USA > Indiana > Public men of Indiana : a political history from 1860 to 1890, v. 1 > Part 10
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The exciting time that followed from November until congress met in March of 1877 were much greater than during the Civil War. There was an evident determination on the part of the Repub- lican leaders to not surrender the power they had so long held, and an equally determined purpose on the part of the Democrats of the Northern States, particularly to gather at any hazard the benefits of the victory which they asserted had been fairly won. The United States army was called from posts in the Southern States, where it had been concentrated when the election boards were in session, and stationed near Washington city.
The house of representatives was Democratic, the senate was Republican. The puzzling question for them to decide was whether both houses of con- gress must participate in counting the electoral votes of a State, or whether the president of the senate by virtue of his office had the exclusive right to count them and whether he had the discretionary
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power to decide to whom they should be credited. Unless one or the other of the parties surrendered the claim to victory, another civil war was threat- ened that would bring neighbor against neighbor in conflict.
The more conservative people hoped there might be an adjustment of the controversy as they were already war worn by the terrible war between the two sections of the coutnry. Both Tilden and Hayes preserved a dignified silence while the con- troversies were going on. What would be their ultimate respective attitudes was a matter of wild speculation among their respective supporters at the polls.
Would Tilden, regardless of the formalities re- quired in declaring his election, take the oath of office and assert the right to command the armed forces of the government in the protection of his right to it? Would Hayes accept the office with such a clouded title to it as it would be tainted with ?- were the questions most frequently asked. Would they each give as due consideration to the vast financial and other interests of the country that were jeopardized by the controversy as to their own personal ambitions, was also a question.
Tilden was a possessor of great wealth and closely identified with the great financial interests and enterprises of New York, and the holder of many bonds and obligations of the Federal govern- ment. The creation of a commission by both houses of congress a a tribunal for the settlement of the controversy was first suggested by his friend,
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Abraham S. Hewett, a prominent representative of New York in congress, and was thought to have had its origin in 'Tilden's desires to save his per- sonal fortune as well as to patriotically preserve the prosperity and peace of the country.
How this commission was to be created and its powers defined was for solution by the statesmen in congress. Oliver P. Morton, the great senator from Indiana, was one of these who was destined to perform a part in the work that was to deter- mine the fate of his political rival Hendricks.
Proctor Knott, a leading member of the house of representatives from Kentucky, who afterwards became governor of that State, concurring with Hewitt, proposed a committee of five members, whose duty it should be. acting in conjunction with a similar committee on the part of the senate, to consider the whole question of the disputed elec- toral votes and to recommend to congress a course to be pursued in counting them. The resolution he then offered was adopted almost with unanim- ity. Morton was selected as a member of the senatorial committee. It became evident as soon as this joint committee got down to work that the two parties represented in it would not agree on the questions regarding the extent of the powers and duties of the president of the senate in the matter of counting the disputed electoral votes. His powers and duties as well as those of the com- mission that was to direct him all depended upon and related back to the question of going behind the returns of the election boards. The Democratic
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contention was that fraud and corruption vitiated the certificates of the election boards, while the Republicans contended that they were beyond dis- pute in their legality.
This joint committee like the hung jury finally agreed to disagree as to how this electoral com- mission should be composed, and then it was pro- posed to create an independent tribunal composed of five members of the Supreme Court of the United States to be selected in the order of their seniority of commission, five senators and five represent- atives in congress. This plan would place five Republican senators and five Democratic members on the commission, and who were to be the five members of the Supreme Court that would make the final decision was the all absorbing question. Their selection in the order of their seniority was not entirely satisfactory to either party, but it was, over the protest of Morton, finally agreed that they be so chosen. These five judges were, justices Clifford, Swayne, Davis, Miller and Field. Two of these were known as Democrats, two as Repub- licans, with Justice David Davis' political affinity in doubt. Although he had been appointed by Pres- ident Lincoln, his republicanism was challenged because he had at one time allowed himself to be nominated by a labor organization for president. had decided against the military commission in the Milligan case and shown himself to be independent of political control, and he was also known to have become tired of his judicial duties and was ambi- tious for either senatorial or presidential honors.
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The Democrats were exultant over the fact that he was to be the fifth member, and the Republicans were correspondingly despondent. Whether these judges could consent to serve had not been ascer- tained, and before their final selection a political episode occurred that eliminated Davisand brought Justice Bradley in as the fifth member. With his coming in was a revival of Republican hopes and the despair of Democrats began. To bring about this change in the situation, the Republicans had shrewdly planed to have Davis elected as a United States senator from Illinois. They had sent some of their well chosen "visiting statemen" to Springfield, where the balloting for senator was going on. Two or three independent members of the legislature had prevented an election by voting for Davis. They were encouraged to keep on so voting to defeat General John A. Logan, who was the Republican nominee. The Democratic members of the Illinois legislature composed in large part of slum statesmen from Chicago, with their characteristic fatuity, and inability to see any- thing beyond their nasal organs except a Chicago saloon bar, wheeled into line and voted for Davis for senator, and presumably got gloriously drunk over their happy association with the Republicans who sacrificed General Logan to get a vote that was to save the presidency.
