USA > Indiana > Public men of Indiana : a political history from 1860 to 1890, v. 1 > Part 7
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"And from Bethel, in Canaan, a nation of God- fearing men was established. Through that na- tion came to the world the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses, and, finally, the Man of Gali- lee. Every fundamental law of civilization and every inspiration of mankind that has made life worth while, individually or nationally, came from the nation that Abraham was called into Canaan to build.
"There is a lesson, brethren beloved (for this is a sermon), in the experience of Abraham. A les- son for the good old United States of America. Something wrong with us. Things are out of joint. Read the newspapers and note the stories in al- most every column of the news pages almost every day in the week-murders, riots, thefts, oppres- sions, discontent, unrest, disorder. Statesmen re- alize it. Serious men acknowledge it. The wise hearted no longer hide their eyes from it. They face the storm that is shaking us and seek a path back to industrial, social and political peace. The country is rich, but we seem to be suffering from poverty in the thing that makes for happiness and contentment.
"It requires no preacher to tell us what we need. It is spiritual peace, for the spirits of men
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run wild and are at war. Reason has no place among us. We are living in the midst of alarms. We seek what riches cannot buy, but without which wealth lacks riches for us. And that applies to the nation as it applies to the individual. A contented nation cannot come from a discontented people.
"The path we seek leads back to first principles; back to where we were in the beginning. Back to the fundamentals of old-fashioned religion; back to the house of God. Back to the faith 'once de- livered to the saints.' And that path leads Amer- ica back to the place of blessing for itself and to the place where it can be a blessing to the world. If world blessing is what we desire as a nation we are sure to find it in the place of blessing for our- selves.
''Tis the good old path that our fathers trod;
"Tis the good old way, and it leadeth up to God."
The Star sermon ought to be printed in the form of a brochure and be given a place in every Amer- ican household. The truths contained therein ought to help wonderfully to arouse the well meaning people of this country to a sense of duty.
It would require thousands of pages to give an account of Stoll's accomplishments as a journalist and historian and to sketeh his personal and polit- ical career. He was engaged to write a "History of the Indiana Democracy, from 1816 to 1916," by a publishing company that embarked in that enter- prise. A volume of 1,090 pages, of 600 words
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on each page, was the result of his three years' labor in that undertaking. While the work, in accordance with the designs of its promoters, sets forth the virtues and activities of nearly all Demo- cratic partisans of the State during that long period, and the doctrines and platforms of that party, it at the same time deals fairly with its opponents and in many instances shows the distinct dissent of its author from the views and positions of his party on public questions. Aside from the partisan features of the work, it reveals such a marvelous and stupendous compilation of historic matter as shows a full and accurate account of the constitutional, legislative and judicial history of the State from 1816 to 1916, and brings to light many historic acts that have not been so clearly exposed in any other history of the State.
Another of the State's historians was William Wesley Wollen, the author of "Biographical and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana." His char- acter sketches are only equaled by the elegance of his diction and phrases, and the wisdom of his words. In one of its parts he pay this tribute to pioneers of whom he wrote, "Men who found em- pires should not be forgotten. They plant the tree of civil liberty and water its roots, while those who come after them but trim its branches to preserve its symmetry. If they plant carelessly and in poor soil, the tree will have but a sickly growth. That the men who planted Indiana in the wilder- ness planted wisely and well is evidenced by its wonderful growth."
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For many years, both the Journal and Sentinel were ably edited, the former by Judge E. B. Mar- tindale, B. R. Sulgrove, John D. Nicholas, Elijah W. Halford, and others; the latter by Joseph J. Bingham, Rufus Magee, Robert L. Matthews, Joseph B. Maynard, Samuel E. Morss, and other able writers. It went out of existence soon after its editorial about the Supreme Court, and a few years later the Journal was merged into the In- dianapolis Star.
Colonel William R. Holloway of Indianapolis, was at different times the owner of the Journal. It was under his management that its influence in the guidance and education of Republican voters was the most powerful, and that it succeeded also as a business enterprise and was for years the lead- ing paper of the State. It was the gospel herald of the Republican party. Its Republican readers looked upon it as their Bible, and so revered its name that they disapproved of the change of it to the Star.
