USA > Indiana > Public men of Indiana : a political history from 1860 to 1890, v. 1 > Part 8
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CHAPTER XIV
F OLLOWING the close of the Civil War, the waste, extravagance, and profiteering, that originated during that period, was kept alive through the instrumentality of an inflated cur- rency, inflated credits, wild speculations, and great railroad building schemes that were projected by means of great land grants and government aid, until the fall of the year 1873, when the greatest financial panic of the country's history occurred, as a consequence of the abrupt plans of financiers to change economic and financial conditions.
In 1857 a Democratic congress, dominated by the slave-holding interests of the country, under the plausible policy of establishing commercial connections of the cotton growing states of the South with the corn producing states of the North, and to afford postal facilities to the government in the transmission of the United States mails, granted to the Illinois Central Railroad Company a strip of land, twelve miles in width across the entire State of Illinois, approximating about one hundred million acres. The road was constructed as a result of this grant. When the Civil War was raging and wasting the resources of the coun- try, a Republican congress, following this Demo-
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cratic precedent in land grants, greatly expanded the government's policy in granting government aid by donating to the projected transcontinental railroads to the Pacific Ocean one hundred and two million acres of the public domain, forty-seven million to the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, forty-two million acres to the Atlantic and Pacific Company, and thirteen million acres to the Union Pacific Company, and later forty million acres were granted to aid other railroad projec- tors.
And by an Act of Congress, passed in 1862, there were also issues of government bonds, provided for by which each of these Pacific Railroad companies were to receive from the government at the rates of $16,000, $22,000 and $48,000 per mile, in gov- ernment bonds, according to the cost and difficulty of construction, for constructing the roads, the bonds providing for their payment thirty years after their issuance, at six per cent semi-annual in- terest in the gold coin of the United States.
The promoters of these railroad enterprises in furtherance of their plans for the construction of the roads were alert to the great profits in con- struction that could be availed of by creating con- struction companies with which construction con- tracts might be made, and to which the govern- ment aid, the stocks of the railroad companies, and the bonds they might issue, secured by their prop- erty, including the lands granted to them, might be transferred in payment for construction work. With these valuable assets as security, that also
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carried with the security the power to control the railroads and their operation upon completion, the construction companies were in a position to in- duce banks and other financial institutions to fur- nish the funds required. One of these construction instrumentalities was a chartered corporation called the "Credit Mobilier of America," that had unlimited powers in the issuance and sales of its own stock that was supposed to have great value, by reason of its holding the vast securities derived from the railroad companies. It was the pledge of this stock as collateral that procured excessive loans to this Credit Mobilier Company by New York banks, and when the great financiers of the country decided upon the policy of restricting credits and a general policy of deflating the eur- rency these banks were so overloaded with this collateral, and their reserves had been so lessened, that they could not pay their depositors and they were forced to suspend, and the suspension of the construction work on the railroads followed as a consequence.
This Credit Mobilier Company had been char- tered by the State of Pennsylvania in the year 1859, named the same as a gigantic scheme pro- mulgated by the French government in 1852, to take in hand and originate trading enterprises of all kinds, and to conduct the business of banking and the construction of public works.
The stock of this company was issued in large amounts and distributed liberally, and in some in- stances gratuitously, to members of congress who
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were assured of large dividends, and it was charged, in the public press, had induced many votes in granting congressional aid to railroads. When the crash came there followed congressional investigations to discover the identity of these stockholders. Oakes Ames, a member of congress from Massachusetts, and James Brooks, a member from New York, were found to have been stock distributors, and confessed to having delivered both stock and dividends to many of their congres- sional associates and others in public life, among these were some prominent men in Indiana.