"Upon what slender threads hang everlasting things."
The vote of this great tribunal stood eight to seven in favor of receiving and counting the fraud-
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ulent certificates, and Hayes was installed as pres- ident.
In 1872 Horace Greeley had urged the Northern people to forgive the Southerners, to shake hands over the "bloody chasm" and discard the "bloody shirt" as a campaign emblem, but they were not yet ready to follow his advice. The installation of Hayes was followed by a general clamor for re- conciliation with the South and the selection of his cabinet gave the first tangible evidence of a con- firmation of the suspected deal that had been made to dislodge the "carpet bag" governments, and of a reconciliation with the Southern States. An ex- Confederate General was appointed postmaster general and about his first official act was to direct the clothing of United States mail carriers in gray uniforms, corresponding with those that rebel sol- diers wore in the rebellion, an aet that provoked the wrath of nearly every soldier who had worn the blue. While the Hayes administration was in the main satisfactory to the best interests of the coun- try, there was a noticeable want of that high re- spect and confidence that a president usually commands that could only be attributed to the fact that he held the office by a fraudulent and clouded title.
The centennial year, so eloquently depicted with grandeur by Ingersoll. will be well remembered by many vet living as the one that commemorates the events that preceded, a decision by a high judicial tribunal created by act of congress that confirmed fraud in election returns and awarded the presi-
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dency of the United States to a man who had not received a majority of either the popular or elec- toral votes of the United States.
Tilden received a popular majority of three hundred thousand votes over Hayes, but by the false and fabricated returns of election certificates, this popular verdict was overthrown. The great leader in this conspiracy to overthrow popular gov- ernment was Zach Chandler, a United States sena- tor from the sovereign State of Michigan, and his followers were again conspicuous in the campaign that followed for the nomination of the Republi- can candidate for the presidency in 1880, and again showed their adroitness in dealing with Southern delegates of the same class as those who had composed the Southern returning boards.
The candidates for the Republican nomination in 1880 were: General Grant, John Sherman of Ohio, and General Russell A. Alger of Michigan. Grant had three hundred and six loyal followers, who voted to the last for his nomination, but finally had to yield to the objection to a third presi- dential term. Until the convention met, it was generally believed that Sherman would receive practically the solid support of the delegates from the Southern States, but it suddenly developed that they had been captured and their affections transferred from Sherman to Alger.
General Alger was a man of great wealth, and had made extensive investments in industrial cor- porations that had a monopoly of the coal, iron and railroad business. in Tennessee and Alabama, and
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while both he and Sherman had met defeat in the convention, the latter did not forget about his loss of Southern delegates, and at the next session of congress introduced and later had passed the so- called Sherman anti-trust act that had a direct application to Alger's Southern monopoly.
Events of recent years show that Michigan poli- ticians of the Chandler school are not yet an ex- tinct species in that State. It is to the credit of the State of Indiana that it has at no time given preference to its men of wealth for United States senators, or foreign ambassadors, as have other States. With one exception its senators have been comparatively poor men, and no charge of bribery of either legislatures or individual voters has ever been made against them. The votes of Indiana delegates to the Republican national convention of 1880 were cast in the beginning for General Har- rison, but with little hopes of his nomination, and the delegates soon left him and became divided in their support between General Grant and Sher- man.
General Garfield made the nominating speech, placing the name of Sherman before the conven- tion in a glowing tribute to his record as a states- man, and at the same time exhibited his own great abilities that clearly foreshadowed his own nomina- tion when the deadlock that ensued should be broken.
The event of the convention that created the greatest enthusiasm was when Roscoe Conkling placed General Grant in nomination. His first
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sentence was, "When asked from whence our can- didate comes, we say from Appomatox, and the famous apple tree." The applause and wild cheer- ing that followed was kept up for half an hour, before he could proceed further. The balloting that followed showed Grant in the lead with 306 votes, but he gained none as it preceded, and Gar- field was finally nominated through the influence of the admirers of Blaine, and because of his own great ability, but Conkling forced them to accept his friend, General Chester A. Arthur, as their candidate for vice-president.
The campaign .in Indiana that followed was vigorous as usual in that then close State, and both parties in their selections of both State and legis- lative candidates put forward their best men.
