USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 30
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committee of investigation ; but the most important re- sult of it was a sharp attack on Jennings by the editor of the Vincennes "Sun," who said that "Governor Harrison will live in the grateful recollection of the people of this Territory when his puny and contemp- tible slanderers will be thought of only to be scorned." 1
As against these charges, better evidence than verdicts or reports of committees is found in the universal confi- dence which the Indians had in him. Situated, as he was, among French settlers who had long been on terms of intimate friendship with the Indians, and watched by enemies who were ready to magnify his least inadver- tence into a crime, it was impossible that he should have defrauded the red men and still been trusted by them. In this connection it may be added that no man in public life ever had so many serious charges preferred against his honesty, and came forth from his trials so fully vindicated by his judges and by the people, as did William Henry Harrison. (His private life had its blots, but his public record was remarkably clean. That he was not a great man his political friends conceded, but that he was an honest man was never seriously ques- tioned by his political enemies after he had been heard in his own defense.
There was one peculiarity of Harrison's character that might almost class him as a monomaniac. It was his reverence for the republics of Greece and Rome. He thought about them, talked about them, and wrote about them continually, and if he dreamed at all he must have dreamed of them. ) In the first days of our republic, the attention of statesmen was naturally directed to these republics in the search for experience by which to guide
1 Western Sun, April 20, 1816; Annals 14th Cong., p. 1273.
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THE ARISTOCRATS AND THE PEOPLE.
our steps; and although our government was in fact modeled after that of England, the hostility of the people to that nation caused it to be based professedly on the lines of the old republics. On this account, and because the style of polite writing then in vogue naturally fol- lowed that of the British writers of preceding years in its wealth of classic allusion, the early literature of all kinds in America had a very strong flavor of the antique ; but Harrison surpassed all of his contemporaries in this idiosyncrasy. ( In his state papers, if Leonidas, Epami- nondas, and Lycurgus escaped, Cincinnatus, Scipio, or the Gracchi were sure to be taken in the net. As a rule, this craze was only an amusing personal characteristic. It was of no special moment that Daniel Webster should have found it necessary to kill " seventeen Roman pro- consuls as dead as smelts " in Harrison's inaugural ad- dress,1 or that the Whig managers should have been put to some trouble to find a suitable horse to carry the ven- erable President-elect to his inaugural, in imitation of the Roman consuls.2 But his admiration of the ancients carried him farther, and while governor he exerted himself to graft portions of the old republican systems on Indiana Territory. In his celebrated letter on the militia system, addressed to Governor Scott of Kentucky, he declares that " professorships of tactics should be established in all our seminaries, and even the amuse- ments of the children should resemble those of the an- cient gymnasia, that they may grow up in the practice of those exercises which will enable them to bear with ease the duty of the camp and the labours of the field." 8
1 Harvey's Reminiscences of Webster, pp. 160-163.
2 I had this from the late Maj. Ben. Perley Poore, the accred- ited custodian of Washington anecdote.
3 Dawson's Harrison, p. 123.
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In his message of November, 1810, to the legislature, he proposed that military instruction be made a prominent feature in the public schools. He said : "Let the mas- ters of the inferior schools be obliged to qualify them- selves, and instruct their pupils in the military evolu- tions, whilst the university, in addition to those exercises, may have attached to it a professorship of tactics, in which all the sciences connected with the art of war may be taught." 1
That such a system might be advantageous to a nation that was often involved in war is possibly true; cer- tainly it were much to be preferred to the maintenance of standing armies. For this reason the project seemed not out of place in a frontier territory where war might come at any time ; but with us that period was of neces- sity limited, and when the exigence of self-defense is re- moved a universal military education has no harmony with our theories of government. The government of the United States was not formed for purposes of con- quest, but to secure the blessings of peace to its people, and a universal preparation for war cannot be included among these. No people has realized as we have that the glory and profit of war go to the few, its hardships and sufferings to the many, and yet we have not been found lacking in military ardor when war was inevitable. When we have felt it necessary to draw the sword, we have made its arbitrament final. We have not sheathed it until the dispute which brought it forth had been settled forever. Thus, in time of war we have prepared for peace - for lasting peace.