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CHAPTER XV
V HEN the policy of retrenchment and restric- tion of credits began in 1873 the farmers of the country were the first to suffer from the slump in prices of farm products, from three dollars a bushel for wheat to fifty cents, and they were ready to espouse any cause and to invoke any remedy that promised them relief. The trouble then, as now, was in locating the trouble and find- ing a remedy that would give them relief. They organized, fretted and fussed around for a long time before they discovered that the reduction of railroad tariffs, that would enable them to mar- ket their products might help them some, even though the middle man who passed them on to the consumer, came in for his share in the benefits of a reduction. They were not content with a regu- lation of the rates unless they could be the regu- lators. They wanted reduction not mere regula- tion. How were they to force the reduction was the puzzling question they must deal with. They could see no way except to elect men to represent them in the state legislatures. They would not trust the salary-grabbing, back-pay congressmen in far distant Washington, who would attach too much importance to the power they had under the
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constitution to regulate commerce. The experi- ment of state legislation was given its first trial in the states of Illinois, Kansas and Iowa, and was watched with great interest by Indiana farm- ers. The legislatures of these states passed what was known as the granger railroad acts, that gave the exclusive power of regulation of freight rates into the hands of state agencies that the grangers could control. The railroad companies contested their constitutionality in suits that were carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, upon the ground that the power to regulate commerce was vested in the congress of the United States, and could not be exercised by the states. The old doctrine of states rights was thus again brought forward as having great efficacy in the decision that was to be made. The grangers got a tempo- rary comfort from the decision. It upheld the legislative power of the states, because congress had not acted, holding that until congress acted in the matter the states could legislate upon the sub- ject. This clearly foreshadowed a contest in con- gress. The farmers had by this time been con- vinced that they might have enough power to have an interstate commerce commission created by con- gress that would deal fairly with them, and accord- ingly John II. Reagan, a member of congress from the State of Texas, introduced the measure that suited the grangers, but it didn't suit the rail- road companies. It passed the house, elected in 1874, but lodged in the senate in the hands of Sen- ator Cullom of Illinois, and after a contest
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lasting for nearly ten years, came out as a meas- ure entirely satisfactory to the railroad companies, but it is only fair to say that the powerful gov- ernmental agency that it created-the Interstate Commerce Commission-has not been under the control or influence of railroad companies, and the enlarged powers that have been conferred upon it, from time to time, have aimed at justice and fa dealing between transportation and shipping inte ests, and the high character of the men who have been chosen as its members, from time to time, has been attested in the work they have done and in the decisions they have made.
This reference to the acts farmers have ac- complished by their organization is pertinent in a work of reminiscences and is brought into it in part to exhibit this class of public men and to show their great power, and how they influenced, both nominations, and the result of the state elections in Indiana in 1874 and 1876.
In 1876, the Greenback party placed a full state ticket in the field, headed by Anson Wolcott, a farmer of White County, for governor. A few days before the election, he published a card with- drawing from the race and urged the election of General Harrison. His withdrawal created a great storm of indignation and harmed Harrison more than it helped him. Henry W. Harrington, a leader in the Greenback party, was substituted in place of Wolcott, and the Greenback party polled a heavy vote.
Franklin Landers, a farmer and man of affairs
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in commercial and business life, was nominated in 1874 for congress in the Indianapolis district by the Democrats, in reliance on the farmer vote to defeat General John Coburn, who had served in congress for many terms, and had a splendid record, both as a soldier and congressman, and the backing of a large Republican majority. The farmer votes elected Landers.