The State senate elected that year was conspic- uous for the unusually strong men that composed it, among these were, Robert C. Bell, Robert Gra- ham, Jason B. Brown, Eugene Bundy, Frederick WV. Viehe, Gustave V. Menzies, General George H. Chapman, Samuel B. Voyles, and Rufus Ma- gee, all lawyers of high standing and well fitted for the legislative work that came before that ses- sion, the most important of which was in dealing with the report of a commission that had been created pursuant to an act passed at the preceding session to compile, classify and codify the laws of the State. That commission was composed of James S. Frazier, former judge of the Supreme Court; David Turpie, and John H. Stotsenburg.
As a means of simplifying legal procedure and
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making clear many of the provisions of previous laws and correcting their phraseology, many bills were presented by the commission that had to be well considered and were nearly all enacted into laws that made the officially revised statutes of 1881 into one volume of great and long use.
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CHAPTER XXI
TTO very important issues were submitted to the voters of Indiana for decision in 1878. The Democrats elected their State candidates, a ma- jority of the members of congress and the State legislature that would elect a United States sen- ator.
John Gilson Shanklin of Evansville, was elected secretary of state; General Mahlon D. Manson, auditor of state; Thomas W. Woollen, attorney general, and John J. Cooper, treasurer of state. Daniel W. Voorhees was a candidate for United States senator to succeed himself, he having been appointed by Governor Williams to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Morton. The legislative districts were so formed that it was necessary the Democrats should carry at least one that usually gave Republican majorities. The counties of Marion and Shelby formed one of these, and it was necessary for the Democrats to find a candidate who could command not only the full Democratic vote, but could draw largely from the Republicans. William E. English was selected and elected. He and Charles A. Cole of Peru were the Democratic leaders in the house. Cole was an able young lawyer, the son of Alphonso
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A. Cole, who was a prominent lawyer of Peru, and the grandson of Albert Cole, an early associate judge of Miami County. Charles A. was for many years a leader of the Peru bar, and became circuit court judge for the six years immediately preced- ing his death in 1921. This is an appropriate place to give William E. English the prominence he deserves in these reminiscences of the Public Men of Indiana.
William E. English is the only son of Wil- liam H. English, was born at Lexington in Scott County, the birthplace of his father, has a hered- itary taste for public service of a legislative char- acter, and has been conspicuous in the maintenance of the legislative accomplishments of his father, and in supplementing them with further useful legislation called for by new conditions. His first experience was in the legislature of 1879, and he was the youngest member of that body, and gave special attention to the enactment of measures, limiting the amounts of indebtedness that munic- ipalities may incur, and that would reduce the then excessive compensation of public officials. In 1882, he was elected to congress from the Indian- apolis district and was the youngest member of that body also, and looked closely after the per- sonal wants of his constituents, regardless of their political status, and was at the same time always attentive to his other duties, and as active in oppos- ing measures he disapproved as in furthering those he favored.
He was unusually well equipped for legislative
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WM. E. ENGLISH
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work by reason of his having given the subject spe- cial study, and from having had the best points of observation in the course that his father had suc- cessfully followed. He also had the advantage of education in the law, having graduated from the law department of the Northwestern Christian University.
Differing from most sons of wealthy parents, he has made his life one of usefulness and industry, and has never manifested any disposition to join any of the aristocratic classes of wealth. While he has always been generous in his charities, he has never shown any ostentation in bestowing them.
Regardless of his present political alignment, he is a Democrat by nature in the highest and broad- est sense of that term, and drew his early inspira- tion from Jeffersonian doctrines, and was an active worker in the ranks of the Democratic party from his boyhood until the year 1896, when like thou- sands of others, he declined to give his activities to the support of William Jennings Bryan, or the financial fallacies he proposed, and supported Mckinley for president.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in 1898, he was commissioned as a captain of vol- unteers and served continuously from his enlist- ment until the capture of Santiago, and in the battle of that place was severely injured by the explosion of a shell. At the end of the war, he returned home and his fellow citizens insisted upon his again giving the benefits of his legislative expe- rience to them in the State senate. In the sessions
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of that body he has been an active supporter of the most beneficial measures, and was the pro- ponent of amendments to the old and admirable constitution of the State that his father helped to form, that have become necessary only because of the changes in conditions brought about by time and circumstances. He is a past Commander of the Spanish American War veterans, refused any salary for his services as a soldier, and serves with- out pay on the many boards and commissions he is a member of. He is a past Grand Master of Indi- ana Masons and a 32nd degree Knight Templar.
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CHAPTER XXII
A S the presidential campaign of 1880 ap- proached, there was much interest in the at- titudes of Tilden and Hendricks, growing out of the fact that they had been deprived of the offices to which they had been elected. Neither of them gave any public expression of a desire to again become candidates, and while the Northern Demo- crats generally favored their selection, there was a disposition on the part of their Southern breth- ren to try the experiment of presenting the mailed hand of a soldier to the country. General Winfield S. Hancock, while commanding a Southern mili- tary district in reconstruction days, had endeared himself to them by his subordinating his military powers to the local civil authorities that had been restored to power under the conciliating policies of President Hayes. The years of 1879 and 1880, were years of prosperity that gave the Republicans the advantage in urging that there be no changes in administration to interrupt it and the result was the election of Garfield and Arthur, over Hancock and William H. English.
