The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-07
GATH WRITES OF INDIANA.
The Influences Which Determined the
Growth of the HOesier State.
indianapolis in Many Respects Peculiar
City-The Old Town of yincennes-
The States Public Men.
Letter in Cincinnati ENQUIRER.

Letter IN CINCINNATI Enquirer
II was the custom thirty years ago to allude
TO the State of Indiana as if it were something
between Arkansas and North Carolina. The
pride of Virginians and Kentuckans, of Ohioans
and Iliinoisans found consolation in rejecting
upon these former three States as without the
social basis of their own-the poor white Com
monweaiths of the Union.
Aslate as 1885 history of Kentucky went out
side Of its scope and purpose to show that IA
land company imported in the seventeenth CEN
tury to the waters of Pimlico and Albemarle
Sounds the worst. by far the worst, population of
shy brought 10 America from whom have come
the sand-hillers, crackers dirt-eaters, rednecks,
etc, of the South. The western march Of this
unhappy mongrel people," says the author.
''passed south of Kentucky, and they then
crossed the country from the Carolina coast to
central Arkansas and southern Missouri"
Persons who have noted the social and political
improvement Of what were called the poor white
States since the rebellion, have also observed
how necessary it has been for more pretentious
States which have fallen back in the race to keep
alive these ancient and vague illusions The
history of Indiana illustrates the motto that
'Honor and shame from no condition rise"
No State in the Union has come out stronger
in biography, in the contrasts Of type and char
acter and in real monuments of towns, archi-
lectures and conveniences, than Indiana since
the beginning of the civil war. Within her
borders were large ingredients from the slave
States, and southern Indiana for many years
continued to import and export slaves. Into
Indiana went large Virginia and Kentucky ele-
h.1ty hohl 1or ~,
with occasional notable arrivals from Tennes see
There was also in Indiana a small but we'll
marked French element, not only at Vim
cennes and other spots in the south, but in the
northeast, toward Canada and Detroit
Pennsylvania gave the first important North
ern element to this State, and afterward Ohio
began to send forward her second growth of citi-
zens. and within the past twenty years there has
been curious reflex wave of immigration to In
diana from the States to the west OF her. An
idea was long prevalent that much or most of
the land of Indiana was inferior, and therefore
the larger tides of emigration, taking the water
routes by the lakes and the Ohio, went past In
diana. They or their descendants bave but re-
Gently discovered that in many cases they OBJ
tanned worse land by going the further. Indiana
has, therefore, grown beyond the expectations
of her grandfathers. The census of 1880 por:'
trayed her with about two millions of inhabit-
ants. This increase of about e-third
in twenty years, and of nearly million of in
habitants added in thirty years. Indiana is the
sixth State in the American Union, next below
Missouri and next above Massachusetts
This State had no general or spiritual incent-
ive like Ohio, Kansas and some other Western
States Being closed to slavery by the organic
law creating the Northwestern Territory it did
not attract wealthy people from the South, and
as it had navigation inferior to other Western
States with their longer lines of lake and more
general river systems it furnished no particular
nucleus such as Chicago or Cleveland or ST.
Louis for great settlement 1t was not colo
nized by revolutionary soldiery. cooperating
with their enterprising officers was the case
with Ohio, in which it was originally contained.
The growth of Indiana was almost secondary;
the large towns beyond its exterior furnished
the newspapers which were read by the
people of the country, aud, therefore, it had
but few advertising advantages; the habit being
to comment upon it as if it were some inoffensive
Egypt.
The politics of Indiana was Influenced by the
rise and succession of the school of General
jackson, whose warlike nature and humble be-
ginnings greatly recommended him to the plain
people there. The State had it's own hero, Har-
rison who came forward some years afterward
and trumphed over General Jackson's successor;
but the President dying the scepter again de-
parted from the Moab of the West, and we heard
but little of Indiana until the outbreak of the
civil war Two men then appeared of nearly
equal force OF character and fierce convictions
Jesse D. Bright and Oliver p Morton.
A ipancier was also developed from the State
banking system of Indiana in Hugh McCulloch;
quick and capable Speaker of Congress and
subsequent Vice president was Schiller Colfax; a
graceful, skillful and experienced advocate came
also to the front in Thomas A. Hendricks
Indianapolis rose to be one of tho most in
terestng cities in the West although it had been
created by an act of legislative will and was
without any particular advantages, except its
centrality. This CITY has been said to be the
largest city in the world wholly remote from
natural lines of communication; it is upon no
river that pertains to commerce, and it has
grown to he larger than Washington was at the
commencement of the civil war and has prob
ably stable population of nearly one hundred
thousand. Other legislative centers in the
West, like Columbus, ST Paul and Denver, have
taken root and fiourished, but Indianapolis, above
all other capitals, is probably the undisputed
mistress of its State in communications COM
MERGE and social influence.
Planned upon scale Of magnifcence, the
public buildings erected there in the past ten
years show superbly. The county buildings
East or the West, and the new State Capitol is a
marvel, not only of size, but of solidity and
economy. 1t is much larger than the State
Capitol OF New York, and has cost up to the
present time only one fifth as much. The only
public statue in this city, and perhaps in the
State, is that of Oliver Perry Morton, whose
prenoms clearly indicate his wholly Western ex-
traction. Commodore Perry, by his victory on
Lake Erie, made West possible, and he and
Anthony Wayne stand like the pillars of Hercu-
les at the entrances of that great country, the
one bearing the trident thereof and the other the
sword.
Indianapolis is the social capital of the more
modern history of this State; further back we
must seek in cities and towns now partly for
gotten for the ruling spirits of the State. Among
these towns are Madison, New Harmony
Vincennes, Connersville, Brookville Rich
monG, and other places upon the
Ohio the White and the Wabash
rivers. An atlas of Indiana, published as
late as 1922 shows next to nothing in three
quarters of the whole State; there were only two
counties in middle Indiana, north of point
thirty miles from the Ohio river, and from that
point the settlements ran along the eastern and
western boundary. and gave the State the ap-
pearance of a stocking hung up at Christmas,
with all the goodies" along the sole and instep,
and nothing in the leg.
indianapolis stood at the highest forks of the
White river, with along name and no neighbors
XincAnnes with an ORIGIN antarior To the A mar