Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1885 — THE MEMORIAL. [ARTICLE]

THE MEMORIAL.

i ludianapoli? Sentine , December 15th.)

An Authenticated Copy of the Hendricks Memorial as Recently Presented to Mrs. Hendricks by the Committee of the State Bar Association. Indianapolis Sentinel: Numerous requests continue to arrive for copies of the Hendricus memorial until the editions of the papers have been finally exhausted. These requests are not only from citizens of our own State, but from olher quarters, notably Washington Ci+y. This consideration, added to the fact that, as published, the memorial contained many inaccuracies incident to the crowned condition of our columns at the time, we are constrained to yield to the pressure and republish it. The following is exactly the form in which it was presented to Mrs. Hendricks by the committee day before yesterday: Upon the BOth day of November, 1885, a very large number of the members of the bar of the State of Indiana, having met at 2 o’clock p. m., at the Federal Court room in Indianapolis: present, the Hon. William A.|Woods,| Judge of the United States District Court of the State of Indiana, and the other officers thereof.

The Hon. Solomon Claypooi, addressing the Courf. moved that the Hen. W. Q. Gresham, Judge of the United States Circuit Court, act as Chairman of the meeting, which motion prevailed. Judge Gr sham in taking the chair delivered a brief address upon the subject of the meeting, when, on motion of W. H. H. Miller, Esq., William A. Ketcham, Esq., of the Indianapolis bar, was chosen Secretary. Hon. David Turpie, Chairman of the Committee upon r solutions reported for conside ation the following memorial annexed as commemorativefjof the life, character and public services of the deceased, and moved its adoption. The motion was seconded by Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, and after remarks by Messrs. Turpie, McDonald, Williamson, Frazer, Mack, CraCravens, Coffroth and Love, and by Judge Elliott, of the Supreme Court was unanimously adopted.— Upon motion of Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, Hon. David Turpie, Chairman of the Committee upon Besolntions, was directed to present a copy thereof and of these proceedings for record in the Circuit Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of the State; and the Secretary of the meeting was directed to send a copy of the memorial and these proceedings to the family of the deceased.’ W. Q. Gresham, W. A. Kethcham, Chairman. Secretary. THE MEMORIAL.

Thomas A. Hendricks was born September 7, 1819, in Muskingum County, Ohio. In 1820 his parents removed to Indiana, first to Madison, then to Slielb v ville, near which place they permanently resided.— His boyhood and youth were spent in Shelby County, on his father’s farm. They were those of a pioneer, of an early settler in a sparsly populated region of what was then kno yn elsewhere as the far West. His life was thus, in every circumstance, coincident with the morning of the State, the beginning of civilization in a new commonwealth. Beceiving at home a course of common school education, he subsequently attended and graduated at Hanover College, in Jefferson County. Choosing the law as a profession, he prosecuted his studies partly at Shelbyville, partly at Chambersburg, Pa., but was admitted to the bar and commenced the praticee at Shelbyville, in 1843. His first public position was atained in 1848, by an election, unolicited, to the House of Bepreentatives of the General Assembly.

Having served one term, and declining further service therein, he was, in 1850, elected a member of he Constitutional Convention, being one of the youngest members of that body, and having in his associates many of the meh most eminent in public life at that period.

In August, 1851, he was elected a representative in Congress and served two terms. In August, 1845, he was tendered and accepted from President Pierce the position of Commissioner of the General Land Office, at Washington, wherein he served nearly four years, resigning in the year 1859. As the unanimous choice of his party on the 12th day of January, 1863, he was elected a Senator of the United Stat s for the term of six years, commencing on the 4th of March 1863, when he took his seat as such. He soon became in that distinguished body the recognized lead rof Ms party. Alike fitted for council and debate, endowed with that rare union of qualities, an equal proportion of caution and courage, so much needed in the conduct of a parliamentary opposition. In 1872 he was elected Governor of Indiana, the first of his political party chosen to such a position after the close of the war in any Northern State. As Governor he originated the system of making and preserving in that department a permanent record of executive action upon all applications before him. His administration was distinguished for more than ordinary attention to the cause of popular education, for the humane appeals by the executive in behalf of the benevolent institutions of the State, appeals whi h met a respone from the General Assembly alike creditable to themselves and their constituents.

