USA > Indiana > Public men of Indiana : a political history, 1890-1920, v. 2 > Part 5
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growing out of an insurrection in that republic in the course of which the American minister to that country had opened his house as a place of refuge for some of the participants in the insurrection and the people of Chile resented his act and attacked a party of American seamen in the streets of Valparaiso for which the American Government immediately called the Chilean Government to account, and war was for a short time threatened with that country but was averted by its sending a conciliatory note to America with an expression of regret of the occurrences.
The relations between the United States and Italy were also for a time strained during the Har- rison administration because a mob in New Orleans broke into a jail and killed a number of Italians who had been accused of pillaging the city. Italy sent its protest to Washington against the action of the mob and demanded reparation, at the same time recalling the Italian minister from the United States. The American Government deemed it expedient to disclaim responsibility for the action of the mob and to give something in the way of reparation to the families of the Italians that had been killed.
President Harrison appointed his law partner, William Henry Harrison Miller, as Attorney General of the United States. On an occasion of the President's absence from Washington for a few days, word came to the Department of Justice that David S. Terry, a noted character of California, who had killed a man in a duel and was known to
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be a reckless and dangerous citizen, was threatening to kill Justice Field of the Supreme Court of the United States if he attempted to preside at a term of the Federal Court to be holden in the State. Attor- ney General Miller conceived the idea that it was his duty as the head of the Department of Justice to give Judge Field all the protection possible and he instructed the United States Marshal of Cali- fornia to provide a special bodyguard for that pur- pose. The predicted and threatened assault took place and the Deputy United States Marshal, specially charged with the duty of protecting Jus- tice Field, killed Terry, and a California court charged him with murder, but he was released under a writ of habeas corpus by Justice Sawyer of the United States Circuit Court. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and the decision of Justice Sawyer was affirmed. When the case came up for hearing in the Supreme Court Attorney General Miller appeared in person to defend the action of the Department of Justice in protecting a judge in the performance of his duties. President Harrison at first was inclined to fear that his attorney general had exceeded his constitutional powers, but finally concluded he had not. The Supreme Court sus- tained the course of the Attorney General through- out and the case has often since been cited to up- hold the power of the nation in the exercise of its supreme authority.
There were also some complications and differ- ences over the seal fisheries in Behring Sea that
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were adjusted with England during his adminis- tration. Of greater importance than any other of the diplomatic affairs was the proposed annexation of Hawaii and a treaty providing for it was nego- tiated by him and sent to the Senate a short time before his term expired but not acted upon, and later, in 1898, the islands were annexed by joint resolution of both houses of Congress. The sub- jects of the annexation of Cuba to the United States and of intervention to protect oppressed Cubans by Spain were agitated during his term, but while they were not the subjects of any administra- tion action while he was president, he entertained positive opinions upon the subject to which he gave utterance after his term expired. One of his inti- mate personal friends, Mr. Augustus Lynch Mason, of Indianapolis, recalled an interview he had with him upon this subject and is authority for this statement:
"Upon being asked why he held it was our duty to intervene in Cuba and whether he would also consider it our national duty to interfere with force in behalf of the oppressed in every part of the world, he answered: 'Our duty toward Cuba exists because Cuba is our near neighbor, at our doorstep. If you sit by your fireside and read of a drunken man assaulting his family in some distant state you are under no duty to go to their help, but if word be brought to you that your next door neighbor is murdering his wife and children you are under the strongest moral compulsion to go to the help of the defenseless. America cannot police the world, nor
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is it her duty, but she can see that decency and humanity exist at her very doorstep.'"
He was never lacking in words of vigor in ex- pressing his views on any subject. Many delega- tions that visited him at his home during the cam- paign in 1888 called for an expression of his views on a great variety of subjects of public and political importance and the readiness and clearness of his responses showed such great care and ability that his political opponents could not gather anything to their advantage to comment upon or that could be given a construction that would place him in an unfavorable light in the estimation of voters.
