Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-09-22
tune estimated St 81 ,0OO, 900, the extent Of the
svindle can Be pretty accurately determined.


.uus estimated st 1905, 600, the extent Of the
sVindle can Be pretty accurately Determined
THoNaR A. HESDKfoKs-Hfs WAR RECORD.
vrhen the war broke out he was a member
or he First Presbyteriao church of this city,
sra when the pastor, Rev. DR.. Nixon, preached
: loval sermon, and declared It to be the duty
Of ali Christian people to sustain the Govern
meut 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 70 return.
In a speech delivered on the Sth Of January
1869. ten Ipouths after the war began, when
he had been selected TO preside over Dem IN
ocrste State Convention in the CITY OF IN
dianauelfs he took great care that the Teoeis
were now here censured, and the war DOn HeIo
spursyed. He arraigned the war party as
sectional and intolerant.
s7ha REASONABLE organizations KNOWN as the
szTrsot,ts Of the Golden Circle, "Sons OF
iherfv- y &C. were Differed and controlled by
..+s nersouaI and political friends Of Mr.. Hen
5-fcEs These reasonable organizations
sr1ngoled arms and ammunition iEto the State.
eorresponded with rebel commanders, and
military combinations were agreed up0p
tn effect q military aud 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 TIE Government and
protect the credit of the State
Owing to the absence dn the army of 2 large
per cent. ofthe loyal people from the State,
the Democratic party carried the election II
IRdianain the fall of IS62-or elected Legis-
latzre that has since been known as tie ''trea-
soaable Legislature" This body efecteu MT
Hendricks to the United States Senate, ana ~
February. 1853 his old political --rlenus at
Shelbvyille gave him banquet AZ 1AaI Piooe5
at which he made a speech, IN ths GouTse ol
Ivtiab bp declared 81 make no appeals 10 men
To -voI1nteer. as would not say go when l
70 NOT going myself" In the same speech
bsrIsitterIy assailed the Government for its
empIoyment of negro soldiers, asserted that
the. Democrats who gave no voice or encour-
ao-euent 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. It 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
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, ani 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 Miiigan, 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 a 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
4 on whisky to 50 per gallon, and refused to tax
the stock on hand, and thus put into the
pockets of the distillers and some Of his per-
| sonal friends (if not his own) millions of dol
lars that Justly belonged to the Government.
IL Ofg, al fO
obtain from Johnson's Administration large
contract from the Government for Gatling
guns for the benefit of his personal 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 on 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 it
as bitterly after it had gone into effect. In
the Senate of the United States he declared:
''We do not let them vote, and, unless you
compel US to do it, we propose never to do it.
I Congressional Globe, February 16, 1866, page
879.) And again, on page $50, he said: "Bnt
Mr.. President, we do not want to make all the
colored people voters; am free to Say that I
do not. l do not want to make any of them
voters. We are not of the same race;
we 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 profigaey.
1t was subsequently discovered that the bill
granting the land in question was passed in
1864, during the first term of Mr.. Lincoln's
administration, and was supported and voted
for by Thomas A. Hendricks, as Senator. His
speech in favor of the bill is reported on page
XII, Congressional Globe, 1865-'64.
He is nov being sued, together Eith his as
sociate directors IL the Indianapolis Wstteerr-
works Company, for apprepriating large
amount of the bonds Of that company with
out paying for the same.