James D. Williams, known as "Blue Jeans Wil- liams," because of the home spun suit of blue jeans clothes that he wore on all occasions, had long served his farmer neighbors as a state sena- tor, was also a prominent member of the State Board of Agriculture, and was a member of con- gress, serving out an unexpired term of another farmer, when the Democratic State Convention of 1876 met. Michael C. Kerr, who was then speaker of the national house of representatives had ap- pointed Williams chairman of the congressional committee on accounts of expenditures by con- gressmen, and he had made some exposures of their extravagance in having excessive items for stationery, mileage, etc., charged against the gov- ernment. The farmers in attendance at the con- vention from his home county and district, though having but a few votes in the convention, proposed his name for governor and he was nominated as a "dark horse," defeating William S. Hohman and Franklin Landers, because of the close contest be- tween them for the nomination. His nomination was at first ridiculed by that class of society peo- ple who only look forward to the gaveties at the
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governor's inaugural ball, and by the snobs who are ever ready to sneer at the rude farmer. Unfor- tunately for General Harrison, who was the Re- publican nominee, these society classes were en- tirely too conspicuous among his supporters about the city of Indianapolis, and their sneering re- marks and sayings were repeated too much in the rural districts, with the result that many Republi- can farmers left their party to resent the insults by their votes for old "Blue Jeans Williams," and he was elected by nearly six thousand plurality. Some of the good farmer women of Southern In- diana prevailed upon the newly-elected governor to allow them to line his blue jeans garments with silk to be worn on the occasion of his inauguration, and at a proposed inaugural ball. This social af- fair was staged and managed under the direction of the handsome and highly accomplished cheva- · lier of New Albany, Colonel Charles L. Jewett, assisted by many of the most polished members of Indianapolis society, and was attended by ladies and gentlemen of the highest social ranks from all parts of the state. In the campaign of 1876, George W. Russ, an ex-Union soldier, organized a regi- ment of ex-soldiers to march in procession, carry- ing "blue jeans" banners and "Blue Jeans" re- warded him by making him his adjutant general of the state.
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CHAPTER XVI
W HEN the legislature of 1877 convened, Wil-
liams was inaugurated as governor. In his message on that occasion he urged economy in public expenditures, and that appropriations be made only for such public purposes as were abso- lutely necessary, and suggested that in considering what was absolutely necessary, that the assembly might properly consider the subject of the con- struction of a new capitol building, that had long been agitated, but should place proper safeguards against extravagance, if it should be decided to enter upon that work. A bill providing for its construction was passed that created a commission to have charge of all matters pertaining to it, and making the governor, ex-officio, the president of that commission. It was provided that as far as possible, it should be constructed of material pro- duced in the State. The several plans that were prepared, by many architects, all provided for Bedford stone as the material to be used in the structure, and the one selected by the commission, from the number offered in competition, it was be- lieved, provided ample room for all the officials and archives of the State for at least a hundred years. It was not at that time supposed that there would
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be any boards or commissions to fillits rooms except the boards of the penal and benevolent institutions of the State, but so many boards and com- missions have since been created by legislative en- actments that it is now overcrowded from basement to dome. The work of its construction had not been completed during the "Blue Jeans' " administra- tion, and it was completed under the direction of Governor Porter, and was perhaps the only pub- lic building that was ever constructed within the original appropriation for it. To the credit of these two governors, it was not only completed, but was furnished within the appropriation, and a surplus paid into the State treasury.
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CHAPTER XVII
TN the year 1873, the tornado of startling events, that swept over the country so disturbed its equi- librium as to turn a period of seeming prosperity quickly into one of depression and stagnation in every branch of industry, and business and was most harmful to the Republican party. Before and after this crash occurred, there were great com- plaints about the high cost of living. Members of congress complained about it, contending that their salaries were insufficient to meet their living ex- penses, and they proceeded to avail themselves of a remedy, not available to their constituents, by vot- ing themselves a fifty per cent increase of salary, also back pay to cover the time they had served in the preceding sessions. This produced such a shock of public indignation that their constituents de- manded that they repeal the act and resign. Some of the members paid the salaries they had re- ceived, under the act, back into the treasury, but they fared little better with their constituents than those who received them, and a great majority of them were defeated for renomination, or at the next election, a number of them fearing their defeat, did not stand for re-nomination or re-election.