1 Dawson's Harrison, p. 171.
CHAPTER XII.
THE EMANCIPATION.
GOVERNOR POSEY, like Harrison, was a Virginian and a soldier. He was born on July 9, 1750; served as a private in Dunmore's war ; entered the Revolution- ary army as a captain, and earned his way to a colonelcy by the close of the war ; and capped his early military career by creditable service, under Wayne, against the Indians in Georgia and at the Maumee. He desired to settle in Northwest Territory, but, after the legislature of 1799 had refused permission to bring slaves into the Virginia bounty lands, he located in Kentucky, where he was elected to the state senate and chosen speaker of that body - ex-officio lieutenant-governor. When troops were called for in 1809, in anticipation of hostili- ties with France and England, Posey was commissioned major-general of the Kentucky levies, but war did not come, and the forces were disbanded. Soon afterwards he removed to Louisiana, where, in 1812, Governor Claiborne appointed him to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of John N. Destrihan. At the next meeting of the Louisiana legis- lature another senator was elected, and, before his suc- cessor reached Washington, Posey was appointed to the governorship of Indiana by President Madison. At this time Posey was almost sixty-three years of age, and was somewhat broken in health.
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With his Virginia training, his military life, his polit- ical experience, and his social culture, it was only natural that the personal friends of General Harrison became Posey's personal friends ; and in equally natural sequence he fell heir to Harrison's political estate as well as to his office, though he was not much of a politician. The political parties of Indiana remained as they had been since the separation from Illinois, with no material issues beyond those that grew from local interests and party strife, except the decision of the slavery contro- versy, which, by the proposal of the Springville meeting and the tacit acquiescence of Congress, would occur on the adoption of a constitution for state government. Jennings held his forces in line on this basis with but little trouble, and the opposition were able to bring for- ward no man who could defeat him. For the congres- sional election of 1814 they supported Judge Elijah Sparks of Dearborn, a native of Virginia, who had been a Methodist preacher until thirty years of age and then entered upon the practice of law. He was a good citizen and a man of reputable attainments, but it was child's play for Jennings to beat him, for the immigration to the Territory was constantly adding strength to his party.
The anti-slavery party also continued to control the legislature, and through it, as well as through their con- gressional influence, they prepared for the final struggle. It may be that they gave more attention to the slavery question than there was need for; it is quite possible that they may have given it some of its prominence for political effect ; but at any rate they maintained that eternal vigilance which is the price of liberty, and left no preparation unmade which might secure a free soil
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THE EMANCIPATION.
to themselves and to their posterity. At the session of 1815 a petition was adopted asking Congress for an enabling act. It was accompanied by an official census which showed the thirteen counties of the Territory to have a free, white, male population of 63,897. Em- bodied in the memorial was this clause : " And whereas the inhabitants of this Territory are principally composed of emigrants from every part of the Union, and as vari- ous in their customs and sentiments as in their persons, we think it prudent, at this time, to express to the general government our attachment to the fundamental principles of legislation prescribed by Congress in their Ordinance for the government of this Territory, particu- larly as respects personal freedom and involuntary servi- tude, and hope they may be continued as the basis of the constitution." 1 This memorial was presented to Congress on December 28, 1815, by Mr. Jennings, and was referred to a committee of which he was made chairman. He reported a bill in accordance with the prayer of the petition, which, after some amendment, was passed and became a law on April 19, 1816. The act provided for the election on May 13, 1816, of forty- three delegates, as apportioned in the memorial of the legislature, who were to meet in convention and decide whether it were expedient to form a state government; if so, they were empowered to form a constitution them- selves, or to provide for an election of representatives who should form a constitution. There was not to be any submission of their work to the people for approval ; it was to stand as they had left it, " Provided, That the same, whenever formed, shall be republican, and not re- pugnant to those articles of the ordinance of the thir-
1 Dillon, p. 555.
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teenth of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, which are declared to be irrevocable between the original states and the people and states of the territory northwest of the river Ohio."
