History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 34

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942

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'On leaving college he entered the office of Hon. Some mnen have been disposed to look upon him as more of a politician than a lawyer, and to regard his legal attainments as being limited. This was not the judgment of those who knew him. In fact, it is con- trary to the natural order of things for a man with his analytical mind and his powers of application to John S. Newman, at Centreville, and began the study of law. He was then nearly twenty-two years of age. On the 15th of May, 1845, he married Miss Lucinda M. Burbank, daughter of Isaac Burbank, of that place. This marriage proved a mest happy one, his chosen companion holding and exercising over him | have been a poor lawyer. The universal testimony

Eng ªby G. E. Perine &C.N Y

C.P. Morten

OLIVER P MORTON COVERNOR OF INDIANA

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of those who met him at the bar is that he was a master. His great faculty was his power of going to the very root of a thing. He studied his cases closely, seized upon the salient points, and those he presented with vigor and skill. He discarded all the tricks so often resorted to by lawyers, and depended solely upon the law and the facts. When he was ready to go into the trial of a case he was prepared at all points; there were no surprises in store for him, but he was thoroughly conversant with every feature of the case and the law bearing upon it. He seemed to deal with the great principles of the law, and to apply them to the case at bar, disdaining to seize upon quibbles or technicalities. In his addresses to the court or jury he was always impressive, build- ing his facts into an edifice, cemented by the law, that was impregnable against all attacks. One who knew him well, and had met him at the bar, said of him, " His great characteristic was that he studied up his eases, and he never came into court without .giving evidence of careful preparation. . . . I dis- tinctly remember that in the four years before he was called into the service of the State he literally annihilated everybody connected with the bar of Wayne County, and walked rough-shod over all other lawyers of the circuit. .. . There are prob- ably few men who have at the same age surpassed him in ability and success." His success was demonstrated by the fact that when he left the practice in 1860 he was the leading attorney in all Eastern Indiana, and was engaged in every prominent case. After his death the bar of Indianapolis adopted unanimously a memorial, in which it was said, " Having chosen his profession, Senator Morton's place in it by natural right was in the front rank, and, without a struggle, he was conspicuous there by force of character, gen- crous stores of knowledge, and eminent ability. He was a judge remarkable for the wise, speedy, and impartial administration of justice on an important circuit at an age when most men are making their first steps in professional life." The men who drafted the memorial and adopted it knew whercof they spoke, for Mr. Morton had been called at one time to preside over the Circuit Court of Indianapolis. Of that time one of the most prominent lawyers of

Indianapolis said, " I saw him but once in the exer- cise of the functions of judge. ... His decision was a clear and forcible enunciation of the law, which left no doubt in the minds of those who heard it of its correctness." His great political rival, Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, said of him at a public meet- ing, " I never met Governor Morton in court, and had no knowledge of his habit in the management of cases. I have heard from others, however, that - which convinces me that he was very able, and I know he must have been, because he possessed every qualification for eminence in our profession." Such was the testimony universally given.

All his speeches on the stump, in the Senate of the United States, all his messages to the State Legisla- ture, show an intimate kuowledge of the great prin- ciples of law, especially constitutional law. One re- markable instance of this kind he exhibited in his speech on the right of secession. It had been claimed upon all hands that there was no power inherent in the government to coerce a State. In. that speech he took the ground that secession was the act of individuals and not of States, and ought to be so regarded ; that the individuals could not shield themselves behind State governments. This was the key to the whole problem. The late Senator Matt H. Carpenter, who had been associated with him in the investigation of the Louisiana case, said, " No one need tell me that Morton is not a great lawyer. I know better. I have seen him and been a witness to his power and knowledge of the law." Senator Thurman, in one of the debates, said, " The Senator from Indiana may have been a lawyer at one time, but has been too much engaged in politics, and has forgotten the law on this subject. He has not kept up his reading." Senator Morton's only reply was to call from memory for the reading by the secretary of passages of law from a large number of authorities, all so applicable to the case and so much against the position taken by his opponent, that Senator Thur- man was overwhelmed and signally defeated.

