The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-06

property, and IN many other respects are
made their equals.
/ Mr.. McCulloch describes the memorable
/ campaign of 1910 in Indiana, Thompson,
Smith and Love were the most prominent
| speakers on the whig side; Hannegan and
Kennedy on the democratic. Public feel
! ing was altogether with the wings. There
was really nothing Objectionable about
/ the administration of Mr. Van Buren,.
He was far above the average of our pres
/ idents as a statesman and his character
was beyond reproach. The financial crisis
came when he was president, but he was
not responsible for it, 1t was, however,
/ the cause of his defeat for reelection.
The depression which prevailed from
| 1857 10 1913 can not, SAYS Mr.. McCulloch,
| be understood by any who did not wit
ness it. 1t affected all classes but the
: greatest sufferers were the day laborers
and the farmers. Everything the farmer
/ had TO sell had to be disposed of in barter
4 or for currency at ruinous prices. Il wit
messed in 1871" he says" a sale toa hotel
/ keeper in indianapolis of oats at cents
! a bushel, chickens at half dollar dozen,
/ and eggs at cents dozen. Other farm
/ products were proportionately low-24
cents a pound net for fat cattle and hogs
was the ruling price at Cincinnati-at
t that time the great mart for beef and
/ pork" These prices were not the result
/ OF overproduction. but of scarcity OF
money. The real causes of the panic were
the initiation and wild speculation of the
preceding years.
In the latter part of May, 1888, Mr..
McCulloch paid his first visit TO In
dianapOlis. He came with Judge Sulli-
van and two or three other lawyers,
travelling in small spring-wagon. The
roads were in shocking condition and
two days were required to make the
Journey from Madison. A day or two
after his arrival here ne was examined by
the judges of the supreme court and
licensed to practice law in all of the
/! courts of the state. His impressions OF
the indianapolis of that day are interest
ing. at had been made the seat of the
state government in 1921, but was not
occupied as such until 1925. 1t had been
selected for the capital not because there
was anything attractive in the situation,
but because it was near the geographical
center of the state. Its site was upon the
eastern bank of the White river, in the
heart of a magnificent forest, but on
what seemed to be perfectly
level plain. 1t had been laid off by the
surveyors on a magnificent scale, with rect
angular streets, ninety feet, and avenues
radiating from the center, l20 feet in
1 width. Ample provision had been made
| for parks to inclOse the public buildings,
and the plan of the city upon paper was
| attractive and artistic, but upon paper
only. Little resemblance, indeed, did the
| place itself bear to the plat. The parks,
/ in which were the state-house, just then
completed. and the courthouse, had been
/ inclOsed with post-and-rail fences, but
nothing had been done to the street, ex-
/ cept TO remove the stumps from two or
three of those most used. All of the
noble old trees-walnuts, oaks, pop
/ lars, the like of which will never
be seen again-had been cut down, and
around the parks Young locust and other
inferior but rapidly growing trees had
been set out. There were no walks, and
| the streets most in use, after every rain,
/ and for good part OF the year, were knee
! deep with mud.
CAS- a director of the state bank | was
/ under the necessity tor many years OF
making quarterly trips on horseback from
/ Fort Wayne to Indianapolis, through
country almost impossible by carriages of
any kind, and vet | never encountered
mud deeper or more tenacious than in the
streets of the capital of the state. have
seen many of the incipient towns OF the
1 West, but none so utterly fOrlOrn as Indi-
| annapolis appeared to me in the spring of
/ 1883 Ii had no local advantages except the
| fact that it was surrounded by a very fer
/ tile country; nothing TO recommend it but
| its being the metropolis of the state
/ There were then only two bridges in In
/ diana, and these had been built by the
/ United States in anticipation of the extern
/ sion from Richmond to Terre Haute OF the
national road, which extension was pre-
vented by the veto OF President Jackson
4 Upon none of the roads were wagons in
use, even for carrying the mails. except
! those from Madison and Terre Haute to
/ the capital. From all other points it
/ could only be reached by those who tray
/ eled on foot or on horseback. No one
/ who saw indianapolis when l saw it tor
/ the first time could have anticipated its
rapid growth and present condition.
/ No one could have dreamed that in half
/ a century this almost inaccessible village
/ would become a great railroad center, with
/ large and varied manufactures a popula-
/ ton of a hundred thousand souls, one of
4 the best built and most populous cities in
/ the Union not situated upon navigable
waters. The engineers who surveyed it
! and plated it were wiser than their critics
/ The plat which then seemed so preposter-
Gus in the extent OF ground it covered,
] ldS Dcen again ana again EXTENDED DIV aQ-
! ditions to meet the wants of it's constantly
increasing population. Instead of being
/ inaccessible, there are few counties in the
/ state which are not connected with it by
/ railroads, and hundreds of trains are
! daily arriving at it or passing
! through it. Then, three or four days of
| hard notwithstanding were required for
/ the inhabitants of the remote counties to
reach the capital; now they reach it by
railroads in as many hours.
Indianapolis was fortunate in the char
acter of its early settlers. Such men as
/ Nicholas McCarty, James Blake, Samuel
Merrill, Harvey Bates, Calvin Fletcher,
James NJ. Ray, John Coburn and Dr. Coe
are rarely found in any place Their
superiors in intelligence, in enterprise
and moral worth can be found nowhere.
What was true in regard to the early
settlers of indianapolis was also true Of
those in many other Indiana towns.
/ Nor have their successors been de-
/ generate. No state has been more prolific
Of superior men than indiana few have
have been as well represented in con-
| gress."
Mr.. McCulloch speaks particularly Of
| Gov. Morton, Thomas 4. Hendricks and
Senator Voorhees,, with all of whom he
| became acquainted in early days. OF
/ Hendricks he speaks in especially fiatter-
| ing terms, and Senator Voorhees, he