The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-08-22
TESTIMONIALS OF RESPECT TO DIR.
e. z. HAWN

=. X. HAWN.
AS citizen of Indiana the late DR.. L. r.
Hawn stood deservedly high. He was a man
of recognized ability, was popular with the
Republican party, and contributed as much
to its success as any man who was on its State
ticket in 1880, when he was elected Secretary
of State. DR.. Hswn was a broad-gauged man
"a Republican of the better sort. True, he
went down with his party in 1882, when, by
the choice of the Republican Convention, he
was the head the State ticket and leading
representative of his party. He accepted de-
feat with royal grace and stepped down and
out like one who knows how to bow
to the inevitable. Still, Dr. Hawn
died in Office. He was Secretary of
the State Board of Health and
its executive officer position awarded him
as a recognition of his high professional at
tainments. On Tuesday last DIR. Hswn sud
denly died. 1t SO happened that the sad
event occurred during Eucampment week,
when the city was full of soldiers, old veter-
ans, men with whom he had served in two
wars. He died at time when His Excel
lency Governor Porter, was in the city.
when Lieutenant Governor Hanna, ex-Treas-
urer of State Hill, ex-Auditor of State Wolf,
ex-Clerk of the Supreme Court Gordon, r.
porter of the Supreme Court Dice, and ex-
Superintendent of Public In truction Bloss,
were all in the city. They were all here
when the death of ex Secretary of State
Hawn was announced. He had been their
associate in Office, q comrade, and
the peer measured by any standard.
OF the best OF the crowd, as dearly beloved by
the Republican party as any of them, and
yet Governor Porter permitted the Republic
can ex-Secretary of State to die, to be EN-
balmed and to be wheeled from the city with
no more effort to honor him than if he had
been dead rag-picker or a Massachusetts,
Tewksbury pauper, worth so much ID the
State as a stiff Nor, with one exception
Professor Bloss, all honor Ito his name-dld
any of his associates in officepay TIE slightest
respect to their dead Ccmrade Ii was in all
regards heartles5 desertion, and is com.
mented upon as an instance of the most
shameful neglect upon record. Men say,
why was it that Governor Porter did not
call the ex-Stale officers together and
take some sympathetic action in the mat
ter" Echo answers why? Governor Por-
ter grows eloquent when he discusses "lndi-
ana in her dawn God knows il is to be
hoped that Indiana in her midnight, if
there was ever such period in her history,
made no record so repulsive to manly men
as the Republican ex-S;ste officers, with
others still in office, have made in the case
of DR.. Hawn. The Governor could have
with eminent propriety led off in the mat
ter. He could have called at the residence,
where relatives were "sighing like the night
winds and sobbing like the rain" and testi-
fed by his presence that a chord of SYM
patty in his nature had been touched.
His ex associates In State offices could
have done the same. They would have
honored themselves by such acts of human
ity They would have added new trophies
to the archives of human nature, and they
would have stood better with the honorable
men of their party than they stand today.
When Governor Porter again appears before
an Indiana audience to lecture on Indiana
IN Her Dawn" let him explain, ii he can
Why it was that he did absolutely nothing to
honor Indiana and her Harm 1t is possible
That Dr. HaWD, before ne dled, nau learned
to appreciate the hollowness of Republican
professions Of esteem. Possibly his bank
account was not sufficiently large to secure
any recognition of services to his party by
those for whose success he toiled when liv-
irg. Possibly; but it were folly to indulge
in surmises when hsggard facts invite to dis
cussion and afford ample food for
reflection. We know that DIR. Hawn was as
well known and as highly honored by mis-
party in Indiana as Governor Porter or any
of the Republican ex-officials we have
named, and we feel warranted in saying il
death had less loved a shining mark and had
sped his arrows at any one OF them DR..
Hawn would have been quick to have acted
the part of true nobility and would have
seen to it that they did not go TO their graves
unhonored and unsung.