Senator Morton was a Democrat in politics in his earlier years, and always took a deep interest in polit- ical affairs. In 1854, when the Missouri Compromise was repealed, Mr. Morton was one of the vast army

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who left the Democratic party and united to stem the tide of slavery aggression, and he became the leader of the new party in his section of the State. He attended the Pittsburgh Convention in 1856, and actively participated in its discussions. On the first of May of that year the new party met at Indianap- olis to nominate a State ticket. Mr. Morton was elected unanimously to head the ticket. His oppo- nent was Hon. A. P. Willard, the idol of his party, and who was regarded as the ablest stump speaker in the State. A joint canvass was arranged, and the champion of the new party soon proved himself more than a match for his opponent in debate. His strong, logical arguments utterly drove his antagonist from all his defenses. The election resulted in favor of the Democrats, and Mr. Morton thought his polit- ical career was ended. The Republican party grew very rapidly between 1856 and 1860. In the latter year he accepted the second place on the ticket with HIon. Henry S. Lane as its head. He threw himself . heart and soul into the canvass, and was everywhere recognized as the most powerful debater in either party. This time bis party was successful.

The anticipated election of Mr. Lincelo as Presi- dent had bronght about threats of secession, and his success was no sooner heralded than South Carolina made haste to take herself, as she thought, out of the Union. It was a critical time. All hearts feared the Union was gone. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be that there was no remedy for secession. The Democrats held that there was no power to coerce a State, and the leading Republicans were advocating that the "wayward sister" should be permitted to de- part in peace. There were stormy forebodings on all sides. The idea of civil war was abhorrent, yet the loyal people did not like the idea of having the Union dismembered. In the midst of this general gloom there came a lightning flash which electrified the North and startled the South. On the 22d of No- vember a monster meeting was held in Indianapolis to ratify the election of Lincoln. The newly-elected Governor Lane and others spoke. Their speeches were of a eoneiliatory nature. At length Lieutenant- Governor Morton arose, and in his very first words the vast audience saw that the man had come with

the hour. There was no uncertainty with him. He at the very outset announced that if the issue was to be disunion and war, he was for war. It was a mo- mentous occasion, and he felt that he was speaking for the Republican party, and not alone for it, but for the whole leyal element of the country, and his measured words fell upon the air like the notes of a bugle calling men to action. He discussed the right of secession and the power to cocree, and gave to the aets of South Carolinians an interpretation none be- fore had been clear-sighted enough to see. On coer- cion he said,-

" What is coercion but the enforcement of the law? Is any- thing else intended or required? Secession or nullification can only be regarded by the general government as individual action upon individual responsibility. Those concerned in it cannot intrench themselves behind the forms of the State gov- ernment so as to give their conduct the semblance of legality, and thus devolve the responsibility upon the State government, which of itself is irresponsible. The Constitution and laws of the United States operate upon individuals, but not upon States, and precisely as if there were no States. In this matter the President has no discretion. He has taken a solemn oath to enforce the laws and preserve order, and to this end he has been made commander-in-chief of the army and navy. How can he be absolved from responsibility thus devolved upon him by the Constitution and his official oath ?"

He demonstrated that there was no right of seces- sion belonging to the States; that they were parts of a whole and could not dissolve the connection, and that if they attempted to dissolve the Union force must be employed. He said, --

"The right of secession conceded, the nation is dissolved. Instead of having a nation, one mighty people, we have but a collection and combination of thirty-three independent and petty States, held together by a treaty which has hitherto beeu called a Constitution, of the iofraction of which each State is to be the judge, and from which any State may withdraw at pleasure. . . . The right of secession conceded, and the way to do it having been shown to be safe and easy, the prestige of the Republic gone, the national pride extinguished with the na- tional idea, secession would become the remedy for every Stato or sectional grievance, real or imaginary. .. . If South Caro- lina gets out of the Union, I trust it will be at the point of the bayonet, after our best efforts have failed to compel her to sub- mission to the laws. Better concede her independence to force, to revolution, than to right and principle. Such a concession cannot be drawn into precedent and construed into an admis- sion that we are but a combination of petty States, any one of which has a right to secede and set up for herself whenever it