Colonel Holloway was the military secretary of Governor Morton during the civil war and was his brother-in-law. His father, David P. Holloway, was for many years the owner and editor of the Richmond Palladium, probably the oldest and best known of the early newspapers in Indiana, and was also a member of congress and a commissioner of patents.
Colonel Holloway was also identified with other newspapers of Indianapolis and was the founder of the Indianapolis Times. He held the office of
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postmaster at Indianapolis for a number of years, was first appointed to that position by President Grant. His son, Edward Morton Holloway, is the very efficient clerk of the United States Cir- cuit Court of Appeals at Chicago.
Many men who became prominent as journalists began their newspaper work as reporters on the old Indianapolis Journal. Among these reporters well remembered were: George C. Harding, Charles Dennis, Gideon B. Thompson, William H. Blodgett, and Harry S. New, now United States Senator, who became a member of the re- portorial staff in 1878, and continued in that cap- acity for twenty-five years, and has had an active career in Republican politics. He served a four- years term in the Indiana State Senate, from 1896 to 1900, and was the author of the county and township reform bills that were passed at the ses- sion of 1897. His personal popularity and loyalty to the Republican party in times of disaster as well as success enabled him to defeat James E. Watson by a large popular majority in the pri- mary race for United States senator, and he was elected as senator in 1896, and soon after enter- ing the senate was chosen as a member of the com- mittee on military affairs, and has rendered con- spicuous service in behalf of measures for the pro- secution of the World War, and is now a member of the committee on foreign relations, and is also chairman of the committee on territories and in- sular possessions.
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CHAPTER XI
T HE events in the congress of the United States that followed the election of General Grant as president in 1868, had such a connection with and bearing upon political events in Indiana that it is proper to mention some of them.
The contests for power between the executive and legislative departments of the Federal govern- ments have been bitter in nearly all administra- tions since their creation.
The requirements of the "advice and consent" of the senate to nominations by the president for the higher grade of officials and the passing of judgment by that body on all treaties proposed with foreign powers have led to these conflicts.
The Senatus Consultum of the Roman Repub- lic, composed of Patricians, was never more dictato- rial than have been its imitators in the senate of the United States. In the case of President John- son, they hastily and willingly converted the senate into a court of impeachment, and but for the fact that a two-third vote is required to convict the executive, probably attempted impeachment in other instances would have occurred.
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, one of the most learned and conspicuous of United States
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senators, was one of its members most determined to convict Johnson, and four years later became a supporter of his policies of reconciliation that were the basis for his attempted impeachment.
Less than two years after Grant's inauguration as president, he recalled the historian, John Lathi- rop Motley, as minister to England in defiance of the wishes of Senator Sumner. This so enraged Sumner that he took advantage of his position as chairman of the committee on foreign relations to make a desperate effort to have a treaty that Grant had proposed with San Domingo rejected by the senate, and in referring to the president in his speech, opposing ratification opened it by quoting the words:
"Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed that he hath grown so great," and affixed the word "ism" to Grant's name, as another senator from the same State, and also chairman of the foreign relations committee, did to the name of President Wilson forty-eight years later.
President Garfield nominated as collector of the Port of New York a man named Robertson, who had been a delegate to the Republican con- vention who cast the first vote for his nomination for president.
Roscoe Conkling, the leading senator from New York, became so angered at Garfield for this act that he resigned from the senate, as did Senator Thomas C. Platt, who followed him and got the name "me too Platt," but they both failed to get the vindication from the people of the State that
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they sought, and so disrupted their party in the State that James G. Blaine, who was Garfield's secretary of state and the nominee for president in 1884, lost the State's electoral vote.
These are only mentioned as prominent instances of the consequences of senatorial dictation.
Grant survived the malignities of Sumner and was re-elected in 1872 by an almost unanimous elec- toral vote. Both he and his successor of after years have records among the greatest in the world's achievements that personal malevolence, though clothed in senatorial vesture, have not diminished in their splendor.
