The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-30

books, histories and PHILOSOPHERS were work to
him, and when his time was his own, he never
took them up.
His favorite reading was what people call
light literature. He got in his big armchair, in
his library, and read through the last society
story with more pleasure than he ever called the
Senate to order. and he read out Of the newspa-
per what was going or in Washington and New
York with far more interest than in his Keno
phon how the Greeks fought their way through
the barbarians of Asia. Among novelists i
think Thackeray was his f~avorite, though he
read Dickens with some satisfaction and seemed
to think a great deal of some of the characters
in his books. Above all other things. however,
he liked old English authors, with their quaint
phrases and homely old ways of putting things.
Every time he came across one of their curious
paragraphs he would mention it if his wife hap
pened to be sitting near. One of his best books.
the one that he read oftenest, was Buttons
Anatomy of Melancholy. Not. / imagine, that
the philosophy in the book pleased him, but that
the language was so pleasant and so tlnged with
ancient feeling. AS to pedantic quotation of
books, | don't think his best friends ever heard
him make any. He read for his own pleasure,
and kept his reading to himself. He knew some
thing of Latin and yet never heard him use a
Latin word.
During his whole life. he was fond of ease
ard rest. He liked his library and his easy
chair; he liked his friends to come in and see
him, and he liked to talk to them about men and
events. Public men in particular made a snb-
ject of which he never grew weary, and he dis
cussed them and their actions, and the political
movements in which they were concerned. with
the utmost freedom and vigor. He himself
would hardly have gone Into public life if it had
not been for Mrs. Hendricks. She thought him
wonderfully able and brilliant, and she forced
him into all his campaigns. 1t is probable, too,
that in practical politics she knew nearly as
much as he did. She was acquainted with every
leading politician in the country, and at her
house talked with them over their plans, and
advised them frequently as to what was to be
done. She was with him in all his fights, and
was even more actively interested than he ap-
peared to be.
"In what is usually written of a mans public
career, Mr.. Hendricks was not seen at his best.
his st speeches were statistical, somewhat dull
and always unsympathetic. Many of mis- friends
thought his last speech was bad. he net with
the survivors of that constitutional convention,
and was expected to be Overlooking with reminis-
cences and good, ~fraternal recollections of the
original gathering. Instead Of that, he presented
a statistical Statement showing what the Consti-
tuition had done, and his old friends were disap-
pointed. The fact is that he never made a good
set speech. 1t was on the stump or in his short
speeches in the Senate, where he always went
without preparation, that he did his best work.
With a sympathetic crowd about him, and a sub
ject which enlisted his feeling s, he was powerful
In the effect he produced. He was never an ora
tor, never a master Of rhetoric, but he was a
good talker. He had what Governor Morton
possessed in an eminent degree, and that was the
ability to make a conversation take the place of
an Grafton. Morton was stronger in that way
than he, but his ability was undonbted.
Throughout the first years of the war the
late Vice president was at home, out Of politics
and public life. but when he went into the Sen
ate, he, in his conservative way, worked for the
safety of the Union.
I'm 1876 he first refused the vice-presidency,
and then took the place ON the ticket because
he believed that course to be for the benefit of
the party. While the election hung in doubt he
stayed quietly at home, not even advising his
friends in Congress as to the course to be pur-
sued. l can't think of a single line of advice he
wrote at that time. l knew that he preferred
the Electoral Commission to the anarchy that
seemed possible without it, but he never ceased
to feel indignant that he was deprived of the
Office. He refused to run in 1880, because he
did not want to leave home, and he wanted to
refuse last time for the same reason. He pre-
ferred home always, preferred his library and
his friends to political power, and many of the
times when people misjudged him for his silence
1t was simply his quiet unobtrusiveness and his
disposition not to engage in hard work without
absolute necessity"