Following the close of his administration he again engaged in the law practice at Indianapolis. He always showed great tact in the management of his cases and in his colloquies with opposing counsel. On the occasion of the trial of an important will case at Richmond in which he was one of the attor- neys an attorney of the other side criticized the fact that an ex-president had been brought into the trial
for the purpose of impressing the jury. His reply was: "There is no ex-president here, but simply a member of the Indiana bar who intends to treat his opponents with courtesy and respect and to exact the same treatment from them." General Harrison died in 1901 in his sixty-eighth year.
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CHAPTER X
T THE effects of the tariff law, of which the able and popular William McKinley was the author, stimulated the Democrats to begin a vigor- ous campaign for the election of 1890. In Indiana they nominated Claude Matthews, a farmer of Vermillion County, to head their State ticket for secretary of state, and for other State offices nominated John Oscar Henderson, of Kokomo, for auditor of state; Albert Gall, of Indianapolis, for state treasurer; Alonzo Greene Smith, of North Vernon, for attorney general; Judge J. A. S. Mitchell for Supreme Court judge, and Andrew M. Sweeney for clerk of the Supreme Court.
The Republican nominees were: Milton Trussler, of Connersville, for secretary of state; Ivan N. Walker, of Indianapolis, for auditor of state; George W. Pixley for state treasurer; John W. Lovett for attorney general; Robert W. McBride for judge of the Supreme Court and William T. Noble for clerk of the Supreme Court. The Demo- cratic nominees were successful by majorities around 20,000. The Democratic candidates for Congress were successful in eleven of the congres- sional districts and the Republicans in two, so the delegation stood as follows:
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Democrats: William F. Parrett, John L. Bretz, Jason B. Brown, William S. Holman, George W. Cooper, William D. Bynum, E. V. Brookshire, David H. Patton, Augustus N. Martin, Charles A. O. McClellan and Benjamin F. Shively.
Republicans: Henry U. Johnson and Daniel Waugh. The Democrats also carried both branches of the legislature.
The most important legislation of the session that followed was a new tax law that among other things provided for a State Board of Tax Commissioners upon whom devolved, as the most important duty, that of fixing assessments upon railroads and other corporations, and of a general equalization of taxes on other classes of property. This law was vig- orously contested by railroad companies as uncon- stitutional, but its validity was sustained by both the Supreme Court of the State and the Supreme Court of the United States, and still stands, as amended in some respects, from time to time, as the law of the State. At the session of 1891 an Appel- late Court was also created consisting of five judges who were appointed by the governor to hold until the next election.
The Democrats of Indiana were sanguine of sue- cess in the contest that was to follow in 1892, but were not in agreement as to the renomination of Cleveland for President. He was in a sense idolized by a few, but the hostility to him was intense and pronounced by a great majority. The Cleveland faction were so determined that they made his nomination an issue in the choice of the convention
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for governor and proposed as their candidate John G. Shanklin, of Evansville, one of the ablest, most loyal and popular Democrats of the State, while the choice of his opponents was Claude Matthews, then secretary of state. As the balloting proceeded many personal admirers of Shanklin broke away from their anti-Cleveland associates and voted for him, but Matthews won the nomination by two- thirds of the delegate votes.
His nomination was followed by that of Mor- timer Nye, of LaPorte, for lieutenant governor, and Capt. William R. Myers, of Anderson, for secretary of state, while the other nominations for State offices went to those who had succeeded at the previous election. The entire Democratic ticket was elected by majorities of about six thousand, and Cleveland carried the State for President by about the same vote, and the congressional delegation stood as it was at the preceding election.
The Democrats also succeeded in the election of three Supreme Court judges. These were Judges Leonard J. Hackney, James McCabe, and Timothy E. Howard. Five Democrats were elected as Ap- pellate Court judges. These were George L. Reinhard, Frank E. Gavin, Theodore P. Davis, Orlando Lotz and George E. Ross.
