The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-04-11
NOTED HOOSIER DEAD.


Il college There at least in the rhetorical
classes and halls of debate he had left no
fluent speaking followed him into the law
and won him at the bar premature and
early and easy reputation through the fatal
facility of the tongue, he was apt 10 mis-
take huency for eloquence
HIS WAR RECORD.
8 Young Voorhees, borrowed his political
& sentiments from the South-the neighboring
a State Of Kentucky, which had furnished
so largely the earlier emigrants to his own;
u and in the stirring presidential campaigns
II for Pierce and Buchanan occurring in the
"a decade before the war, carried the fire of
a his Bourbon elOquence like storm over the
81 hills and lowlands of southern Indiana
buchanan recognized his services by APP
II pointing him, at the age of thirty. TO the
with his profession in his State. Since that
period at the Outburst Of the rebellion up
u TO a few years ago, he was a political fig
81 party. if not in national politics. Processing
Fl attachment for the Union and remaining
"a within its limits his sympathies with the
81 people of the South were so earnest and
"a cordial that his resOlute opposition TO the
81 conduct OF the war almost succeeded time
and again in paralyZing the hand of the
81 national executive and staying the purpose
Of federal administration in his State
II Throughout all the West there was no
~ voice and no eloquence. save one, so un-
daunted as his lifted against the measures
N.
that of Clement l.. Nallandigham, of Ohio,
a very Constable Bourbon of resolute and
fery courage in opposition But the flame
of Buckeye patriotism burst too fiercely for
even this redoutab bic champion of the anti
war Democracy and a local military order
Endorsed at Washington exiled him To the
South. Five years later than the close OF
tho war, while pleading a law case in
petit county town in Ohio. where his mas
@terly eloquence and courtly social address
s bad won him in a day the cordial admira-
Hon of his bitterest political opponents, the
accidental swapping Of a pistol in his own
hand laid low the magnificent form of
= Clement l.. ValIandigham, the chief of the
Northern obstructiOnists-a man whose
ercised at the head of army corps or in
prudent craftsmanship. would have won for
him the highest honors of his country.
M The Democracy of Indiana had a tinge
more tropic than that OF its sister State
=. and preserved Daniel Voorhees, in it's active
81 cOunSels during the whole period of the
- war. Elected twice in this turbulent era
q TO the Washington House of Represent
81 atives his voice against the military
ercion Of the South the loudest and
81 fercest among all the eloquent and clam
"a acts of the government. IL in those
q DAYS OF his career as a representative. un-
- the Indianian, the magic of which had fire.
81 quently curdled almost TO treason the
81 sentiment OF his native State. to its
81 highest note The taste of the United States
"a House of Representatives in oratory is not
"a Dorlc IN IT'S severity A fluent emission of
~ ponderous Verbiage not unfrequently makes
regulations there. The best of American
senatorial elOquence, in fact. If not ac-
81 corded grace. would empty the least de-
msndinS of lecture halls. But eras of revo-
81 luton or sentimental politics supply gran
deur To facile pIatitudes and dignity to
cheap learning. In such an era Daniel
81 Voorhees, dazzled and sometimes dazed his
auditory in the lower house of Congress.
Lifting his stalwart and drawing his
athletic body TO their full height. TO point
n the utterance of some especial passage of
solemn warning. he not wholly an un-
81 impressive figure In these flights there
was a kind of impassioned force in his
OH il mail Il, III
8 canons and forgot the orators of am aee
81 severe" save a ready conception of how
the ployman of the Wabash was wont
to go down before his facile thunders. He
luton. that power of dramatic abandon
which when earnestness lacks. is its best
substitute. But his passion. to a keen eye
and ear. seemed often feigned and his
rhetoric was porous.
A DRAMATIC EPISODE.
There was one episode. however. of the
dauntless Indianian's appearance as
speaker before the House of Representa-
tives pointed with dramatic tableau never
81 to be forgotten by its witnesses. 1t was in
1867. when Mr.. Voorhees, had returned for
the third time to the floor of the House
from his constituency. His seat was con-
tested by the Republican candidate who
had opposed him; and those were the days
q of challenged Democratic seats, and when
for seat to be challenged for a seat
81 10 be lost. The committee of elections, rep
Republican
1ority. after an imposing show of six weeks
Sd investigation, reported in favor of their
legeman. There cannot be honest doubt
81 az this distance from the excitement of
the time that their report was inspired
by the malisnity of partisan injustice. Dur
8. ing the reading of the report Voorhees, sat
q like statue. More, possibly. than any of
his Democratic colleagues, he had concen-
trated upon himself. as the most staIwart
and daring of the Western copperheads the
81 luminosity of his Republican enemies. He
"a naturally regarded the adverse report as
a 0f tod
81 against his person. At its close he rose in
his place, white and infuriate. and with
a tones vibrating with passion, and lifting
"a with cumulating Indignation, hurled, for
p three quarters of an hour, storm of in
which few deliberative assemblies have ever
81 been subjected In the abandon of his
righteous TRADE he picture of fash
~ ing wrath, suggesting Satan baffied in re-
~ bellion.
81 Ending his dramatic denunciat on. he adj
Eanced from his desk down the aisle into
the area before the speakers desk. and
81 swelling his voice to its fullest compass
81 head Numbered: II go now. but / will re-
81 turn again." then stalked like a giant out
81 of the Hall of Representatives. lie coup de
81 theater. as the French would have termed
II, left even the hardened House of Repre-
81 sentatives breathless and the echo of the
81 expelled representatives parting words
81 sounded on the instant's stiffness like
Seoia6ie PToIPhetie |h arr And true
mics was as brief as maiignity deserved
s. The banished Indianian redeemed his word
enCy OF his native Wabash, he strobe two
years later into the House of Representa-
"A tiVeS through the same door by which he
had dehantly retreated and took his seat
once more in the very front ranks of the
opposition an opposition that presently
swelled to a majority and took its ven
geance in turn by returning to private sta
tons the unlucky Republican victims of
contested seats.
Irresolute purpose and want OF courage or
i even audacity I'm action were not the char
/ acteristicS OF Daniel Voorhees,. Benjamin
Disraeli's dramatic defiance OF Parliament
after his first speech was not finer than
that of the Indianian, nor the domineering
boldness with which he executed the tri-
4 umph of his avowed purpose.
IN THE SENATE
In 1871 on the death of that swarthy pole
march of Western Repulicanism, Oliver p
Morton, Blue Jeans Williams, a Demo-
cratic Indiana executive delegated Daniel
Voorhees, to the unexpired senatorial term.
With the assured tread of a politician of
destiny the stalwart Hoosier stalked into
4 the Senate and planted himself in the seat
OF his dead enemy. Surely politics has its
/ revenges and the device of its trade should
be the courageous Roman one-nil desper-