The speech that Sumner made in denunciation of Grant was answered by Senator Howe, who said he had "plunged a dagger into the Republican party." Carl Schurz, United States senator from Missouri, joined Sumner in his denunciation of Grant and endorsed his utterances saying, it was not into the Republican party, but into Cæsarism that Sumner had plunged the dagger, and that "we cannot forget that the world has agreed to pronounce Brutus the noblest Roman of them all."
These speeches of the followers of Brutus were given great circulation in the presidential cam- paign of 1872, and Sumner and Schurz tried the experiment of forming what was called a "Liberal Republican Party." They called their followers to meet them in national convention at Cincinnati, Schurz presided at the convention and Horace Greeley was nominated for president, and Schurz's senatorial colleague from Missouri, Benjamin
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Gratz Brown, was nominated for vice-president. Brown was charged in the campaign that followed, among other things, with being in such a condition at a public banquet held in his honor that he spread butter on his watermelon, and Greeley was bitterly denounced because he had clamored for amnesty for the rebels and had signed the bail bond of the traitor, Jeff Davis, to get him out of prison at Fortress Monroe.
At that time the Democratic party in Indiana was greatly in need of some new lifeblood, because of the odium that had attached to it as the product of some of its leaders during the war, and because of the persistent repetition of the charge of dis- loyalty that was made against it during the war.
The prejudice against it in many localities was felt by the Democratic merchant who suffered pro- scriptions and boycotting in his business, by the Democratic lawyer in his profession because of its reflections in the verdicts of juries, and even judges in their decisions on questions of law and fact were intimidated by it, while the young man, who dared to identify himself as a Democrat did so at the risk of social ostracism. It was the pre- vailing opinion among Democrats that their party would be nourished into new life by going into repose, and that the bolting Republican leaders were more fitted for leadership than their own, and that the desertions from Grant would be numerous enough to defeat him, and therefore it was decided to adopt what was called "the passive policy."
Joseph E. McDonald and Daniel W. Voorhees,
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of the Democratic leaders, did not at first concur in this course, and possibly the farseeing Joseph E. McDonald had visions of the ambitious states- man, Isaac P. Gray, coming into the party with his followers of liberal Republicans to wrest the honors of leadership from him, and if he did it was a dream that came true.
Notwithstanding McDonald's opposition to the endorsement of Greeley, when a resolution of en- dorsement was offered in the Democratic State convention, he came forward and gaining recogni- tion by the chairman, said he recognized the logic of events and seconded the motion for its adoption.
The same convention forced the nomination for governor on Thomas A. Hendricks.
Washington C. DePauw of New Albany, was nominated for lieutenant governor. He was a man of supposed great wealth that he had gained in the manufacture of plate glass. While he was identified in name as a Democrat, his interests were with the Republican party as a beneficiary of its protective tariff policies, consequently and consis- tently he declined the nomination, and Colonel John R. Cravens of Madison, Indiana, was placed on the ticket in his stead by the Democratic State committee and he was defeated at the election by Leonidas Sexton, of Rushville.
DePauw's beneficence was later bestowed on what was then Asbury University, that in conside- ration of the donations it received or had the prom- ise of, changed its name by legislative consent to DePauw University, but this consent was not given
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without some comments about the sacred name of Bishop Asbury being bartered away for DePauw's gold that it was afterwards said greatly depre- ciated in amount.
Asbury University, named in honor of Bishop Francis Asbury, the first Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, who was sent to America as a missionary to its colonies in 1771, was organized under a charter granted to its trustees in 1836.