John G. Shanklin, the choice of Cleveland's fol- lowers for governor in 1891, then delivered a great speech in response to vociferous calls for him at the old Grand Hotel, in which he declared that the great majority of the Democratic voters of the State demanded Cleveland's nomination and vig-
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orously denounced what he termed a combination of bosses who were desirous of having the conven- tion to instruct its delegates for Isaac P. Gray. They were not instructed, however, and at the National Convention William E. English, one of the delegates, made a pointed and able speech seconding Cleveland's nomination. Two years later Shanklin, who had so lauded his former administration, denounced Cleveland's second ad- ministration in unqualified terms because of its subserviency to the money powers and declared he had proved recreant to pure Democratic policies and principles.
Both the Democratic and Republican platforms of their respective parties in 1892 declared in the same words: "We favor the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country." It was Cleveland's known views in favor of the gold standard, and his message that demanded a repeal of a silver purchasing and coinage act previously passed, that caused Shanklin's denunciation, that was no more vigorous than was that of Democrats generally, and the "split" in the Democratic rank- that followed occasioned their party's dump into oblivion in the contest of 1894, and for eighteen years from that time on the Republicans had clear sailing in the nation until a division of their party occurred in 1912.
John G. Shanklin was elected secretary of state in 1878 but defeated in 1880. For many years he and his brother George W. edited and published the Evansville Courier that had a large circulation
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in Southern Indiana and Kentucky, and wielded great influence in Indiana. They were both big men in every sense, standing above six feet in height with powerful physical frames and intellects that corresponded, and with their genial personalities and intellectual force commanded at all times a loyal following in the party with which they were identified, and they stood for the public good at all times in the community of their residence and throughout the State. They were greatly devoted to each other and entered into a compact by which the one that survived the other should see that the remains of the one going first were cremated. It was on that mission that John G. made a visit to Chicago a few years ago, when he explained to the writer who then met him how the horrors of putting away the departed were lessened by the crematory process. His remains have also since been cremated as he had wished.
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CHAPTER XI
PRESIDENT Cleveland had searcely awoke from his night's slumber that followed his noisy second inauguration when a commercial panie that resembled that of 1873 swept over the country. Trade declined, money could not be borrowed on the best of security for any purpose, confidence and credit disappeared. Foreign capitalists who held American stocks and bonds hastened to dispose of them. Immense amounts of gold left the country. Over one hundred and eighty million dollars were exported that year.
Industrial enterprises were abandoned, manu- facturing plants were shut down and hundreds of thousands of laborers were idle. Municipal soup houses to feed the hungry were established in many labor centers to hand out stinted portions of soup to dependents. These conditions continued during his entire second term and the time has since been continuously pointed to by Republicans as evidence of Democratie unfitness in the management of pub- lic affairs, and the echo of "Cleveland hard times" has sounded in Democratic ears in every political campaign since.
One instance of the granite in his composition and of his executive foree that was generally ap- plauded by the friends of law and order was when,
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in 1894, over the protest of the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, he sent Federal troops to Chicago to disperse rioting mobs that were de- stroying railroad property, obstrueting commerce and menacing human life. Another was when he vigorously enforced the Monroe Doctrine by com- pelling British ships to depart from Venezuela har- bors when that republic was engaged in a conflict with another South American government.
One reason assigned for the so-called Cleveland panic was the fact that business men of this coun- try, and particularly bankers who held securities, and foreign security holders as well, feared that the United States would adopt a silver money standard that was consistent with the platforms of both political parties in 1892, and when this occurred debts would be paid in dollars, the bullion value of which was much less than the gold dollar by which at that time all debts and commodities were measured.
It was doubtless these fears that finally led to the adoption of the gold standard following the election of 1896. The adoption of the gold standard in the Republican national platform of 1896 had its effect to drive the Democrats to the other ex- treme of demanding the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one in their platform on which William Jennings Bryan was nominated following his great speech in which he exclaimed: "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold, nor press this crown of thorns on labor's brow." The great enthusiasm that
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this exclamation created, coupled with the great speeches that he made in the campaign that fol- lowed it, did not, however, make up for the lack of votes that were necessary for him to win, nor did it influence the thousands of Democrats who dissented from his views to vote for him. While the Republicans won on this issue their represen- tatives in Congress did not immediately proceed to legislate on the monetary questions but at once proceeded to enact legislation to increase tariff rates, claiming that there was a greater emergency calling for that than anything else. The adoption of the gold standard that was finally pledged by legislation did not in itself stabilize financial and currency conditions nor produce a return to pros- perity. The "hard times" of the Cleveland admin- istration continued for a number of years after- wards and so multiplied bankrupts that Congress, on the first of July, 1898, passed a National Bank- ruptcy Act that would enable them to be discharged of their debts.
