The Irish standard., 1905-07-22
He Carried Indiana During the Dark Days
Of 1862 and Was Elected to the
United States Senate.
Was Leading Candidate For the Presiden-
tial Nomination at Five Democratic
Conventions.

Had this man been nominated for
president in 1876, 1880 or 1884 he
might have been elected, but he would
have carried Indiana, even had Nor
ton or Harrison, or Gresham been at
the head Of the Republican ticket,
says the Cincinnati Enquirer With
Tom Hendricks to lead them the In
diana Democracy, as early as 1872
were invincible, and it was much to be
first man of a party that contained
Kerr and Voorhees,, Mcdonald and
Turpie, Niblack and Holman. 1t is
doubtful If Hendricks could have car
ried New York, but Tammany would
have swan the river for him-nay,
Tammany would have filled the ballot
boxes for him. The bloody old Sixth
ward would have been practically
unanimous, and it might have made
him president in spite of all the Mug
wumps Curtis and White and SchurZ
could have mustered. Tammany
would have done more for Tom Hen
bricks than for any other man-more
than 1t ever did for Hill, more than it
would have done for German.
For him Tammany carried the state
for Tilden in 1876 and for Cleveland
in 1884. Had he lived and been on the
ticket of 1883 Tammany would have
furnished the requisite votes to elect
it.
Hendricks did not attain TO the pres
idency, simply because in 1880 he
could not see what was perfectly clear
to everybody else-that the Hendricks
eggs were in the Tilden basket. Every
Democrat believed, and many Repub-
Means openly acknowledged, that Til
den and Hendricks had been fairly
elected in 1876. After Hayes was in
augurated there was not Democrat
in the land who did not look on
the next election as good as gained,
more than three years in advance, and
SO 1t was if the party had held forth
the old ticket, and nothing but the old
ticket-Tilden and Hendricks. Instead
of that there was scramble for the
nomination. Hendricks demanded
first place. There was a Thurman
boom, Hancock boom, Randall
boom, Morrison boom, a Seymour
boom, Field boom, a Bayard boom,
and sundry other booms. There was
never but one real boom, and that the
Iilden.' Had he been renominated the
election would have been a walkover.
Though he outlived Hendricks, six
months of the presidency would have
killed Tilden, and the man on the
ticket with him would have succeeded
to the presidency. 1t was simply
astonishing that Hendricks could not
be made to see this.
Thomas A. Hendricks was born in
Ohio in 1919 Of parents who came
from New Jersey. His biographer as
serts that 1t Is Huguenot stock, and
that the family left France and locat-
ed in the Netherlands upon the revo-
cation of the edict of Nantes. The
name is not very French, and it is not
impossible that the Hendricks of the
Netherland came from some soldier Of
Sweden who followed Gustavus Adol-
phus to victory and to glory in the
Thirty Years War" But be that as 1t
may, whether Huguenot or Scandina-
Wan, the blood as it coursed the veins
of Thomas A. Hendricks was red,
warm and generous, thoroughly Amer
icanized, and admirable in every par
ticular.
The father of Hendricks was man
of substance, brother of William
| Hendricks, who was in turn men,
ber of Congress, Governor of Indiana
and United States Senator. His home
was at Shelbyville, and 1t is a rather
curious fact that he was an Adams
man and opposed to General Jackson;
but the boy just entering his teens
declared 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