The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-18
A GOOD. HONEST DEMOCRAT.
Incidents in the Career of an Unadulterated
Democrat of the Old school.


Democrat of the Old School.
! New York Times
| Polk and Dallas were the candidates nomi
] mated hy the Baltimore convention and as soon
( as the nominations were made the Empire Club
began Its operations in this city. The ranks OF
| the club soon swelled to thousands, and it be
came as prominent Democrat styled 1t, 1.-The
leading spirit of the campaign" 1t is said that
Capt. Rynders himself never drank liquor but
| the men with whom hs surrounded himself in
the Empire Club were the offscourings of So
| clety, drunkards thieves, gamblers and rufians.
] They were the kind of men to do the work laid
out for them, which principally to break up
Wing meetings, resortirg to force, if necessary,
TO accomplish their purpose. The history or
| that campaign will be remembered by all old
citizens of New York. Wherever Wing meet
ling was announced Capt Rynders or some
other officer of the Empire Club was present
with gang of ruffians at his back. The speak
| efs voice was drowned in catcalls and Kisses;
carrots, cabbages, and often missiles of more
| dangerous character were hurled upon the plat
form. and if all this failed to break up the meet
ing the lights of the hall would be suddenly ex--
| tinguished, throwing the audience into con-
fusion, and affording the professionals of the
Empire Club who might be present fne-oppor-
| tunity to rifle the pockets of the hated Wings.
All through the campaign of 1874, the Empire
Club thus did the dirty work of the Democracy,
| and the result was that it scarcely possible
| to hold Wing meeting at all, and utterly i'm
possible to conclude one without disturbance.
In some cases meetings were broken up by alb
solute force, when every source of annoyance
had been tried in vain. An instance of this kind
of heroic treatment" as it was called by the
| officers OF the Empire Club, occurred at meet
Ing OF Abolitionsts during the early fall of 1874.
This party had been steadily, although very
slowly. gaining strength, and in this national
| campaign the leaders had deemed it advisable to
nominate a ticket, with Mr.. Birney at it's head.
meeting was announced to be held at the old
broadway Tabernacle, on Broadway, just above
Pearl street. at which Wendell Phillips, William
1 Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass were to
speak. Captain Rynders was a firm believer in
| the divine origin Of the institution of slavery,
| and could quote scripture fuently in its behalf,
while IN the same breath he cursed its opponents
with the most horrible blasphemy If there was
| anybody that he hated with a more cordial
hatred than Wing it was an Aboltionist He
determined that the meeting in the Tabernacle
| should be broken up and accordingly the EN-
pre- Club was present in force, led by their
president In person At the fiftieth anniversary
meeting OF the Aatislavery Society held on
Oct. 2, 1888 Mr.. A. O. Wilcox gave an account
OF this incident in the career of the Empire Club
and Captain Rynders Rynders and his club
Mr.. Wilcox said, appeared in full numbers at
the meeting and announced their special
guarlanshlp of the general government
and the Southern States. rebuking with
shouts and profanity any allusion to them which
were deemed lacking in respect Mr. Garrison,
as presiding officer, invited Captain Rynders to
take the platform and address the audience in
opposition to any statement which he might
hear, but he declined to do this, and offered as
substitute person who claimed to be an M. D.,
| and who delivered fippant address, in which
he labored to prove that negroes were not men,
fortifylng his position by the assertion that the
negro's facial line was not right angle with the
general surface of the ground, but much small
er angle, like those of most animals. At the con-
| clusion of this harangue Mr. Garrison expressed
| the hope that white man would attempt any
reply; and assigned that duty to two of the de-
a1 Il ~, u
| Samuel r. Ward. Mr.. Douglass took the lead
and defended his title to manhood in such a
clear, logical and unanswerabe manner that
Captain Rynders himself was compelled to
admit the power of his arguments, and tried
to diminish their JORGE by shouting, ''But
he is half white!" s'What do you think of me,
thenp exclaimed Ward, springing to his feet and
| exhibiting a gigantic frame as black midnight
With this blunt introduction Ward addressed
! Rynders as my discolored brother" and poured
/ upon him such yolley of w.t. sarcasm and ridi-
| cule that the members of the club began first to
smile, then to laugh, and finally to shout, clap
and stamp uproariously., They then began to
withdraw quietly, until Rynders was left almost
| the sole member present, when he, too, beat a
hasty retreat. This" believe said Mr.. Wilcox
was the last appearance of the Empire Club On
an anti slavery platform"
Captain Rynders, in published interview on
| Oct. 8, 1883 contradicted the story told by Mr..
| Wilcox in many of its details. las expect to
meet my mother in heaven, he said, land l am
now eighty years old, and hope am likely to
! meet her soon-the story they told at the centen-
NAL abolition meeting the other day was lie I
! did not go there with any club or any body The
Empire Club not there neither was the
4 litte cannon that we used to call the Baby
Walker lived around in Pearl street at that
| time, and went to the meeting for curiosity
| | saw the crowd going in, and / went in alone
| 1t is true that / did say when they spoke of
/ Fred Douglass as an educated negro Oh he's
half wbiten 1t is true he did give me a shot and
| as a as lad in 70
| when he said to me: oh, then, l am only your
half brotherl But it is not true that the black
| man who spoke made any brilliant reply to me-
as they say. knew the darby well, because 1
| used to work on boat with him on the North
river. did get mad at old Garrison because he
used some insulting language about President
| Tyler. Now, Tyler was Wing, and / was
| Democrat. and Tyler had turned me out of of
| flee only thirty days before. But l would not
listen without protest to their blasphemous Ian
guage believed they compared somebody to
Jesus Christ did jump on the platform and
| did grab Garrison by the collar, and l did say
to him: If you say that again | will throw you
off the PLATFORM and would have done it.
was not afraid of anybody in those days But as
for any organized attack on the meeting, there
was none"
While Captain Rynders was United States
marshal, he had charge of Hicks the pirate,
and superlntended the execution of that noto-
rious criminal at Bedloe's island 1t will De
recolected that Hicks was a seaman on board
the sloop E. A. johnson, and murdered his cap
tain and mate He was confined in the Tombs
and on the occasion of visit from Marshal
Rynders to his cell attempted to murder him.
He was in the famous cell No. 4, from which so
many unfortunate men have been taken to the
scaffold. Ryndels entered the condemned cell.
Hicks, a powerful man over six feet high sat
upon the side of his bed 1t was but few DAVIS
previous to his execution, and the doomed MUIR
derer seemed to be in a terrible state of mind.
His eyes glared like those of a wild beast
hood Vt..ap Till - - l.
bluff grunt was the only reply.
The Marsal looked closely at the murderer and
noticed a peculiar expression about his eyes.
Hicks slowly rose from his cot, seized ar iron
stool that was alongside and backed over be-
tween Rynders and the cell door
There was murder in that devils eyes, said
Rynders recently in narrating the incident. II
felt we were going to have life and death strug-
IL