Another period of financial depression occurred in 1907, during the Roosevelt administration, that was at the time termed the "bankers' panic." The banks throughout the United States for a time sus- pended the payment of money to their depositors. called in their loans, and refused credits entirely. Instead of paying money to their depositors and to supply them with fictitious funds to meet emer- gencies in living they issued "clearing house cer- tificates."
The currency disturbances that occurred in 1907
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THIS CHECK IS PAYABLE ONLY THROUGH THE CHICAGO CLEARING HOUSE AND MUST BE COLLECTED THROUGH A BANK
1
CHECK IS FOR ONE
PAYTO National Bank of the Republic,
OR BEARER
$1%
ONE AND OG
MANAGER
TO
THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Herbaltin 1
OF CHICAGO
1 ARMINTANT HECARTAAT.
THIS CHECK IS PROTECTED BY SECURITIES DEPOSITED WITH THE CHICAGO CLEARING HOUSE ASSOCIATION.
SAMPLE OF SUBSTITUTE FOR CURRENCY CIRCULATING IN CHICAGO IN NOVEMRER, 1907.
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER MIT 1907 NOA 25317 Chicago Clearing HouseAssociation
DOLLAR
and that continued to be a subject of discussion among people generally and in financial centers particularly for several years were finally settled and the country resumed its financial equilibrium in 1913, when in December Congress passed the Federal Reserve Banking Act, for which the first Wilson administration claimed the credit. The subject of its passage had been urged, however, for a number of years before his inauguration, as had the Federal Farm Loan Act, passed on July 17, 1916, and that has given great aid to agricul- tural advancement.
In 1907 the people, in their belief that hard times were approaching, began to hoard eurrency and the banks followed suit and very soon all circulable currency was exhausted. No one has yet ventured an accurate account of the causes of this panic, as business was good in all lines, and farmers and manufacturers alike were seemingly prosperous, but depreciated prices of farm products, particu- larly, followed and continued for more than a year.
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CHAPTER XII
D URING the past years when the Republican party was in the minority in the State, Charles W. Fairbanks became active in the support of its party organization and was a liberal contributor of both money and political ability, so necessary in holding party machinery in readiness for campaign emergencies, of both of which he was the possessor. IIe was a native of Ohio and a nephew of Gen. George B. Wright, president and receiver of the old I. B. and W. Railroad, who appointed him as his general attorney. He was not rated by the legal profession as a great lawyer and never got the rank of a trial lawyer, but was considered as a safe legal adviser. His position as a railroad lawyer and participant in the reorganization of railroads enabled him to make investments in rail- road stocks and securities from which he derived his wealth, without the necessity of overcoming the obstacles that the struggling young lawyer must contend with.
Before the Republication National Convention assembled at St. Louis in 1896 he was looked upon by financiers and Republicans of other states as the man in Indiana who could bring his party in that State in line for its protective tariff and gold standard principles for which it stood, and to that
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end he was selected as the temporary chairman of the convention, and upon accepting the honor gave the financiers of the country the assurances they desired, and continued thereafter until his death as one of the most prominent figures in the national Republican organization. Under his leadership the Republicans were successful in 1896 in the election of a full Republican State ticket headed by James A. Mount for governor, who defeated Benjamin F. Shively, the Democratic nominee. The legisla- ture was also Republican and Mckinley for presi- dent and Garrett A. Hobart for vice-president got the State's electoral vote. Fairbanks was elected United States senator at the legislative session of 1897, defeating William Riley Mckean, of Terre Haute, for the Republican caucus nomination. He was re-elected senator in 1903, but his nomination for vice-president on the ticket headed by Theodore Roosevelt for president in 1904 caused his resigna- tion as senator and James A. Hemenway, who had served in Congress, was elected by the legislature of 1905 to fill the vacancy. Hemenway and Albert J. Beveridge represented the State in the United States Senate while Fairbanks presided over it as vice-president.