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snits her temper or views of peculiar interest. Such a cootest, let it terminate as it may, would be a declaration to the other States of the only terms upon which they would be permitted to withdraw from the Union. . . . Shall we now surrender the nation without a struggle, and let the Unioa go with merely a few hard words ? If it was worth a bloody struggle to establish this nation, it is worth one to preserve it, and I trust that we shall not, by surrendering with indecent haste, publish to the world that the inheritanco our fathers purchased with their blood we have given up to save ours."

In concluding, he struck the key-note of the whole in declaring and emphasizing that we are a nation and not a combination of States. Upon this point he said,-

"We must, then, cling to the idea that we are a nation, ono and indivisible, and that, although subdivided by State lines for local and domestic purposes, we are but one people, the citizens of a common eonatry, having like institutions and mannors, and possessing a common interest in that inheritance of glory so richly provided by our fathers. We must, therefore, do no act, we must tolerate no act, we must concede no idea or theory that looks to or involves the dismemberment of the nation. . . . Seven years is but a day in the lifo of a nation, and I would rather come out of a struggle at the end of that time, defeated in arms and conceding independence to success- ful revolution, than to purchase present peace by the concession of a principle that must inovitably explode this nation into small and dishoncred fragments. . . . The whole question is summed up in this proposition : 'Are we one nation, one peo- ple, or thirty-three nations, or thirty-three independent and petty States ?' The statement of the proposition furnishes the answer. If we are one nation, then no State has a right to secede. Secession can only be the result of successful revolu- tioa. I answer the question for you, and I know that my answer will find a true response in every true American heart, that we are one people, one nation, undivided and indivisible."

This was the first time that resistance upon the part of the North had been advocated: It touched the popular chord everywhere. From that time on there was no hesitancy upon the part of the loyal masses. Mr. Lincoln, when he read it, said that "it covers the whole ground, and declares the policy of the government." That speech made . Mr. Morton a leader in national politics.

On the 14th day of January, 1861, he took the oath of office as president of the Senate. Two days afterward Governor Lane resigned to take his seat in the United States Senate, and Mr. Morton became Governor of the State. The history of his adminis- tration of the affairs of the State for six years has

become the foundation-stone of his fame. He every- where became known as the great War Governor. When the war came in April, as he had been the first to predict that it would come, and the first to crystallize the loyal sentiment of the North, so he was the first to respond to the call of the President for troops. At his word Indiana sprang to arms, and thousands of her loyal sons answered the call of the President for six regiments. Here was a chance for his wonderful executive ability. Indiana, like the other Northern States, was unprepared for war. She had but few men in her borders who were possessed of any military training. Volunteers were plenty, but how to arm and equip them was the trouble. Governor Morton was equal to the emer- geney. He grasped the situation at a glance, and seemed to be everywhere present, stirring and ani- mating the citizens, bringing order out of chaos, and reducing all to a system, so that in comparatively few days Indiana was a vast military camp, and troops were ready for the field. An agent was sent to the leading manufacturers of the East and Canada to purchase arms. He gave but few hours to sleep in those days, but wore out his secretarics in continuous labors. During the four years of the war this intense strain was continued. A large number of the people of his State were opposed to the war, and thousands of them actively sympathized with the Rebellion. These things added to his labors. He was . the youngest of all the loyal Governors, but so mani- fest was his ability, so lofty his patriotism, so hope- ful was he in the darkest hours, that all turned to him for counsel. President Lincoln and his great war secretary trusted him and leancd upon him as they did upon no one else. He was often consulted by the generals in the field, especially those in the West, in regard to the movements of the army, and he was always the first one appealed to for help and reinforcements. No such appcal was ever made in vain. Of the high opinion entertained of him and his labors by the members of Mr. Lincoln's eabinet, the following extract from a letter written by Hon. S. P. Chase to Governor Morten in 1865, will evi- dence. Mr. Chase wrote him a letter stating that, in a conversation with Secretary Stanton the night

