New-York tribune., 1882-02-14
WDT4N1 ST1TES.UFN.

The contributions of the State of Indiana to
the roll of Democratic statesmen have not been
particularly glorious. There was Jesse ID.
Bright who in his time was a leader OF
prominence and greatly looked up to, was
seventeen years United States Senator and
President of the Senate for several sessions.
Like many other Northern Democrats, he
WAS disloyal at the beginning of the
war, but, unlike them, had not the wit
to conceal it; and having exposed him
self in a blndcrng correspondence he
was expelled from the Senate i'll 1862. Since
then the Indiana Democratic statesmen who
have most largely filed the public eye have
been Senator Voorhees, and the two singularly
unfortunate candidates for Vice-Presidcnt on
the Democratic ticket, Mcssrs. Hendricks and
English. Mr.. Voorhees, can hardly be called a
success at the present moment, by reason OF
his peculiar attitude upon the tariff question,
which gives offence to the free trade wing of
the party. This gcntemans views on
political questions generally are largely gov
erned by the fluctuations in the Indiana mar
kct. In the last Presidential campaign he dis
covered that the manufacturing interests OF
Indiana demanded protection, and that the
voters would not sustain platform advocating
tariff for revenue only. Though always a free
trader hitherto, he nObly rose to the emer-
gency and became a protectiOnist Reason
why: Free trade unpopular i'll Indiana. Re
suit Voorhees, unpopular with his party
Nor was Mr.. Hendricks ever a success in
politics, though he sometimes deluded himself
with the notion that he was. He had the as
surance to consider himself IA candidate for
the Presidential nomination of his party III
1876. Losing it, he made a great virtue OF
accepting the second place on the ticket, and
conducted himself throughout the campaign as
though he had done his party a great service
and made considerable personal sacrifice
in consenting to take the nomination for
Vice President. After the ticket upon which
he had been candidate was defeated, he
made himself ridiculous by his criticisms of
Tilden for not seizing upon the Presidency,
and afterward offended and disgusted Tilden's
friends, who were making a push for the re-
nomination of the old ticket by gratuitously
Haunting in their faces his positive refusal
to take the second place on the ticket, the
effect of which, of course, was to weaken the
combination and finally kill the whole scheme
Then came in Mr.. English, and everybody
knows what an egregiOus failure he made
of it as candidate for Fice-Prcsident. He
was put on the ticket primarily because he
was rich and Indiana must have a candidate
else she would he lost to the Democracy in
the October election, with damaging effect
upon the Presidential canvass. And he turned
ont to be a man who in fisherman's phrase would
"neither fish, cut bait, nor 90 ashore" He
didn't pay his assessment, nor carry the OctO-
Der election, nor do anything else except to
hang as q dead weight on the neck of his
party.
Never was a candidate so thoroughly and
universally cursed by his own party as he has
been ever since the defeat. Not even the
apo state Vice Presidents were so treated
And now he comes ont with confession that
he was q fool to take the nomination and
doesn't know why he did il, or how he came to
be nominated For that matter, we can tell
him how he came to be nominated. 1t
was done by the friends of Tidcn, who were
angry at their candidate defeat and dis
gusted with Hendricks for having been instru-
mental in eflccting it. In thcir anger and
DISGUST they nominated English simply 10
load the ticket and get even with lcnd-
ricks That is how be came to be nominated,
and the Tildcn men have no hesitation in
saying so with blunt irankne>s So that, upon
the whole we suspect that even Indiana
Democrats themselves must be by This time
willing to admit that their statesmen have
not been conspicuous for their ability or
their success. They have secured two
Vice Presidential candidates by virtue OF
having their State election in October and
in each case the candidate has been positive
drawback to the ticket. But it would not be
at all surprising IT, notwithstanding the fatality
that has followed their candidates, they should