In 1877, and again in 1884, he visited Europe, traveling through the British islands and the principal countries of the continent. A single remark made upon his return from his first tour, “that the French were a people much attached to their country, not at all to their institutions of government,” shows the habit of thoughtful observation which characteriz -d even his leisure. In 1884 he was elected Vice Fresident of the United States, and entered upon his duties as such on the 4th day of March, 1885, serving as the presiding officer of the Senate during the brief executive session held under the new administration.

Froifi the farm-house to the Vice Presidency—such was the commencement and end of a career untouched by dishonor, nnclouded by suspicion. His public acts as a Senator and Reprerentative" in Congress have gone into history. His record has received the highest possible commendation and approval from the vast constituency he served by his subsequent preferment to the second office in the gift of the Nation—from the consideration, also, that begun in one age, his countrymen in another generation arose to do him honor and to complete the full-orbed cycle of his fame.

Mr. Hendricks was throughout the whole period of his active life a lawyer, even in his last days concerned i i the conduct of causes. His entrance upon and employment in public life were episodes, excursions, useful to himself and others, but did not d’vert him from the beaten path of forensic labor. On tee floor of the Senate, in the halls of legislation he sojonrned—at the bar, in the courts he dwelt. He was engaged in very much of the important litigation at the capital of his State. His practice was by no means local. He attended in the discharge of professional duties nearly every circuit in our own and many of the higher courts of adjoining States and the Supreme Court at Washington.— Much of his life, however, was nonprofessional. His time and tho’t were at very frequently' recurring •ntervals given to the work of hustngs. There was something in the

mere aspect of a large popular assembly which had for him a special attraction. His manner of addressing a mixed sudience was peculiarly his own—neither that of conversation nor oratory, something better suited than either to his purpose. He was one of the most impressive and successful of public canvassers. Nor did he disregard the unconsidered trifles of the campaign. There was an affluent grace in his salutationslwhicMargely supplemented argument. He was, moreover, a man of normal action and opinion, following the ordinary; bent and tenets of his party: no fanatic, zealot or extremist upon any subject; not such a one as the multitude often follow; but a character fully rounded to comp ! eteness, without edges or angles, with no corners in liis creed political; yet he was and continued to be a popular favorite to the last. ' o the stores of information acquired by extensive travel and intercourse, both at home and abroad, he added a close acquaintance with the works of the best authors, being a careful habitual j-eader of books not less than of men. His excellence as a writer, manifest enough in his messages and papers, would have earned particular recognition but that it had been overshadowed by his more imposing reputation as a public speaker. In religion he was an Episcopalian, an active member and an officer for many years of St. Paul’s Church, Indianapolis. Upon this subject he was firm in his convictions, in his life consistent, in hi; Christian profession unobtrusive, lie walked with liumility in faith. A man much given to charity, and of the most enlightened and liberal tolerance; nevertheless he was strongly attached to his church, to his party, to his State, giving voice often with emnhasis to his affection, that men might Dote not him but these, the so greatly revered objects of his devotion and regard. The virtues of his private life were such as may be most commended in the friend, the neighbor and the citizen. He was naturally of a disposition sedate, though cheerful; in address urbane; in manner extremely affable, but with dignity; in conversation pleasing; in society attracting, but not engrossing the attention of others; to woman deferential with a high degree of courtesy unforced, indicative of respect and interest.— Such was Hendricks.

Discerning the man, his life and acts at large in the mass, in that respect too most nearly concerning ourselves, we may say, with verity, he was pre-eminently a product of Indiana, an offspring of the State, a growth of its laws and institutions, and that the just pride taken in him by the p ople of this commonwealth was entertained not without reason for a fellow-citizen so illustrious.

He died in this city, where he would have wished to die, where he most really lived; at home, surrounded by those whom he loved: in the metropolis of the State which he had served so long and by which he had been so often and so highly honored. Not without unavailing sorrow for a calamity so grievous do we tender to his bereaved consort and the kindred of his household our profound condolence and sincerest sympathy L. the irreparable loss which has befallen them.

D. Tuiipie, A. L. Boache, A. . Harris, G. C. Butler, C. L. Holstein, Bar Memorial Committee. H. D. Pierce, Secretary of Committee. J as. A. and Frank Yeoman have returned from their Konsas trip. We understand Frank will take up hisrßßidei.ee iuKans ts at,an early lay. Ed. Sampson, at one time night operator at this point, is passing i the holidays with friends in Bensgelaer.

The genial “phiz” of ex-Clerk C. H. Price, now of Dakota, gladdened our sanctum last evening.