It required the active voices of Hendricks, Me- Donald, Voorhees and other leaders to arouse the Democratie voters to a full appreciation of this "passive policy," and Republican newspapers and speakers were not slow in reminding them of the many disrespectful things that the New York Tri- bune, founded by Horace Greeley, had said about them when it said that "all Democrats are not horse thieves but all horse thieves are Democrats," and "all Democrats are not rebels but all rebels are Democrats." So confident of success were the In- diana Republicans that year that there was a spir- ited contest for governor between Gen. Thomas M. Browne of Winchester, who was then United States district attorney, Godlove S. Orth of La Fayette, and General Benjamin Harrison of In- dianapolis. General Browne won the nomination mainly because of the numerical support given him by what was then called the "old burnt district," composed of the strong Republican counties of Wayne, Randolph, Jay, Henry and Delaware. To get the unanimous support of his district, however,
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he was humiliated by a demand from the radical temperance delegates that he make a public pledge in the convention that he would forever thereafter abstain from the use of liquor, although he had not been generally known to have any convivial habits. General James R. Slack and the writer were visi- tors at this convention, sitting by each other when Browne came forward to accept the nomination. In the course of his eloquent speech of acceptance he said: "If in the past, by eating meat, I have offended my brother, then I will eat no more meat while I live." General Slack turning to the writer said, "that speech advertising himself as a drunk- ard will defeat him," and it did. He was charac- terized in the campaign as "Thomas Meateater Browne." Hendricks in referring to him would humorously say, "my convivial friend, General Browne," and Hendricks got nearly all the radical temperance votes and was elected, while all the other candidates on the ticket with him were de- feated with the exception of Milton B. Hop- kins, a prominent preacher of the Christian Church who was elected state superintendent of public in- struction. Grant and Colfax carried the state in November by twenty thousand majority.
In the years following, General Browne repre- sented his district in congress for many terms, and until his death.
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GEORGE W. JULIAN
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CHAPTER XII
T HE origin of the name, "Burnt District," was by some traced to a great conflagration that overspread it in an early day, while others say it was so named because of the attitude of George W. Julian and his followers on the slavery ques- tion, who were called abolitionists and "black re- publicans." He was an avowed abolitionist when that was a term of derision, was at one time nomi- nated for vice-president on the "free soil" ticket. He was a great leader, was far in advance of the majority in the Republican party in the advocacy of the freedom of slaves. He and Oliver P. Mor- ton, both of Wayne County, were likened unto "two great lions that could not live in the same forest." Their opinions of each other were recip- rocal. Morton became his rival in party leader- ship. Julian was not only a leader in the crusade against human slavery, but was far ahead of the times on other public questions. It was he who in- troduced in the Forty-first congress the proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution, confer- ring the right of woman suffrage, that finally be- came the 19th amendment.
During the Civil War the opponents of the ad- ministration adopted the shibboleth. "The Consti-
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tution as it is and the Union as it was." In 1868 Mr. Julian supported Grant for president. In a speech that he delivered that year at Kokomo, In- diana, to which the writer was a listener, he took up that watchword for analysis, claiming that it was a disloyal expression. His analysis was so clear as to be convincing to many that it was of that char- acter; he said "the constitution as it is" means that it shall not be so amended as to abolish slav- ery, and "the Union as it was," was a Union with slavery, and it was against the perpetuation of such a Union that the war had been fought and won.
On that occasion he also shamed his Democratic hearers for their subserviency to Southern domi- nation, by telling them that it was this Southern domination by "Christless whelps" that had forced their great apostle, Thomas Jefferson, into an abandonment of his convictions on the subject of slavery, by modifying his draft of the Declaration of independence and his arraignment of the King- dom of Great Britain, so that the institution could be maintained. Bancroft's History of the United States, Volume V, page 324, contains a reproduc- tion of the draft of the Declaration of Independence and of the indictment that Jefferson submitted with it, and the historian says that the offensive ex- pressions were deleted at the request of the South- erners for the reason. as Jefferson wrote, for the guidance of history, "that these gentlemen's reflec- tions were not yet matured to the full abhorrence of the slave traffic."