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before, "we naturally, turning our minds to the past, fell to talking of you. We agreed that no Governor rendered such services, or displayed such courage or more ability in administration ; and we agreed that your recent services were most meritor- ious of all, because rendered under circumstances of greatest personal risk of health and life, and which would have been by almost any man regarded, and by all accepted, as good reasons for total inaction. I have seldom heard Stanton express himself so warmly."

As we said before, the war found the North nopre- pared. In the autumn of 1861 he found that the general government would be unable to supply the men with overcoats in time to prevent suffering from the cold. He went to New York and purchased twenty-nine thousand overcoats for the use of the Indiana troops. The soldiers were his first care. To relieve the sick and wounded he organized a sani- tary commission, which afterwards was adopted by the other States. To show his deep interest in the soldiers, and the care he took of their interests, it may be mentioned that during the siege of Vieks- burg, when the army hospitals were full of siek and wounded, he applied to the Secretary of War for per- mission to remove the Indiana sick and wounded to the North. The secretary declined to grant the per- mission. Governor Morton declared his intention to take the matter before the President. He did so, and the result was a general order permitting not only Indiana, but any other State to remove the siek and wounded and care for them. Under the system of relief inaugurated by him, Indiana collected and disbursed over six hundred thousand dollars in money and supplies.

In this short sketch we can do no more than glanee at his work as Governor. In 1862 the Den- ocrats elected a Legislature hostile to the war, and efforts were made to cripple the Governor in the dis- charge of his duties. They refused to make appro- priations to carry on the State government and to meet the interest on the public debt. Governor Morton was undismayed. Ile went to New York, and through the banking firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co., and some of the counties of the State and a few

of the patriotie citizens, arranged for money for the use of the State. He established a financial bureau without authority of law, and' in one year and nine months he raised and paid out over a million of dol- lars. Every dollar of this was paid out upon his own check, and not a dollar was lost or misappropriated.

His extraordinary activity was well demonstrated in 1862, during the invasion of Kentucky by Gens. Bragg and Kirby Smith. These two aetive rebel gen- erals had slipped around Gen. Buell and invaded Kentucky, threatening both Louisville and Cinein- nati. On the 17th of August, late at night, he re- ceived a telegramı that Kentucky had been invaded at several points. Before night of the 18th one regiment was mustered in, armed, and started for the seene of action. During the night of the 18th four more regiments were forwarded. On the morning of the 19th some of the patriotic banks and citizens advanced half a million dollars, and during the day and night four more regiments were paid and sent forward. By the 31st of August more than thirty thousand troops had been armed and sent to the relief of Kentucky. All this time the arsenal of the State was employed day and night in the manufacture of ammunition, making three hundred thousand rounds daily, and all the river towns of the State were oceu- pied by the State militia. Ohio as well as Kentneky wanted help. Cincinnati was threatened. Governor Morton was called upon, and Indiana troops rushed to the defense of her sister State. Ammunition was wanted for the heavy guns being placed in position. The mayor of Cincinnati and Committee of Defense telegraphed to Columbus for a supply. They were instructed to make out a requisition in due form and have it approved by the commanding officer, and for- ward it, and the ammunition would be supplied. They then applied to Governor Morton. No requi- sition was asked for, but the telegraph flashed baek the answer that in an hour a train would start ; and the train did so, bearing about four thousand rounds for artillery and seven hundred and twenty thousand rounds for small-arms. In eight days Indiana sup- plied thirty-three thousand rounds for artillery and three million three hundred and sixty-five thousand for small-arms, the entire amount having been made

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at the State arsenal. For his services the Cincinnati Common Couneil ordered his portrait painted and placed in the City Hall, which was done with impos- ing ceremonies.

