The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-23

would have carried Indiana, even had
Morton or Harrison, or Gresham
been at the head of the Republican
ticket. With Tom Hendricks to lead
them the Indiana Democracy, as
early as 1872, were invincible, and it
was much to be first man of party
that contained Kerr and voorhees,,
Mcdonald and Turpie, Niblack and
Holman. 1t is doubtful if Hendricks
could have carried New York, but
Tammany would have swan the river
for him-nay, Tammany would have
filed the ballot boxes for him. The
bloody old Sixth ward would have
been practically unanimous, and 1t
might have made him President IN
spite of the Mugwumps Curtis ana
White and Schurz could have mus
tered. Tammany would have done
more for Tom Hendricks than for
any tiasO PIX "a nya-
any other man, more than it ever did
for HILL more than it would have
done for German. For him, Tam
many carried the State for Tilden in
1896 and for Cleveland in 1884. Had
he livedand been on the ticket of
1888, Tammany would have furnished
the requisite votes to elect it.
Hendricks did not attain to the
PRESIDENCY simply because ins1SSO he
could not see what was perfectly clear
to everybody else-that the Hendricks
eggs were in the Tilden baskets.
Every Democrat believed, and many
Republicans openly acknowledged,
that Tilden and Hendricks had been
fairly elected in 1876. After Hayes
was inaugurated there was not "a
Democrat in the land who did not
look on the next election as good as
gained, more than three years in ad-
vance, and SO it was if the party had
held forth the old ticket, and nothing
but the old ticket-Tilden and Hen
bricks. Instead of that there was
scramble for the nomination. Hen
bricks demanded first place. There
was a Thurman boom, q Hancock
boom. a Randall boom. a Morrison
boom. a Seymour boom, Field
boom. a BayarH boom, and sundry
other booms. There was never but
one real boom, and that the Tflden
boom. Had he been nominated the
election would have beeen a walk
over. Though he outlived Hendricks,
six months of the Presidency would
have killed Tilden, and the man on
the ticket with him would have sue
ceeded to the Presidency. 1t was sim
ply astonishing that Hendricks could
have not be made to see this.
Thomas A Hendricks was born in
Ohio in 1919 of parents who came
from New Jersey. His biographer
asserts that it is Huguenot stock, and
that the family left France and To-
Gated in the Netherlands upon the re-
vocation of the edict of Nantes. The
name isnot very French, and it is not
impossible that the Hendricks of the
Netherlands came from some soldier
of Sweedenwho followed Gustavus
Adolphus to the victory and to glory
in the Thirty Years War But be
that as it may, whether HuguenOt OF
Scandinavian, the s.hJeedAass it cursed
the veins of Thomas A. Hendricks was
red. warm, and generous, thoroughly
Americanized, and admirable in every
particular.
The father of Hendricks was man
of substance, a brother of William
Hendricks, who was in turn a mem
Der of Congress, governor of Indiana.
and United States Senator. His home
was at Shelbyvile, and it is rather
curious fact that he was an Adams
man and opposed to General Jackson
but he boy just entering his teens de-
clared for "Old Hickory" Young
Hendricks was educated at Hanover
College. and studied law with an uncle
in Pennsylvania. where he made the
acquaintance of the famous Jeremiah
S. Black. Later he returned to Shell
byville and opened a law office and
ultimately became a successful prac-
toner and one of the leaders of the
Indiana bar. In 1S4S he was elected
a member of the State legislature,
and the following year he was mem
Der of the convention called to frame
a new constitution for the State. In
this body he DISTINGUISHED himself.
and gave promise of his future emf
nence.
In 1850 Hendricks, then thirtyone
years of age, was elected to Cong
gress and he was reelected two years
later. The Wing party was just dead
and the nownothing was just begin
ming to make mischief in New Eng
land 1t was thought that the COM
promise of 1850 had settled the slav-
cry question for all time; but it was
a question that would not stay COM
poSed-neVer was there fairer game
for the fanatic or the demogogue 1t
was a case of politics, of conscience,
of religion, of property and of polity.
1t was a moral ana a phyical impos-
sibility to settle it permanently in any
other way than it was settled-on the
field of battle.
When Stephen A. Douglas became
an issue in the Democratic party,
Hendricks became his follower, part
ing company with Jesse ID. Bright,
who was for fifteen years the leader
of the Democratic party of Indiana.
In 1854 Hendricks was defeated for
Congress by a Know-nothing, that
craze having reached the Mississippi
Valley by this time. After his defeat
he was appointed Commissioner of
the General Land Office, and he was
holding that office when the Repub-
lican party was born. He was bitter
ly disappointed when the Supreme
Court rendered the bred Scott decis-
ion, but unlike Morton, who left the
Democratic party because of the pas
sage of the ansas-Nebraska bill, he
chung to the faith of his youth and
lived and died a Democrat. In 1860
he was the Douglas candidate for
Governor, David Turpie being on the
ticket as the candidate for lieutenant
governor. The Republican ticket was
Henry S. Lane and Oliver P. Morton
The Democracy was divided and
Lane and Morton We're elected.
In 1862 Indiana went Democratic
and the legislature that year chosen
elected Thomas Hendricks to
seat in the United States Senate,
which body he entered in 1863 He