The Whig party was dead. The Democratic party was without discipline and in danger of disin- tegration. The old platforms offered no solutions for the new problems. New organizations had to be made to face the new issues. Never has the political and organizing capacity of our people been more fully employed than during the period from 1854 to 1861. A new school system was being worked out; a new system of transportation was being built; the liquor traffic was demanding attention; the slavery question threatened to, and finally did, overwhelm all else; a new banking system was being tried; the farmers, two-thirds of all the people, were intent on the new agriculture. No wonder that in these chop seas the rickety old Whig party went to pieces.
January 11, 1854, there met at Indianapolis eleven hundred men who organized a state temper- ance convention and party. This convention voted an address and directed its followers to meet in
8 The following quotation from a select committee on a pro- posed suffrage amendment shows how the sentiment was growing: "As a question of abstract right, the Committee have no doubt that, in accordance with the principles of a democratic form of government, females are entitled to the right of suffrage. But as to the political and moral results of the grant and exercise of this right, they are not so clear ; yet in view of the past history and character of the female sex, In all ages and positions, the Committee are of the belief that the enforcement of this right by women of Indiana would not only tend to exalt and ennoble the sex themselves, but would eventually tend to promote the general welfare. They would therefore respectfully recommend the passage of the Joint Resolution," House Journal, 1865, p. 455.
635
ELECTION OF 1854
county conventions throughout the state on the fol- lowing February 22.9 The temperance question, the "seizure, confiscation and destruction" of all liquor held or offered for sale illegally, was thus placed in the hopper of the political mill. These men acknowl- edged no political allegiance, but declared that no one could get their votes who did not endorse their views on this question.10 This new movement so far cut across all party lines that out of 110 newspapers whose positions were known, all but ten favored the temperance movement.11
Democrats were warned that this was a clever Whig bait to lure them into trouble.12 Some of the Democrats proposed to take this question out of party politics by a popular referendum.13 No one attempted to conceal the gravity of the issue.14
The slavery demon, though slain in 1850, stalked in ghostly form into every political meeting. Indi- ana Democrats had agreed in their platform to con- sider the issue closed, when the passage of the Kan- sas-Nebraska bill struck Indiana like a spark in a magazine. All the smouldering fires broke into blaze. The Free Soilers in congress had conceded one point after another until now in dismay they saw the last barrier to slavery broken. Indiana had ten Demo-
9 Logansport Journal, Feb. 11, 1854.
10 Indianapolis Journal, Jan. 13, 1854.
11 Indianpolis Journal, Jan. 24, 1854.
12 Indianapolis Sentinel, March 14, 1854. "If Whiggery and Abolitionism can throw in the temperance question as an auxiliary to aid them in electing a Whig legislature, they will achieve a triumph by the aid of temperance Democrats, which their political principles can never command."
13 Logansport Pharos, Feb. 22, 1854.
14 The contest next fall will be upon the temperance issue, *
*
* The temperance men stand with the balance of power in their hands." Madison Courier, quoted in Indianapolis Sen- tinel, Oct. 31, 1854.
636
HISTORY OF INDIANA
ST JOSEPH
LAFRANGE
STULDEN
ELKHART
LAKE
PORTER
NOBLE
DEKALD
MARSHALL
STARKE
KOSCIUSCO
WHITLEY
ALLEN
PULASKI
FULTON
JASPER
WABASH
WHITE
CASS
WELLS
ADAMS
DENTON
CARROLL
HOWARD
GRANT
BLACK- FORD
JAY
TIPPECANOE
WARREN.QUE
CLINTON
TIPTON
MADISON
FOUNTAIN MONTGOMERY
BOONE
HENRY
WAYNE
PARKE
MEMARICAS
MARION
HANCOCK
PUTNAM
RUSH
FAYETTE UNION
SHELBY
VIGO
CLAY
FRANKLIN
OWEN
RIPLEY
MONROE
BROWN
BARTHOLOMEW
SULLIVAN
RIPLEY
GREENE
JENNINGS
JACKSON
LAWRENCE
JEFFERSON
DAVIESS
SCOTT
WASHINGTON
ORANGE
CLARK
PIKE
DUBOIS
GIBSON
CRAWFORD
FLOYD
HARRISON
POLLY
ANDER | WARRICK BURG
PERKY
SPENCER
Shaded Area. Democratic Remainder of State, Fusion Election of 1804
RANDOLPH
HAMILTON
DELAYMARE
VERMILLION
JOHNSON
MORGAN
SHITZ ERLAIP
KNOX
MIAMI
637
ELECTION OF 1854
cratic congressmen then and one Whig. These men saw their danger, but seven of the Democrats sup- ported the bill removing the Missouri Compromise, one of the most sacred landmarks of the whole era of compromise legislation.
The delegates who assembled at the Democratic state convention in Indianapolis, May 24, 1854, were not suffering from mental stagnation. The Anti- Nebraskaites had met at Indianapolis, March 22, 1854, and passed a series of resolutions denouncing the bill as infamous and asking that congress defer action till it could hear from the people.15
Senator Jesse Bright arrived at Indianapolis the day before the convention and succeeding in holding the party in line for the national administration. This was not done without friction. Oliver P. Mor- ton led a Free,Soil bolt and quit the party. M. C. Garber, the most virile editor in the state, denounced the platform and quit the party.16 Governor Wright and his wing of the party were completely ignored.