In 1864, in the midst of a heated Presidential canvass, the exposure eame of the organization known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, or Sons of Lib- erty. This organization numbered fifty thousand members in the State, and an uprising was planned. Governor Morton had possessed himself of all their secrets, and before they knew that they were even suspected he dealt them a terrible blow and crushed them. He ordered the arrest of the prominent leaders of the movement, and so alarmed were the members to find that their plots were known, and that they were in the power of a man whose hatred of treason was so intense, and who was so unrelenting in his efforts to crush all disloyalty, that dismay seized upon them and they stood bewildered, not knowing what to expect. The trial and conviction of the leaders is a part of the general history of the country.

Governor Morton was triumphantly elected to the office of Governor in 1864, and the people placed a loyal Legislature to help him. It was the grandest political triumph ever achieved in this State. He entered upon the new term filled with the same ardor, the same resistless energy, the same tireless activity. But the war soon closed. It brought no relief to him from labor. But now came his greatest trial. His labors had been incessant for more than four years, the strain upon his nervous system had been intense, and he was now to pay the penalty. One morning in 1865 he awoke to find that paralysis had seized upon his left leg. This leg had been injured by a fall, and the disease struck the weakest spot. Overwork had stricken him down in the noon- tide of his power, and just as he saw his fame ripen- ing. He was advised to go to Europe and place him- himself under medical treatment. He convoked the Legislature in extra session. It assembled on the 14th of November, when he read a message which surpassed all his others in the comprehensive manner with which it treated of State and national policy. He concluded it with the following eloquent tribute to the American soldier :

" The war has established npon imperishable foundations the great fundamental truth of the unity and indivisibility of the nation. We are many States but one people, having one undi- vided sovereignty, one flag, and one common destiny. It has also established, to be confessed by all tho world, the exalted character of the American soldier, his matchless valor, bis self- sacrificing patriotism, his capacity to endure fatiguos and bardships, and his humanity, which, in the midst of carnage, has wreathed his victorious achievements with a brighter glory. He has taught the world a lesson before which it stands in amazement, how, when the storm of battle had passed, he could lay aside his arms, put off the habiliments of war, and return with cheerfulness to the gentle pursuits of peace, and show how the bravost of soldiers conld become the best of citizens. To the army and navy, under the favor of Providence, we owo the preservation of our country, and the fact that we have to- day a place, and tho proudest place, among the nations. Let it not be said of ns, as it was said in olden time, 'that Repnblics are ungrateful.' Let us honor the dead, cherish the living, and preserve in immortal memory the deeds and virtues of all, as an inspiration for conntless generations to come."

The parting seene was of the most affecting char- aeter. Party lines were forgotten ; all recognized tlie great services rendered by the striekeu man, and all joined in words of commendation and sympathy. Few States, few Legislatures, if any, ever witnessed such a scene. None who were present will ever forget it. It was a sublime as well as touching spectaele.

Early in December he sailed from New York, and spent some time in Franec, Italy, and Switzerland, but received little or no benefit from either travel or treatment, and in Mareh, 1866, he returned. He gave himself no rest, but at once commenced the preparations for the political campaign of that year. He opened the campaign in a speech at Masonie Hall, which has been pronounced the greatest political speeel ever made in America. It seemed as if he had determined to crush his political opponents at the outset of the campaign and render them powerless. He employed all of his wonderful powers of logic to arraign his opponents at the bar of public opinion for what.he considered their political failures. The speech not only served as a basis for the platform of his party, but for all other speeches during the eam- paign. It lashed his enemies to fury, but it aroused his party to the very highest pitch of enthusiasm.

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History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Part 34

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 942

Author: Sulgrove, Berry R. (Berry Robinson), 1828-1890
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 942