The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-16


The Democrats Of Indiana were very DESTROYS to
escape from the imputation of being hostile TO
their government and Union, and they found
that Hendricks was 4 safe advocate upon their
slde.p
Said |: what Is your view Of Mcdonald,
the late senator from Indiana?"
Attempts have been made, said Mr.. Niblack,
ITO array Hendricks and Mcdonald against each
other. They are both upright citizens and
partisans. Mcdonald has not only shown
remarkable good sense in discriminating be-
tween the momentary passions and whims of the
day and the ultimate conclusions of the govern
ment and people, but he has shown 8 milduess
ana a kindness across party lines which have
sweetened his nature to those persons DESTROYS
of ascertaining good citizenship. He has never
caused any bitterness between neighbors of
opposite parties in Indiana, and [ cannot help
thinking that ne has a sound head as well as a
good heart"
Referring to the old Credit Mobilier investiga
ton. In which Judge Niblack was one of the in
vestigating committee, he said: There were
some queer things about that investigation. Mr..
Coltax was the viee-president. and as an Indiana
man thought that my duty on the
should not be a very harse one. It was soon ap-
parent that Colfax, attempting to conduct his
own defense, was slipping down before the steady
nature OF Cakes Ames. So | said to him.: Col
fax, you want a lawyer here. You are not capa-
Die, under the pressure exerted against you, of
making your defense as you should do. Go and
get a lawyer, for you are being worSted in this
encounter
Said /: Judge Niblack, you were in Con-
gress before the rebellion began, and would
like to know something about how things struck
you in Washington at that timeg"
Said the Judge: ''There are q good many things
/ could tell you if l had the time. but you must
not interview me. / was rather . youth at that
time, and yet a Democrat, and had the oppor-
tunity in the course of time to 60 to the White
House and talk somewhat Familiarity to Presi-
dent Buchanan. The chief power in our State
was Senator Jesse d. Bright. He was a man of
very strong will, a natural leader, and yet his
associations and relations with the radical men
across the Ohio river made him a somewhat un-
safe leader for the young Democrats, and to
some extent a misleader of his friends who were
prominent Ia the disunion performance in the
South. He had enjoyed a long tenure of
power, and had q very strong nature. The
should support Douglas or antagonize him.
Douglas had made q great impression on the
average Democrat of the State, upon the Irish
and foreign element, and also upon the young
American element. Mr.. Bright had determined
to oppose him l was a young member of Con-
gress. not belligerent in my nature, and l re-
NAMED sufficiently the friend of the administra-
ton of President Buchanan not to be entirely
uninfuential with it. But after the election 1
saw that Mr.. Bright was carrying us too far
from our neutral moorings. On two or three oc-
casions l went to the White House and found
the President very much disturbed with the fact
that he had conceded so much to the Southern
men, and yet they were about to
break up the Union in his time. He once asked
me about some matters in our State and adjacent
parts. | answered him to the best knowledge l
had and the best intentions toward my State and
fellow-cltizens, who were going to be in great
danger in case of q civil war. / found that the
President in a little while listened with interest
to what l said. l laid no straw in any PERSONS
path, but where advice had been given to him
contrary to prudence and the general loyalty of
the people | mildly endeavored to help him
out.r
Said I: Don't you think that Morton was the
greatest executive Indiana ever had"
to that" said Mr.. Niblack, "what one of
our public men ever had the same opportunity?
However. Morton was a man o. strong parts, just
adapted for a revolutionary time. All that there
was in him of fine address, nervous force and
unquestionab!e mental power, shone out su-
perbly at that crisis. His general intellectual
and public nature is well understood by the peo-
pie at large. / think that ne made too much of
the Knights of the Golden Circle business. But
there was something there, as l have already
said, for a strong partisan to find his incentive
Said l: Can you recollect anything else
shedding a light upon the timess'
20, yes. / recollect one remarkable thing
after | returned to Congress following the war.
had occasion to see Mr.. Seward two or three
timed, and he got to recognize me because he
had seen mo at the White House when Andrew
johnson was President. I went to the State
Department one day when it was far out on
Fourteenth street, and that day we were about
to pass that feature of the reconstruction acts
which gave universal suffrage, including the
blacks of the South. When / had got through
the business which took me to the State Depart
ment MI. Seward cam.a me aside, Said he:
my younsirr.eud, is Congress going to pass this
9hlvtF-~al suffrage clausel Said I: 'Mr. Sewaia,
think they are. Your political friends have a
large majority there, and they are under the
leadership of Mr.. Stevens, and / think there is
no doubt that they will pass the amendment,
and that it will override the Presidents veto in
both Houses of Congress. The revolution YOU
and your friends started is not apt to 20 back
ward
'Mr. Seward heard me with a melancholy in
terest. Said he, 4 was always opposed to
slavery, because / thought it was an injury more
to the white man than to the black man. My
feelings from my early youth have been against
oppression. But l never was an Abolitionist Of
the school of Garrison and Wendell Phillips. I
was a Republican, in favor of the fullest rights
for free labor. If this revolution has gone so
far that they are to turn the entire black race
into the suffrage, l think that my mission in the
Republican party is done. / have been beaten
by the clements l helped to awaken. I do not
believe in ignorant suffrage turned violently into
citizenship without any previous preparation.
If this amendment is going to pass / think that
my day is about done in politics"
The above fragments of conversation are only
printed now from the suggestiveness of another
| association. I infer they will do nothing to dis
turb the spread Of common sense among men of
all parties, to whom the "reminiscences Of twenty
years ago are educators.