National Republican., 1876-10-17
tune estimated at s., 900 600, the extent of the
swindle can be pretty accurately determined.


swindle can be pretty accurately determined.
THOMAS A. .HENDRICKs-HIsw WAR RECORD.
When the war broke out he was member
of the First Presbyterian church of this city,
and when the pastor, Rev. DR.. Nixon, preached
loyal sermon, and declared 1t TO be the duty
of all Christian people to sustain the Govern
ment of the United States in the enforce ment
of the laws and the punishment of all disloyal
persons, Mr.. Hendricks, with several fellow
Democrats, left the church, never to return.
In q speech delivered on the Sth of January
1862, ten months after the war began, when
he had been selected to preside over DEM
ocratic State Convention in the city OF In
dianapolis, he took great care that the rebels
were nowhere censured, and the war nowhere
approved. He arraigned the war party as
sectional and intolerRnt.
The reasonable organizations known as the
"Kniphts of the Golden Circle" "Sons of
Liberfy," &C., were differed and controlled by
the personal and political friends of Mr.. Hen
bricks. These reasonable organizations
smuggled arms and ammunition into the State.
corresponded with rebel commanders, and
military combinations were agreed upon
to effect military and bloody revolution in the
State. Having failed to overturn the State
government by seizing the military power,
they determined to defeat its operations and
bring about anarchy by locking up the public
treasury and thus withholding the money
necessary to carry on the Government and
protect the credit OF the State.
Owing to the absence in the army of large
per cent. of the loyal people from the State,
Indiana in the fall of 1S62-or elected Legis-
lature that has since been known as the ''trea-
sonable Legislature" This body elected Mr..
Hendricks to the United States Senate, and in
February, 1868, his old political friends at
Shelbyville gave him banquet at that place,
at which he made a speech, in the course of
which he declared, 81 make no appeals to men
to volunteer, as l would not say go when
was not going myself" In the same speech
he bitterly assailed the Government for its
employment of negro soldiers, asserted that
the Democrats who gave no voice or encour-
agement to the Government In its efforts to
suppress the rebellion were the only loyal
men, and labored to create distrust OF the
| national faith and credit.
Mr.. Hendricks example and influence, as
well as those of his party, were squarely op-
posed to the war and all measures to carry it
on. 1t was unconstitutional, in his opinion
unnecessary and cruel. He was in favor of
peace, and any compromise, however degrad-
ing, to secure it. The following is fair sam
pie of the announcements for Mr.. Hendricks
to speak during this time: On the 14th of Sep
tember he was posted to speak at Seymour.
The hand-bill announcing the fact called
upon call who were in favor of peace, all
who desired to be free from the death
grip of this wicked, tyrannical and imbecile
Administration, its arbitrary and illegal
arrests, and its draft and conscription laws,
by which peaceable citizens were dragged from
their homes and all the endearments of
domestic life to butcher and be butchered, to
come out and hear this advocate of peace and
reunion" Hendricks was the attorney and
friend of Mlligan, the chief officer of the
Sons of Liberty, who was tried and condemned
to be shot for treason, but who was afterward
released by the Supreme Court of the United
States.
IN THE SENATE.
He opposed systematically every measure Of
reconstruction, fought against the abolition of
slavery, denounced the Freedmen's Bureau
and Civil Rights bill of 1866, opposed the bill
to disbar from Congress the rebels who in 1860
and 1861 had left the Senate and House for the
purpose of engaging in the rebellion, voted
against the law declaring the validity of the
public debt-including debts incurred for pay
ment of bounties and pensions to our soldiers;
voted and labored assiduously to defeat the
law rendering it illegal for the United States
| or any State to assume or pay any debt or
obligation incurred in the aid OF the rebellion;
voted for bill to prevent any one from voting
| in the unreconstructed States who could not
| read or write or who was not possessed Of $3.50
worth of property.
While in the Senate he voted for the salary
grab in 1867, thereby increasing his own pay,
and he supported the bill to increase the tax
on whisky to 81 per gallon, and refused to tax
the stock on hand, and thus put into the
pockets of the distilers and some of his per-
sonal friends (if not his own) millions Of dol
lars that justly belonged to the Government.
He used his official position as a Senator to
obtain from Johnson's Administration large
contract from the Government for Gatling
for tho hoDaft nf his DarsODal friends and
business partners.
He was consistent In his opposition to the
negro race, and while in the Senate voted uni
formly against them, against emancipation in
the District of Columbia, against their civil and
political rights in that District, and against
their right to ride the street cars in the city
of Washington; opposed their employment as
soldiers, and, after they were enlisted and had
gallantly periled their lives on the field of
battle, he voted on more than one occasion to
deny them equal compensation with white
soldiers in the same service. 1t was on this
ground that he opposed the bill to equalize the
pay of soldiers. He was opposed to their right
to testify In courts Of justice, opposed the thir
teenth amendment to the Federal Constitu-
ton. which made them free; resisted the adop-
ton of the fourteenth amendment, that de-
clared their citizenship and required legislation
to protect them in the enjoyment of the rights
thereof; and bitterly resisted the fifteenth
amendment, which gave them the right of
suffrage, before its adoption, and denounced 1t
as bitterly after it had gone into effect. In
the Senate of the United States he declared:
awe do not let them vote, aud, unless you
compel US to do it, we propose never to do it."
Z Congressional Globe, February 16, 1866, page
S79) And again, on page $50, he said: "But
Mr.. President, we do not want to make all the
coIored people voters; l am free to Say that
do not. / do not want to make any of them
voters. We are not of the same race;
VIC are so different that we ought not to COM
pose one political community" He was the
advocate of, and opposed the repeal of, the
| fugitive slave law. He denounced the emanci-
patton proclamation as revolutionary, and de-
MED in the most vehement terms the right of
Mr.. Lincoln to issue such paper.
HIS HONESTY.
| In public speech made at Laporte, Ind,
July 26, 1872, Mr.. Hendricks denounced Presi-
dent Grant for having approved the Northern
Pacific railroad bill, granting thirty, seven mil
| lion acres Of land to that company. He was
| fearfully indignant over such awful profigacy.
1t was subsequently discovered that the bill
granting the land in question Yss passed in
1864, during the frst term Of NJ. tIpeoln's
admins istration, and was supported and voted
for by Thomas A. Hendricks, as Senator. His
| speech in favor of the bill is reported on page
1891, Congressional Globe, 1S63-'64.
| He is nov being sued, together with his as
sociate directors in the indianapolis Water
works Company, for appropriating q large
arn"".t ~ ~" hondS Of that company with
IN, NJ fET tSe ssme -