On the 25th and 26th of April German repre- sentatives from all parts of the state met in Indian- apolis to consult on their political course. They op. posed, especially, the restrictions on immigration proposed by the Know Nothings and urged an in- come tax.17
An attempt was made by the Democratic politi- cians to resuscitate the Whig party, but after a con- siderable amount of oxygen had been injected into its body, resulting in a few twitchings of the muscles, it
15 Indianapolis Journal, March 25, 1854.
16 Indianapolis Journal, May 27, 30 and June 3, 1854. The New Albany Ledger (Dem.) said the bill twice violated plighted faith, The Princeton Democratic Clarion called It a violation of a sacred compact. The Lafayette Courier (Dem.) called it an out- rage. The Madison Courier (Dem.) repudlated it and the party. 17 Indianapolis Journal, June 3, 1854.
638
HISTORY OF INDIANA
was pronounced a corpse.18 The old-line Whigs were cordially invited to join the Democratic party.19
Meanwhile the call had gone out to all those op- posed to the Democratic party, the temperance men, the anti-slavery men, the Know Nothings and the former Whigs to meet in convention at Indianapolis, July 13, 1854. A state council of Know Nothings met at Indianapolis on the two days preceding the con- vention, prepared a slate and wrote a platform.20 The meeting was called to order by Jacob Page Chap- man, former editor of the Sentinel, and perhaps the greatest political editor ever produced in the state, while as its secretary sat M. C. Garber of the Madi- son Courier. Nothing is more significant of the deep political change than the defection of four of the leading Democratic editors-E. W. H. Ellis of the Goshen Democrat, M. C. Garber of the Madison Courier, Jacob Page Chapman of the Sentinel, and William R. Ellis of the Lafayette Courier, leaving John Norman of the New Albany Ledger to plead the cause of the Democratic party in a faint-hearted way, in order that he might continue in the patronage of the administration.22 The People's party, as the new alliance was called, placed a fusion ticket in the field and at the following polls elected it, to the great dis- gust of the loyal Democrats.
The Democrats at once began to discount their defeat. The people were blinded temporarily by pas-
18 Indianapolis Journal, June 5, 1854, quoting the Sentinel : "Are you willing to quit the principles of the Whig party for the one-idea party opposed to slavery? Are you willing to yield the name Whig for that of Abolitionist? Clay, Webster, Harrison, Taylor invoke you from the tomb not to do It."
19 Indianapolis Sentinel and New Albany Ledger, July 7, 1854.
20 Cari Brand, "Know Nothings of Indiana" Mss., 25; Indian- apolis Chanticleer, July 20, 1854.
22 Indianapolis Journal, July 14, 26 and 29, 1854; Sentinel, July 14.
639
REPUBLICAN PARTY
sion ; it was only a passing whim; the accidental con- junction of several unconnected bodies traveling un- related orbits ; and that its mutually hostile elements must soon fall apart.23 There was much truth in these observations, but they applied almost with equal force to the Democratic party.
Of the Indiana Democratic congressmen who voted for the Kansas-Nebraska bill, two were re- turned to congress, the remaining nine of the new delegation being Fusionists. The Fusion ticket was elected by a substantial majority.24 The Democrats expressed grave apprehension concerning the future of the state, left as it would be in the hands of the riff-raff and visionaries. The state chairman, Wil- liam J. Brown, called a meeting of the leaders of the Democratic party, January 4, to take stock of the situation. A. P. Hovey, Gorden Tanner, Oliver B. Torbert and other influential Democrats began a sys- tematic organization of all the Democrats into clubs.25
§ 116 REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Fusionists were jubilant over the election of 1854. Celebrations were held in various parts of the state where the different groups fraternized and con- gratulated each other under the spell of the party orators. The more thoughtful politicians, however, realized that the Fusionists were not a political party and that trouble would arise when the General As- sembly met. They began therefore to lay plans for
23 Indianapolis Sentinel, July 26, 1854. The editor of the Sentinel, William J. Brown, was the State chairman of the Demo- cratic party, and had been driven from congress because his anti-siavery views were offensive to Senator Bright.
24 Documentary Journal, 1855, p. 881. Third document from the last. The volume is not consecutively paged. For the vote by counties, see note 37 beiow.
25 Indianapolis Sentinel, Dec. 18 and 20, 1854.
640
HISTORY OF INDIANA
the formation of a party, using such issues as seemed best and discarding those which gave little promise for the public welfare.
O. P. Davis, in a card to his supporters, in the Seventh district named the new party "Republican." This seems to have been one of the first uses of the name in Indiana.26
The Democrats at once began to attack these com- bined opponents, training their guns especially on the Know Nothings. The Republicans gradually abandoned that position for the non-extension of slavery. Three principles were slowly sifted from the material of the fusion platform: the non-exten- sion of slavery, a prohibitory liquor law, and citizen- ship as a condition of suffrage.27 Many members of the new party favored abandoning all pretense of a platform and just supporting good men.28 During the early months of 1855 petitions were circulated asking for a Republican mass meeting at Indianapo- lis, July 13, 1855. This meeting was called to order on that day by Charles Test. After listening to a number of speeches it drew up a set of resolutions expressing the principles of the new party and ap- pointed a state central committee of fifteen.29 Dur- ing the year county conventions were held in all the counties. All shades of opinion were expressed in these meetings. Many of the older, prominent Whigs
26 Indianapolis Sentinel, Sept. 19, 1854. The card was not dated, but evidently was written about the last of August.
27 Indianapolis Journal, Jan. 3, 1855. The editor here calls it the Republican party.
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