In the same year the scandals growing out of
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the operation of the great Credit Mobilier of America began to circulate and in the autumn, when the leaves of the forest began to fall, occurred this great financial and industrial crash. The direct cause of its occurrence, as already men- tioned, was the failure of New York banking houses, that had undertaken the financing of the agencies that were engaged in the construction of the Pacific railroads. This financial disaster was not only fatal to many political ambitions but crushed out fortunes in its course. Values of prop- erty of every description that had been maintained at high points during and following the war sud- denly fell to almost nothing, banks suspended and failed, the construction of transcontinental rail- roads that was then well under way giving employ- ment to hundreds of thousands of laborers sud- denly stopped, factories of all kinds shut down, leaving workmen employed in them to stand around and look in vain to see the smoke from their chimneys as a signal for them to return to work, commercial transactions almost ceased, and depressions of every kind appeared everywhere. To stay the hunger that existed there were then not even soup houses, as in the time of the so-called panic of twenty years later. The National Bank- ruptcy Act of 1867 was availed of in all the Fed- eral courts of the country, during the following five years that it continued in force, by broken mer- chants and others to discharge their debt obliga- tions incurred during this period, to such an extent, as to swamp the courts with bankruptcy cases.
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All of these things happened during a Republi- can administration, and as is always the case, the party out of power had many nostrums in prepa- ration to restore healthy and prosperous conditions, and only needed to get in to administer them, and it was given its opportunity at the next genera! election when a new congress was elected; and Ben Butler was elected governor of Massachusetts on a fiat money platform of the so-called Greenback party, that also sprang up in all other states, and with its aid the Democratic party was successful in nearly all of them and had a large majority in congress, and Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana, was elected as its speaker. At the short session of the expiring congress in January, 1875, is passed what was known as the Specie Resumption Act that pro- vided that on the first day of January, 1879, the government should begin the payment of its out- standing obligations in coin. This brought into prominent discussion the question whether coin meant gold only or both gold and silver. An act passed in 1873 had taken away the privilege of paying debts in silver, but subsequent acts restored the legal tender qualities of the old silver dol- lar, and in a measure settled, so far as congres- sional expressions could settle the question, that coin meant both gold and silver; nevertheless fi- nanciers of the country insisted that gold was the standard, and that the government's outstanding obligations, consisting in great part of its treasury notes called greenbacks, because of the color of the paper on which they were printed, should be paid
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in gold. This contention and the scarcity of gold kept gold at a high premium during the greater part of the times that the treasury notes were greatest in their circulation as money, and it is a curious fact, to one not familiar with financial philosophy, that on the first day of January, 1879, the date fixed for the government to begin pay- ment of its obligations in coin, less than one per cent of them were presented on that day to the treasurer of the United States for payment; and at the same time the premium on gold disappeared and the government's paper currency continued to circulate as money as it had before.
Opposition to the Specie Resumption Act, the clamor for its repeal, and a demand for an increase in the issues of paper currency of the government, sufficient in volume to meet the necessities of trade and commerce, were the demands of the platforms of both the Democratic and Greenback parties in 1874, but the Democratic congress that was elect- ed that year, so far as its record of acts passed dis- closed, enacted no legislation to further such ends.
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CHAPTER XVIII
T HE Indiana Republican state convention that was held in 1874, had no Morton there to sound its keynotes. It passed its usual eulogistic resolutions pointing with pride to its past record, but had no plank of promises to restore prosperous conditions that had disappeared when the financial panic of 1873 came.
It nominated, for secretary of state, William W. Curry, an eloquent preacher of the Universalist Church, to give assurances of universal salvation, but even his doctrines could not save the grand old party from defeat that year.
