The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-29
HENDRICKS AND THE NEGRO.
A Few Points from the Record of the Candi-
date for vice-President.

A Few Points from the Record of the Candi-
date for vice-President.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
WASHINGTON, July 28.-In view of the fact
that the Democratic leaders are endeavoring to
stampede the negroes from the Republican party
by attacks ON General Logan's ante war record,
the following, from the New York Tribune's
Washington correspondent, on Mr.. Hendricks
negro record is of particular interest,"
ut seems strange to old Abolitionists, espe-
cially to those who served in the Union army to
see a man like Colonel I. w. Higginson throw
ing up his hat for ticket that bears the name
of Thomas A. Hendricks In 1885, when Col
onel Higginson was in Kansas, fighting to pre-
vent the Lecompton outrage, Mr.. Hendricks,
as Buchanan's Commissioner of the General
Land office in Washington, was squeezing
money out of his subordinates to be used in
forcing the Lccompton Constitution upon the
people of Kansas. A few years later, when Hig-
ginson went to South Carolina as a captain in a
Massachusetts, regiment, Hendricks, in Indiana,
was shouting for Northwestern
eonfederacy In order to get rid of
New England, and her Yankee institutions.
But Col Higginson has several other good
reasons to remember the Democratic candidate
for the vice-presidency. In 1864 Col Higginson
was colonel of a regiment of colored troops
whose activity and bravery gave Mr. Hendricks
friends in South Carolina and Florida much
trouble. Under "A Higginson's command, one Of
the explosits OF this regiment was the capture of
Jacksonville, Fla. This sort of thing seemed
inendurable to the copperhead'si in Congress, and
on March IL, 1864, Mr. Hendricks, in the United
States Senate voted for resolution to inyesti-
gate whether 7. w. Higginson, now colonel of a
regiment of negro troops, had any connection
with the attempt to rescue Anthony Burns, a
fugitive slave, from the custody of United
States officers in Boston, in 1854, and with the
killing and numbering of any person having his
custodyl At the same session Mr. Hendricks
opposed at every stage measures to place negro
troops on the same footing as white troops in
respect of pay, rations and clothing. An ex-
tract from one of his speeches-May IL, 1864
on this subject, will interest not only Messrs.
Higginson and Curtis, but colored voters every
where. He said
In the first place. am not content cheerfully to
vote an increase Of pay to negro troops. believe
honestly that every million Of dollars that is paid
away Of the peoples money to support negro troops
IN the field is much money lost and that the peo-
pie to that extent unnecessarily and wrongfully
taxed
THAT speech was made long after negro
troops had exhibited their valor on a score of
hard fought, bloody fields, and when every
officer and soldier in the army had learned to ad-
miro their soldierly qualities. During the same
session Mr. Hendricks frequently spoke and
voted against the emancipated race.
An educated negro surgeon, with the rank Of
major in the Union army, was brutally thrown
from Washington street car while on his way
to attend court-martial Senator Sumner
called the matter to the attention Of the Senate
by resolution, which Mr.. Hendricks stubborn
ly opposed. In the course of his remarks he
declared that None but an impudent negro
would wish to crowd into white mans car In
opposing bill to amend the charter Of a
street railroad company as to prohibit it from ex
cluding colored persons from its cars, Mr. Hen
bricks said:
The men who have invested in this corporation
and whose money is now in rails and horses did
not do 30 with the view and expectation of legislation
on the part OF Congress that would depreciate the