CHAPTER XIV.

A

IN CONTROVERSY.

FREQUENT misapprehension of Mr. Hendricks' character is that he is a negative man. This impression obtains because in the too frequent dissensions which have disturbed the harmony of his party he has often refused to take sides radically, and more than once has successfully attempted to allay rather than widen the differences. Mr. Hendricks has the gift of seeing what too many public men fail to see-that there is generally a measure of truth on either side of great popular controversies. The radicals unquestionably have some uses as pioneers and axe-men in the cause of truth, but if it was left entirely to their destructive services it is doubtful if its substantial victory would ever be achieved. Mr. Hendricks is one "that holds fast the golden mean," and comes to his opinions rather by argument and conviction than through prejudice; he discusses more than dogmatizes, and deems it no proof of good seamanship to escape Scylla by being engulfed in Charybdis. But he keeps his views none the less tenaciously, enforces them no less aggressively, and defends them with no slighter degree of skill

and persistency because of these habits of thought. The best test of his quality of mind is made in controversy. Illustrations have been cited from his earlier professional and political experience in support of this. Let these of more recent date serve to confirm it:

Upon the invitation of the editor of the North American Review, he discussed the tariff question with cogency and clearness in its pages in 1879. Again, he engaged in a "symposium" in the same periodical with Messrs. Blaine, Lamar, Hampton, Garfield, Stephens, Phillips, and Blair, upon the questions, "Ought the Negro to be disfranchised? Ought he to have been enfranchised?" He summed up his answers to these questions in this concise style:

"I am not able to see why the subject of negro suffrage should be discussed. It must be known to all that the late amendments will not be, cannot be, repealed. There is but the duty upon all to make the political power now held by the enfranchised race the cause of the least evil and of the greatest possible good to the country. The negro is now free, and is the equal of the white man in respect to his civil and political rights. He must now make his own contest for position and power. By his own conduct and success he will be judged. It will be unfortunate for him if he shall rely upon political sympathy for position rather than upon duties well and intelligently dis

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charged. Everywhere the white race should help him, but his reliance must mainly be upon himself."

IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880.*

Mr. Hendricks' most notable political speech was made in Indianapolis during the canvass in 1880. The State Committee had appointed August 14th as the day for opening the campaign along the entire line. All the available orators, both home and foreign, were to be drafted into the service. Mr. Hendricks was, as usual, in universal demand. From almost every one of the ninety-two counties of Indiana demands came pouring in upon the State Committee insisting that they must have Hendricks. Being the leader and idol of his party in Indiana, it had long fallen upon him to make the speech setting the State campaign in motion.

So strong was the demand that he should carry out the precedent which had established the common law of the party that Mr. Hendricks accepted the urgent invitation of the people of Marion, Grant County, Ind., to open the campaign on August 12th, two days prior to the general opening planned by the Committee. Contrary to his

*For the particulars of this account I am indebted to Mr. George F. Parker, of the Philadelphia Times and the Weekly Post. He was a resident of Indianapolis in 1880, and the above incident came under his personal observation, W. U. H.

practice, he prepared his speech with great care. It was written out and condensed down to the last degree. It was a vigorous presentation of the issues of the day and the merits of the Democratic candidates without a passionate, a doubtful, or a useless word. Naturally, Mr. Hendricks had always felt most keenly the wrong done him and the country by the decision of the Electoral Commission, and had studied all the elements which led up to it. He had given special attention to the proceedings of the so-called visiting statesmen at New Orleans in the winter of 1876-7, and was perfectly familiar with the share each one had had in that sinful and shameless proceeding. At the close of the Marion speech he therefore took occasion to animadvert briefly but in the severest terms upon the part which General Garfield had played in the execution of this wrong. He asserted that the Republican Presidential candidate had occupied an "inner room" of the New Orleans Custom House, where he had examined witnesses from the country parishes and had coached them in their testimony, which testimony he afterward adjudged as a member of the Commission. This severe accusation attracted no unusual attention for several days; but in due time it came to General Garfield's attention. The candidate did not deign to take any personal notice even of so serious a charge upon his personal and political character, but by his advice and con

sent the Indianapolis Journal, the Republican organ, on the 6th day of August, contained a bitter editorial article reflecting upon Mr. Hendricks, accusing him of misrepresenting and maligning General Garfield, and calling upon him to either substantiate or disavow his charges, with the promise that his reply would be published in its columns.

Mr. Hendricks' attention was called to this article about nine o'clock of the day on which it was published. He at once resolved to reply in a public speech in the evening. It happened to be the turn of the Democrats to occupy the wigwam on that night, and a young negro Democratic orator was billed for the principal speech. The announcement was given as wide a circulation as was possible in the brief intervening time, by handbills, wagons, and other accepted methods of political advertising, that Mr. Hendricks would speak from the same stand with the negro. It was impossible to make known that he would reply to his traducers, but as the Hoosiers are a speech-loving people, and as their favorite always drew when announced, the wigwam was crowded with a large and expectant audience.

In the meantime Mr. Hendricks, with only a few hours for preparation, was diligently studying the testimony taken by the different committees that had investigated the New Orleans infamy and was making ready an answer. He had neither