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This Kokomo speech of Mr. Julian was no more pleasing to his Republican hearers than was one to Democratic hearers four years later that he made at the old Academy of Music in Indianapo- lis, in support of Horace Greeley for president, when Oliver P. Morton became the subject of his invectives. He held up Morton as having been edu- cated in the same school with the same "Christless whelps," with whom he broke because of the al- lurements of the public office that he got as his re- ward when he became governor, and enumerated some of his inconsistencies and sudden changes of views on public questions, bringing to the recollec- tion of his hearers, that on the 20th of September, 1865, Morton had delivered a great speech to his old friends at Richmond, denouncing negro suf- frage and upholding President Johnson's policy of reconciliation, and that he experienced such a change of heart as to soon after clamor for John- son's impeachment because of these same policies.
In manner and actions, Julian was not en- tirely different from other public men of Indiana. but his style of oratory was peculiarly his own. There was nothing of a bombastic character in it. but it was rather colloqual and yet emphatic and convincing, and his words were seemingly carefully selected and so articulated as to give them the greatest force. His severities of expression that sometimes seemed malicious, were more properly chargeable to the deep sincerity of his sentiments in the causes he advocated.
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CHAPTER XIII
T HE legislature of Indiana, in 1873, was Re- publican, and re-elected Morton to the senate. Hendricks was inaugurated as governor. The old Court of Common Pleas was abolished by an act of that assembly and a number of new circuit court districts were created, and in accordance with a provision of the State Constitution a new district of the Supreme Court was created, so that it would thereafter be composed of five judges.
The vacancies created by this court legislation, gave Hendricks the power to appoint a number of judges of the circuit courts and prosecuting attor- neys, also the new judge of the Supreme Court. In making his selections he did not confine them to his own party, but choose those he regarded as most fitting from both political parties. He ap- pointed Andrew L. Osborn of La Porte, a Re- publican, as the new judge of the fifth supreme court district.
An important legislative enactment passed at this session was what was known as the Baxter liquor law. Its author was Honorable William Baxter, of Wayne County, a prominent member of the Quaker Church, who represented that county in the state senate. He was able, conscientious, and highly respected by his legislative colleagues,
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and its passage was more due to their wishes to please him, than to their approval of the measure. It imposed so many restrictions on the liquor traf- fic, and such severe penalties for their violation, that many members of both political parties urged Hendricks to veto it, but as it contained no uncon- stitutional provisions, Hendricks showed his high regard for legislative wisdom, and his gratitude for the many temperance votes he had received at the preceding election, by signing it and it became a law.
In 1873, David Turpie became a resident of In- dianapolis, and in 1874 was elected as a member of the state legislature from that county, and at the session of 1875 was elected speaker of the house. His many contests with Schuyler Colfax form part of his history.
Colfax served in congress for eight terms, was three times speaker of the national house of rep- resentatives, and vice-president from 1869 to 1873. His unsuccessful opponent in nearly all his con- tests for congress was Turpie, who was one of the most scholarly men in public life in Indiana. While Turpie was unsuccessful in his contests for con- gress he was more fortunate in receiving honors from the Indiana legislature. In 1863 he was elected to serve in the United States senate for a short time to fill out the unexpired term of Jesse D. Bright, who had been expelled on charges of complicity with leaders of secession to overthrow the government, was later elected by the legislature for a full term of six years, 1893 to 1899.
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In a number of his contests with Colfax, a series of joint debates was held between them. He usu- ally was the victor in arguments, but Colfax was more pleasing in his address and as a "mixer" with the people, and was called "the smiler." At .the close of their meetings Turpie usually went to his hotel, while Colfax remained to shake hands and flatter the people; he also had the advantage in the fact that his district was normally Republi- can. In his early days Colfax edited a newspaper at South Bend, and took a leading part in the en- terprise of that city. One of its principal avenues was named in his honor. In the late years of his life he and his family had the misfortune to meet a great financial loss occasioned by over confidence in an old-time friend, who failed in the banking business. The nomination of Turpie for lieutenant governor in 1860 made it necessary that another should be selected to contest unsuccessfully with Colfax for congressional honors and Charles W. Cathcart was the Democratic nominee that year. He was a native of the Island of Madeira, who had settled in La Porte County in 1831, near what is now the town of Westville, and followed farm- ing and stock raising, was a state senator in 1835, a member of congress in 1845 and 1847, and United States senator, by appointment, in 1852 and 1853.
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