This law reached Indiana only in time for notice of the election to be given on May 2, eleven days before it occurred, but the preliminary discussions had been going on for some time, in anticipation of the passage of the bill. There was more warmth than usual in the canvass, principally over the slavery question, which was forced as an issue by the anti-slavery people. The opposition politicians tried to turn the contest to other grounds. They attacked Jennings for voting for the donation of lands to Canadian refugees ; giving our "choicest lands " to these people, while our own " virtuous citizens " (i. e. squatters) had been ordered off the national property by Madison, and Jennings had not even protested. Still worse, he had attended a caucus at Washington for the nomination of a President of the United States, " thus influencing improperly the free and unbiased voice of the people on that important subject." 1 That sounds oddly in these days of slavery to party, when staying out of a caucus is a political felony ; but the fault is ours, not theirs. Our ancestors were wiser than we in some things, and this was one of them. Nothing has done so much to repress that independence of thought and ad- herence to principle that once made men Americans as the degraded partyism of modern times. Already have we reached a point where thousands of men, their moral vision blurred by party feeling, condone actual crimes committed in the supposed service of party. How more pitiful, how very pitiful, to see men, who otherwise are
1 Western Sun, April 20, 1816.
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THE EMANCIPATION.
honest, crouch beneath the party whip and prostitute their talents to the advocacy of measures which they believe to be wrong, or to opposing measures which they believe to be right !
The charges against Jennings fell on dull ears, for party lines had become strong in the Territory. The people were interested in a great question, and would hear of nothing else. Early in February, Moses Wiley had sounded the alarm by an article in our Vincennes newspaper, in which he said : " If slaves are admitted, the pernicious tendency is too obvious to dwell on ; par- tial admission is but little better. I have no doubt but you, my fellow-citizens, are all on your watch; if not, rise and look out ! Now is the time ! I am for not ad- mitting the principle on no grounds whatever." 1 With almost equal disregard for the health of our language, " A Citizen of Gibson " labored on the other side, main- taining that the betterment of the condition of the ne- groes was the only point entitled to consideration, and on that ground favoring their introduction. Said he : " Let the people maturely consider this question abstract- edly, and let them say and instruct their conventionalists to say, whether the corn of Indiana would or would not be more nourishing and palatable to the poor negro than the cotton-seed of South Carolina or Georgia." 2 In reply to this, " Another Citizen of Gibson " took the posi- tion that the only question was, " Would it be good policy to admit slavery into the new intended state or would it not? Would it make us more wealthy and happy as a state, or would it not ?" $ On this sound basis he built
1 Western Sun, February 3, 1816.
2 Ibid., March 2, 1816.
8 Ibid., March 30, 1816.
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an able argument for its exclusion, to which no answer was attempted in the "Sun," and yet it had little con- vincing power with the pro-slavery men of the western counties, for both Knox and Gibson elected pro-slavery delegates.
The controversy was more heated in the eastern coun- ties, where the free-soil men seemed in continual fear that their adversaries would take some turn by which slavery would be fastened on the state. The settlers there had no newspapers, but they were all able to talk ; and they argued the question in all its phases. Mr. Timothy Flint, who traveled through this section of the Territory just at this time, says : "The population was very far from being in a state of mind, of sentiment, and affectionate mutual confidence, favourable to commenc- ing their lonely condition in the woods in harmonious intercourse. They were forming a state government. The question in all its magnitude, whether it should be a slave-holding state or not, was just now agitating. I was often compelled to hear the question debated by those in opposite interests, with no small degree of as- perity. Many fierce spirits talked, as the clamorous and passionate are accustomed to talk in such cases, about opposition and 'resistance unto blood.' But the pre- ponderance of more sober and reflecting views, those habits of order and quietness, that aversion to shedding blood, which so generally and so honorably appertain to the American character and institutions, operated in these wildernesses, among these inflamed and bitter spirits, with all their positiveness, ignorance, and clash- ing feeling, and with all their destitution of courts and the regular course of settled laws, to keep them from
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open violence. The question was not long after finally settled in peace." 1
The election of May 13 passed off quietly, but its result was awaited with anxiety. From the first, the returns indicated an anti-slavery victory, and tliese indi- cations were received joyfully in the eastern counties, as also in western Ohio, whose settlers were closely united in sympathy with those along our eastern line. The next issue of the "Western Spy " said : "A gentleman of respectability from Indiana informs us that from the sentiments of the members elected to the convention, as far as they are known, he has no doubt that a constitu- tion will be formed which will exclude involuntary slav- ery from that rising state. We sincerely hope this ex- pectation will be realized." 2 The pro-slavery people felt that they were defeated, but were not disposed to concede it while there was any chance of escape, and there was one such chance that they thought worth try- ing. On June 1, the " Sun " issued an extra, urging that a state government should not be formed, on the grounds that there would be a greatly increased expense of gov- ernment and a great loss of taxes, the latter on account of a provision in the enabling act that lands sold by the national government should not be taxable for five years after sale. It was too late in the day for a proposition of that kind. They could not even hold their own party to it.