Many young men of both Republican and Dem- ocratic parentage, were college attendants when the Civil War eame, who left their studies to join the Union army; one of these was John Enos Neff, of Winchester, whose father was also a Union Civil War captain. Enos, as he was familiarly called, had made a brilliant campaign against Gen- eral John Peter Claver Shands, of Jay County, for congress in 1872, coming within a few votes of defeating him. He was nominated by acclama- tion to make the race for secretary of state against Curry, and in his speech accepting the nomination. put his opponent and his party on the defensive,
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and he challenged him to a joint debate a few days later. Some Democrats had their misgivings about Neff's ability to contend with the skilled disputant, who had vanquished preachers of other denomina- tions in theological discussions in many of which he had engaged, but their fears were dispelled at the first debate by Neff again putting his adver- sary on the defensive and maintaining his argu- ments with both plausibility and elegance of dic- tion. The friends of Curry said they were evenly matched, while the admirers of the youthful Neff, declared him a dashing cavalier, who had com- pletely vanquished his adversary. Neff and all Democratic state candidates were successful. Ebe- nezer Henderson, a farmer of Morgan County, was elected auditor of state, Colonel Benjamin C. Shaw, of Indianapolis, treasurer of state, Clarence A. Buskirk, of Gibson County, attorney general, . and Professor James H. Smart, of Allen County, state superintendent of public instruction. They were all re-elected in 1876, and Professor Smart was elected again in 1878, and afterwards was, for a number of years, president of Purdue University, and ranked among the ablest educators of the State. At this same election, of 1874, Judge Hor- ace P. Biddle of Logansport, was elected judge of the Supreme Court, from the new fifth judicial dis- trict, that had been created by the legislature of 1873. Previous to this time the Supreme Court was composed of four judges. The constitution of the State had limited the number to five. The cases in the court had so increased that this addi-
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tional member was much needed and was so pro- vided.
Judge Horace P. Biddle was a member of the constitutional convention of 1851, had served many years as a nisi prius judge, was a Republi- can in politics, but in 1874 was first nominated as the fifth judge by a convention of the new Green- back party, composed mainly of farmers, and the Democrats deemed it expedient to also give him their nomination. At the election his majority over his Republican opponent was thirty-three thou- sand, and sixteen thousand greater than that of his associate Democrats.
This vote of sixteen thousand represented the voting strength of the new Greenback party, and was the prize which both the Republican and Dem- ocratic parties sought to win in the next election, but both were disappointed because the Green- backers generally spurned affiliation with either of them, and maintained their own organization in- tact for many years, and gained strength particu- larly among the farmers, and brought a number of them into the class of public men of Indiana.
Colonel Isaac P. Gray was the Democratic nom- inee for lieutenant governor and was elected in 1876. "Blue Jeans" Williams served as governor until his death occurred in 1879, when Gray, as lieutenant governor, succeeded him. It was the great political privilege and pleasure of Governor Williams to commission his warm friend, Daniel W. Voorhees, as United States senator to serve out the unexpired term of Governor Morton,
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whose death occurred on the first day of November, 1877. The nomination of "Blue Jeans" caused great curiosity to see him in all parts of the State, and the Democratic State Committee decided upon a plan of exhibiting him by announcing him and the great "Sycamore of the Wabash," Daniel W. Voorhees, as speakers at the places appointed. Great crowds came to see "Blue Jeans" and re- mained to hear Voorhees. Upon the unveiling of a monument erected to the memory of Governor Williams at Wheatland, in Knox County, on July 4, 1883, Senator Voorhees delivered an oration that is here reproduced as a sample of his elo- quence, and to also present a conception of the chief characteristics of the plain farmer-governor, Voorhees said :
"In looking at the career of Governor Wil- liams, and in studying the influences under which his character was developed, a long and most · striking retrospective view is presented to the mind. Born in 1808, he came to Knox County in 1818. Here, at the age of ten years, he began his life work on the farm, and here, at the close of more than three-score years and ten, he rests in the soil and in the midst of the people he loved so well. He lived in Indiana and in this county sixty-two years, beholding with intelligent observation the growth and development, step by step, of his own State, and all of the Northwestern States, until from a nominal beginning he witnessed the glory of their civilization and power fill the whole earth. His life embraced almost three-quarters of the
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