The defeat of Mckinley for Congress in 1890 because of his tariff law did not diminish his popu- larity with his party or friends. They nominated and elected him governor of Ohio in 1891 and re- elected him in 1893 and for president in 1896.
James A. Mount, who was governor of Indiana from 1897 to 1901, was a Montgomery County
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farmer when he was elected as the successor of farmer Governor Matthews.
Matthews was ambitious for the Democratic nomination for president in 1896 and the delega- tion of his State supported him, but to no avail after Bryan's "cross of gold" speech that put all his rivals out of the race and stampeded the con- vention. Matthews was a native of Kentucky, born in Bath County in 1845, was educated in that state and graduated from Center College at Danville, Kentucky, in 1867, and settled on a farm in Ver- million County, Indiana, in 1868 with his wife, to whom he was married that year, a daughter of former Governor James Whitcomb.
In 1876 he was elected as the nominee of the Democratic party for State senator.
His service in the senate and two years as secre- tary of state was the extent of his public service before his election as governor in 1892. He died in 1898.
The Republican candidate for governor in 1892 was Rev. Ira J. Chase, who was then acting as governor in filling out the gubernatorial term of Gen. Alvin P. Hovey who had been elected in 1888.
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CHAPTER XIII
A T the election of 1894 the Republican majorities in the State averaged about fifty thousand. William D. Owen was elected secretary of state over Capt. William R. Myers. Americus C. Dailey was elected auditor of state; Frederick J. Scholz, treasurer of state; William A. Ketcham, attorney general; Alexander Hess, clerk of the Supreme Court; David M. Keeting, state superintendent of public instruction; Simeon J. Thompson, chief, Bureau of Statistics; Willis S. Blatchley, state geologist. Col. James H. Jordan and Leander J. Monks were elected judges of the Supreme Court and both re-elected six years later, and again in 1906.
Each of the thirteen congressional districts elected Republicans. These were James A. Hemenway, Alex. M. Hardy, Robert J. Trace- well, James E. Watson, Jesse Overstreet, Henry U. Johnson, Charles L. Henry, George W. Faris, J. Frank Hanley, Jethro A. Hatch, George W. Stecle, Jacob O. Leighty and Lemuel W. Royse and nine of them were elected in 1896. The Demo- crats who were elected to Congress in 1896 were Robert W. Miers, William T. Zenor, William S. Holman and James M. Robinson. Holman died before his term expired and Francis M. Griffith, of
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Vevay, Democrat, was elected at a special election to succeed him and each of these were re-elected in 1898.
James A. Mount, elected governor in 1896, was a native of Montgomery County, where he resided during his entire life, except during his temporary residence in Indianapolis while filling the office of governor, and while serving as a private volunteer soldier in the 72d Indiana Regiment from 1862 until the close of the war. Having only a com- mon school education before entering the military service, he entered a Presbyterian academy at Lebanon, Indiana, at its close, where he remained as a student for one year and applied himself closely to his studies, but for want of sufficient funds to remain longer and because of the necessity for sup- porting himself and family he resumed his occupa- tion as a farmer but kept up his studies at home and educated himself. He was so successful in his farming operations that from his labors as a tenant he saved enough to become an owner and developed one of the best farms in Montgomery County. In 1888 he was nominated and elected State senator and during his four years' term was looked upon as one of the ablest members and was a Republican leader in that body. The acquaintances he then formed came to his aid in promoting his ambition to become governor. He gave the State an eco- nomical and business-like administration and re- tired from the office with the good will and high respect of both Republicans and Democrats. In his campaign for governor he made many speeches
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Gov. JAMES A. MOUNT
and surprised those who had not looked upon him as possessing any oratorical ability by his clear presentation of facts that could only have been acquired by careful study and investigation. As a farmer he took a great interest in improving the living conditions of his class, and he also took great pride in the education of his children. One of these, his son, Harry N. Mount, became prominent as a Presbyterian clergyman.
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