On June 10 the convention assembled at Corydon, in Harrison County, whither the seat of government had been removed under an act of March 11, 1813. It could hardly be said that the convention was composed of great
1 Recollections of the Last Ten Years, p. 57.
2 Quoted in Liberty Hall, May 27, 1816.
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men, though there were some master minds gathered there ; nor was it necessary that it should be. In 1816, the paths of the Constitution-making were well defined and plainly marked; and with any set of delegates there would have been a selection of the same general outline of government, with some slight differences of detail, except as to slavery and a few points of local concern. The majority of the members were frontier farmers, who had a general idea of what they wanted, and had sense enough to let their more erudite col- leagues put it in shape. Wayne County was represented by Joseph Holman, of Log Convention fame ; Hugh Cull, the pioneer Methodist preacher ; Jeremiah Cox and Pat- rick Baird. The most able member from Franklin was James Noble, who was senator from Indiana from 1816 to 1831, dying in the middle of his third term. With him were Robert Hanna, who filled a part of Noble's unexpired term as senator in 1831-1832, Enoch Mc- Carty, James Brownlee, and William H. Eads. From Dearborn came our old acquaintances James Dill and Solomon Manwaring, and with them was Dr. Ezra Fer- ris, a sturdy Baptist elder, who spent his life fighting disease and Democracy through the week and Campbell- ism and the Devil on Sundays. Switzerland County was represented by William Cotton ; Jefferson, by David H. Maxwell, Samuel Smock, and Nathaniel Hunt. Jona- than Jennings headed the Clark County delegation ; the other members were James Scott, one of the first judges of the supreme court, Thomas Carr, John K. Graham, and James Lemon. The leading member from Harrison County was Dennis Pennington, a man of little culture but of strong mind, who was for many years the most influential politician of that county, and represented it
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THE EMANCIPATION.
for several terms in the state and territorial legislatures. Davis Floyd was a delegate from the same county ; also Daniel C. Lane, John Boone, and Patrick Shields. At the head of the Washington County delegation was John De Pauw, an attorney, a son of the Charles De Pauw who came over with Lafayette to aid us in the Revolu- tion. His colleagues were Samuel Milroy, Robert Mc- · Intire, William Lowe, and William Graham. The Knox County delegation was the strongest of all in ability, and though it was in a hopeless minority on the party ques- tions that divided the convention, it did a large part of the convention work and was entitled to much of the credit for the result. It was composed of John John- son, John Badollet, William Polke, Benjamin Parke, and John Benefield. The more important men from Gibson were David Robb and Alexander Devin. With them were James Smith and Frederick (Reichart) Rapp, an adopted son of George Rapp, the founder of the Society of Harmonists. The remaining members were Daniel Grass of Warrick, Charles Polke of Perry, and Dann Lynn of Posey.
The convention organized by electing Jonathan Jen- nings president, and William Hendricks secretary. The latter was a Pennsylvanian who had settled in Madison two years earlier. The next business of the convention, under the enabling act, was to decide whether a consti- tution should be formed ; and if so, whether they should form it or provide for another convention. A resolution
1 He was the first representative of the State in the lower house of Congress, serving for three terms in that capacity. In 1822, at the close of his third term, he was elected governor of the State, receiving all the votes cast, 18,340 in number. From this office he was elected to the national senate in 1825, and served there for two terms.
