The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-08
THE PUBLIC MEN OFINDIANA.
"Gath' Talks Briefly Of Hoosier Gov
ern0rs and Other Prominent Men.
General Harrison, John Gibson, Thomas PoSey,
Jennings, Noble, Wallace, Bigger, Howard,
Whitcomb, Marshall and Wright.
Letter in Cincinnati Enquirer.

darflSonS nOmlnati0n TO nave oeen pOlitlcal
mistake, and says that his election involved no
principle whatever that he not only sought to
introduce slavery into the West, but took sides
with it at the admission of Missouri in 1920; was
opposed to the right of petition on the subject OF
slavery, and had declared that ''only an inco-
herent devil could look with appreciation upon
the schemes of the Abolitionists."
The battle of Tippecanoe, fought on Indiana
SOIL killed and wounded nearly two hundred
whites and about the same number of Indians.
Among the killed was COL 10 Daviess, the
brother-in law of Chief justice Marshall, and
also the district attorney who had prosecuted
Aaron Burr, in Kentucky. Burr visited Vim
cennes while Harrison was Governor, and OBJ
tanned some of his volunteers there.
The Governor succeeding Harrison, John Glib
son, removed the public offices of the Territory
to Corydon, town hardly twenty miles west of
Louisville in Kentucky. 1t was this officer
who, as Secretary, saved the life of Harrison
from Tecumsehs tomahawk.
The third Territorial Governor Thomas
Posey, was from the banks of the Potomac, and
had been Revolutionary and Indian officer, and
for while Senator from Virginia. He died
from the diseases incidental to residence in
that new country, at an advanced age. In one
of his messages to the Legislature at Corydon
he wrote: 1.-THE settling state of my health will
not admit of my longer continuance at this
place. find myself badly situated on account
of the want of medical aid; my physician is at
Louisville, and have taken all the medicine
brought with me-"
At Corydon was held the convention which
adopted the first Constitution of Indiana. In
1916 the State entered the federal Union, with
Jonathan JENNINGS as the first Governor,
Christopher Harrison the Lieutenant governor,
and William Hendricks Representative in Con
gress.
This Mr.. Hendricks was native of General
ST. Clair's county, in Pennsylvania, and settled
at Cincinnati. His home in Indiana was at
Madison, and although he had beer only two
years in the State, his behavior in the constitu-
tional convention carried him to Congress and
to the Governors office. He had three terms in
Congress as the Territorial delegate, and be-
came the second Governor of the State, and,
after serving two terms, he laid down Office
forever. He brought into Indiana printing
press and published the second newspaper in the
State. His nephew is the Vice president of the
United States, and two of his sons were killed
on the federal side in the late civil war. He was
a Methodist and there is said to be no picture
eXtant of him. He accumulated a considerable
estate, chiefly in the vigorous young city of
Madison.
Governor Jennings, above referred to-, was a
Presbyterian minister's son. from Jersey, and
his fine handwriting made him clerk of the In
diana Territorial Legislature. He was the first
determined opponent in Indiana of slavery
taking root upon the soil, and the Attorney gen.
eral of the Territory, Thomas Randolph, was
equally ardent to encourage the institution.
In the early settlement of Indiana the Vir-
ginia- descended people, who held most of the
official places wanted slavery while the New
Jersey and Pennsylvania people, who finally got
control of the State after it ceased to be Terri
tory. wanted the principle of the Articles Of
Confederation to stand. Slavery virtually ex-
listed mere for years, and slaves were bought and
sold in the public market contrary to law A
late reviewer of the State says that public SEN
timent at Vincennes was as proslavery as it was
at Richmond"
The Middle State men were warmly seconded
in their hostility to slavery by the Carolina
Quakers, who came not only from North, but
from South Carolina and settled in the eastern
portion OF the State. These supported Mr.. Jen-
nings almost to a man, and he defeated Ran
doph by a.plurality, each getting little more
than four hundred votes Had Randolph gone
to Congress he would have set to work there to
have the prohibitory clause repealed. One OF
the Territorial judges from the South, named
Taylor endeavored to provoke Governor Jen-
nings into duel The proslavery candidate set
up against him, Mr.. Posey, got near,y 300
votes less The first message of this Pennsyl.
vania scion said: II recommend to your consid-
Grafton the propriety of providing by law to pre-
vent more effectnally any unlawful attempts to
seize and carry into bondage persons of color
legally entitled to their freedom" Kidnapping
pestered Indiana down to the very brink of tbs
Rebellion.
1t was Governor Jennings who, in 1920, had
his commissioners to lay out indianapolis. He
made the Indian treaties opening Indiana to
white settlement, and, being sent to Congress,
relapsed into too convivial habits there and
shortened his life
Mr.. Randolph, above referred to, was cousin
of John Randolph, of Roanoke, and had married
daughter of Sir John Skipworth. and later a
granddaughter Of General ST. Clair, Territorial
Governor. In the political feuds of Indiana
fights were not uncommon, and Randolph was
once stabbed with dirk, and he cut his adver-
sary IN the face with pocket-knife. Ran
dolph and his bellgerent friend Taylor, above
referred to. were both killed at Tippecanoe.
AS soon as Indiana entered the Union, uni
versity was created by law at Vinncennes.
James Brown Ray. Kentuckian by birth,
who succeeded William Hendricks as Governor,
was peculiar individual, who always registered
his name on steamboats, and at hotels with the
title added. In his old age the boys would see
him stopping in the streets and writing words in
the air with his cane. On one occasion, at the
hanging of some white persons for numbering
Indians, one of these was pardoned on the scat
fold, and the Governor rode to the gallows,
where the young man was seated on his coffin.
''Stand up" said the Governor to the astonished
prisoner. 'Do you know in whose presence you
standF The unfortunate man shook his head.
There are but two powers known to the law, "
gravely said the Governor, 'that can save you
from hanging by the neck until you are dead.
One is the great God cf the universe, the other
is j. Brown Ray, Governor of the State of Indi-
ana. The latter stands before you. Here he
handed the young man a written pardon. You
are pardoned"
The fourth Indiana Governor, Noah Noble was
Virginian, at whose funeral in 1874, Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher, then citizen of Indiana,
performed some of the services.
The next Governor of the State, David Wal
lace, Pennsylvania. put in nomination for the
presidency on the field of Tippecanoe. in 1885,
General Harrison, and William Ross Wallace
read poem.
The next Governor, Samuel Bigger, was of the
first crop of Western born men, native of Ohio,
and educated at one of her early COLLEGES He