The inevitable and ever appearing clash between senatorial dictation and executive prerogative fol- lowed in 1881, that had its effect in the destruc-
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tion of the previous cordial relations that seem- ingly had existed between senators Conkling and Garfield, when Garfield appointed as collector of the Port of New York a man Conkling did not want. The assassination of President Garfield was, of course, not either a direct or remote con- sequence of this break, though many people argued that the anger of Conkling that caused him to re- sign, because he could not give offices to his friends, had set a vicious example to office seekers, such as Guiteau, the assassin.
The defeat of Charles J. Folger for governor of New York, in 1882, by Grover Cleveland, then mayor of Buffalo, by one hundred and ninety-two thousand votes, was such a stunning blow to the Republican party of New York that it could not hope to succeed at the election of 1884, when Cleve- land was elected president.
The elections for State officers in Indiana were still held in October in 1880. Albert G. Porter was the Republican nominee for governor that year, and Thomas Hanna of Green Castle, was the nominee for lieutenant governor. Isaac P. Gray sought the nomination for governor that year, but was defeated by Franklin Landers, and was then nominated for lieutenant governor. Landers chal- lenged Porter for a joint debate of the issues and a number of appointments for them were arranged, but Landers disappeared from them before they were all filled, and Porter was elected by a sub- stantial majority, that insured the State to Gar- field in November.
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A. G. PORTER
Governor Porter was for many years in public life before his election as governor.
He first held the position of reporter of the deci- sions of the Supreme Court of the State, to which he was appointed by the great jurist, Isaac Black- ford, and his judicial associates. He was next nominated by the Democratic party for congress and elected in 1856, and in 1858 was nominated by the Republicans and elected, and re-elected in 1860, serving while in congress on the judiciary committee. For the next fourteen years. he de- voted his time to the law practice at Indianapolis, at the head of the firm of Porter, Harrison and Hines.
In 1877, Governor Porter was appointed by President Hayes as first comptroller of the treasury, and while holding that position he was nominated for governor. In all the stations Governor Porter filled, he looked upon his duties as requiring more than ordinary consideration and attention, whether they were administrative, judicial or executive in character. They were performed with the view of making their purposes the most effectual, and he was well equipped to that end by reason both of his natural talent and the splendid education that he had acquired in his youth. He was the graduate of a classical course at Asbury University and had a full law schooling as a partner of Philip Spooner, a pioneer lawyer of Lawrenceburg. As governor. he was enthusiastic over and contributed much to the development of the natural resources of the State, as well as gave attention to the legislative
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requirements for that purpose that he urged the general assembly to provide. It was upon his recom- mendations and executive activities that the growth of the extreme Northern Indiana counties began its most vigorous development.
The counties bordering the Kankakee River, that now contain more than one-eighth part of the population and wealth of the entire State, had then but a small rural population on a vast acre- age of territory, much of it covered by water. It was one of the great acts of his administration that devised a plan to bring nearly a million acres of land, lying in these counties, then deemed worth- less, into use by draining them. He was granted authority, upon his calling for it in a message to the legislature, to appoint a commission to make a survey of the river and the lands in its vicinity, and to report as to the practicability of their rec- lamation, and if deemed practicable to report a plan for the work to be done and its cost. He appointed Professor John L. Campbell of Wabash College to head the commission. Professor Camp- bell was a skilful engineer and in the years 1881 and 1882, made the surveys and estimates of cost provided for. The amount required to straighten the channels of the river that was about the only thing necessary to be done to afford an outlet for the drainage of the lands was comparatively small. and on the meeting of the general assembly of 1883 Governor Porter urged that an appropria- tion be made by the State to accomplish the work, but the political fears of the consequences to the
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party in power at the next ensuing election caused the postponement of action by the legislature, and as might be expected, the succeeding administra- tion would not approve any measure, however meritorious, that its predecessor had proposed, and it was left to individual enterprise and sacrifice to do what the State in its sovereign capacity should have done, and which it had obligated itself to do when it accepted the grant of swamp lands that was made to it in 1850.
The administration of Governor Isaac P. Gray that followed entirely avoided any action in this important matter.
The result of the election of 1886 clearly fore- shadowed the victory of the Republicans in 1888, when General Benjamin Harrison was nominated for president.
General Alvin P. Hovey was elected governor, and Ira J. Chase, a former chaplain in the army, and a prominent minister of the Christian Church, was elected as lieutenant governor. General Ho- vey died while governor, and Chase succeeded him to the office of governor.
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