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to proceed to the formation of a Constitution was offered on the first day, but on motion of John Johnson its con- sideration was postponed to the next day, when a vote was taken and only eight members were found opposed to proceeding. Committees were then appointed to pre- pare the various parts of the Constitution, and the first week was consumed in their work. During this time, on the 13th, a petition was received from citizens of Wayne, asking that "constitutional provisions may be made effectually to prohibit the introduction of slavery and involuntary servitude into the state about to be formed ; also, that the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, may in times of peace be exempted from bearing arms." It was referred to the appropriate committees.
On the 20th the convention first came to a vote in- volving the slavery question, in considering the mode of amending the Constitution, the article for which hap- pened to be taken up before much of the instrument had been formed. This article provided that at inter- vals of twelve years the Constitution might be revised if a majority of the people voted for a revising convention, and the succeeding legislature, by a majority of both houses, provided for it by law; " But, as the holding any part of the human creation in slavery, or involun- tary servitude, can only originate in usurpation and tyranny, no alteration of this constitution shall ever take place so as to introduce slavery or involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed." John Johnson moved to amend this by substi- tuting for the words "no alteration of this Constitution shall ever take place," the words, " it is the opinion of
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THE EMANCIPATION.
this convention that no alteration of this Constitution ought ever to take place." No more excellent position could have been found for a stand by the pro-slavery party, for the article as reported was in fact only an ex- pression of opinion, and could not bind a future consti- tutional convention. Nevertheless the anti-slavery men were determined to put the appearance of an eternal quietus on the slavery question by as strong an expres- sion of their opinion as possible. The yeas and nays were called for by Mr. Dill. All the members from Gibson, all from Knox except Benefield, Dill of Dear- born, Scott and Lemon of Clark, Lane of Harrison, and Lynn of Posey, a total of only thirteen, voted for the amendment ; and, small as this vote was, the yeas of the Clark County members at least must be credited to an objection to a futile attempt to bind subsequent conven- tions, and not to any pro-slavery sentiment. Johnson then moved to strike out the words " involuntary servi- tude " where they occurred in the article, thus making a distinction between ordinary slavery and that of the indenture system, but the negative was so decisive that no division was taken. No further amendment being attempted, the article went into the Constitution as re- ported from the committee.1
The subject of slavery in general was within the pro- vince of the Committee on General Provisions, which was composed of Messrs. Maxwell, De Pauw, Scott, Robb, and Baird. On the 21st, Mr. Maxwell, of this committee, reported their work, which included the fol- lowing: "Sec. 7. There shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude, in this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have
1 Const. of 1816, Art. 8; Conv. Journal, pp. 38, 39.
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been duly convicted ; [nor shall any male person, arrived at the age of twenty-one years, nor female person, ar- rived at the age of eighteen years, be held to serve any person as a servant under pretence of indenture or other- wise, unless such person shall enter into such indenture while in a state of perfect freedom, and on condition of a bonû fide consideration received, or to be received, for his or her service, except as before excepted :] Nor shall any indenture of any negro, or mulatto, hereafter made and executed out of the bounds of this state, be of any validity with the state ; [neither shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto, hereafter made within the state, be of the least validity except in the case of apprentice- ships. } " 1 On the 24th the convention went into com- mittee of the whole on this report, and here they were confronted by a question of consistency. The portion of the section preceding the first bracket put slavery and involuntary servitude on the same basis in the State that they had in the Territory, except that there was in the Constitution no reservation of rights to the ancient in- habitants which could be construed to preserve their slaves to them, as there had been in the Ordinance. Under the provision as it stood in the Ordinance, the anti-slavery men had always contended tliat the inden- ture law was unconstitutional, and therefore if they now added to it a special clause prohibiting indentures they would be conceding that the slavery article of the Ordi- nance did not of itself have the effect which they had continuously claimed for it. Moreover, by excepting apprenticeship and other service under voluntary con- tract from this additional provision, they made the in- consistency greater, for these were clearly neither slav-
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