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Indiana University Studies, No INDIANA MAGAZINEOF HISTORY VOL. XIX MARCH, 1923 No. 1 Personal Politics In Indiana 1816 to 1840 By ADAMA. LEONARD Indiana became a state at the very time the nation was divorcing itself from the European political and economic systems and entering upon a career purely American in policy. The downfall of Napoleon and the close of the War of 1812 had freed us from European chicanery. The energy and intellect of the country were thence to be spent in developing the resources of the interior. The successful termination of the war and the following “Era of Good Feeling” made the Repub- lican the popular party, while on the other hand the Feder- alist opposition to the war and especially the Hartford Con- vention made that party and its leaders particularly unpopu- lar. As a result party lines disappeared and for more than a decade personal politics controlled the country both nationally and locally. In this period all claimed to be Republicans ; none would accept the name Federalist. The elections were waged about the personality of men or upon local or passing issues.1 In 1816, at the very beginning of this period of personal politics, Indiana became state. Of its small population, numbering only 147,600 in 1820, a very few were natives of the state.2 The emigrants, largely of Scotch-Irish or German descent, had come up from the Carolinas or Virginia by way ‘For illustration read Ch. xxii, Hall’s New Purchase. For an opposite view read Smith’s Indiana Mtscellany, ch. xvi. a Western Bun and General Advertiser, April 21, 1821. 2 Indiana Magazine of History of the Wilderness road through Tennessee and Kentucky, had drifted down the Ohio river, or had come overland through Pennsylvania and Ohio. This small: community was prac- tically a self-supporting farming class, depending upon the outside world for those things only which household industry could not produce. Commerce with the outside world was therefore limited. In 1810 Indiana had one newspaper and only fifteen in 1828.3 Indianapolis had its first daily mail, established between that city and Dayton, Ohio, in 1836. Postage rates, usually paid by the one receiving the letter,* were very high, resulting in the post offices being filled with unclaimed letters. There were two hundred such letters at one time in 1816 in the Vincennes post office, while the West- ern Sun and General Advertiser, published in that town, con- tained in its headlines for several years the notice that all letters addressed to the editor must be postpaid or they would not be taken out of the ~ffice.~(The conditions of travel as late as 1826 were described by a politician canvassing for votes in that year, as, “No roads, nothing but Indian paths, sleep in Indian huts, swim ponies over streams, use Indian guides, build canoes, sleep in woods with wolves howling, make one speech and return home.”B Until 1824 the people of the state voted directly for only one federal official, a congressman. In 1816 the Indiana presi- dential electors were chosen by the state legislature sitting at Corydon. Again in 1820 the electors were chosen in the same manner, the people knowing nothing about it.’ Western Sun and General Advertiser, July 12, 1828. 4 Postage rates, letter postage : Any distance to 40 miles------- 8c for each sheet 40 to 90 miles_______ 1Oc for each sheet 90 to 150 miles_______ 12%~for each sheet 150 to 300 miles------- 17c for each sheet 300 to 500 miles_______ 20c for each sheet 500 and over--_---- 26c for each sheet Newspaper postage : 1 cent per mile to 100 miles. 1% cents per paper for any distance over 100 miles. 1 cent anywhere within the state where printed. Western Sun and General Aduerttser, April 16, 1816. Western Sun and General Advertiser, April 16, 1816. .Smith, 0. H., Early Trkls and Sketches, 81. “ I&&., 85. 0.H. Smith, one of the state’s most wide-awake politicians said: “The first notice I had that there had been a presidential election was from an extract in our Connersville newspaper taken from the Corydon paper, giving the names of the electors and giving the vote of the state for James Monroe and Leonard: Personal Politics in Indiana 3 In 1824 the state legislature provided for the election of electors by popular vote.8 Along with this lack of direct par- ticipation in national affairs there was a very deep-rooted patriotism of the extreme democratic type. This was most manifest in an almost insane hatred of Federalists and every- thing connected therewith. The same things that had caused Jefferson to call some of the Federalist leaders Anglo-men9 and had caused Monroe to brand their actions as treasonlo was sufficient to cause those western pioneers to despise the name in any manner that it might be applied. In the first decade of the state’s history a Mr. John Allen was fined a thousand dollars in the Franklin circuit court for calling Joshua Harlan a Federalist.11 In the course of the trial the leading witness for the plaintiff swore that the common ac- ceptance of the term Federalist was, a Tory, an enemy of his country, and that he had never heard any other meaning; that he would rather be called anything under the sun than a Federalist; and that he would feel just as safe in the woods with an Indian and his tomahawk as with a Federalist. The lawyers in their argument covered the field of American his- tory, touching the administration of Washington, the election of Jefferson, the contest between Jefferson and Burr, the case of Citizen Genet, the Cunningham Correspondence,l2 Alien, Sedition and Gag laws, impeachment of Judge Chase, the trial of Burr for treason and other kindred points. This hatred of Federalists endured for more than a quarter of a century being used by the Democrats as a campaign cry against the Whigs as late as 1840.13 These widely scattered, patriotic, liberty loving frontiersmen furnished the most fruitful field for the development of a new American spirit, typified by the Jacksonian democracy. The most conspicuous figure in the state in 1816 wzls Jonathan Jennings, a wirepuller who manipulated the popular Daniel D. Tompkins. And yet as good and quiet an administration followed an any that is likely to be produced by our exciting elections of today.” RevCed Statutes, 1824, p. 174. Writings of Jetrerson, Ford, X, 83. WhWYs Reghter, May 16, 1824. Smith, 0. H., EaTly T~hlsand Sketches, 120. =Letters written by John Adams to a friend, touching the nature of our government and attacking Jefferson and the Republicans. See Ford Wrlthgs of Jenerson, X, 272. Smith, 0. H., Early Trials and Sketches, 262. 4 Indiana Magazine of Histoyy elections. He was a poor speaker, but he attended well to business in Congress.14 His rise dates from the first cam- paiim for territorial delegate to congress, after the separation of Indiana and Illinois territories. With the adoption of a state constitution the issues which had divided parties disappeared. Even the Western Sun, a few months before the constitution was adopted, ceased its attacks upon Jeiinings long enough to say: It were well if instead of the bitterness and contumely of party con- tentions, men would learn to cultivate the amiable and endearing ties of good friendshipto permit party passions to pollute the sacred fountain of friendship and extend its baleful breath into the sweetest comforts of society is Tobbing life of half its fleeting joys. Is the path of life so car- peted with bliss that one need press the course of discontent into its transitory period? To soften the asperity which a difference in political opinion sometimes produces in the heart should be the study of every man whatever his sentiments and whatsoever his situation. In the same issue the Western Sun published a letter by a citizen of Gibson county on the subject of the constitutional convention in which he says : Lay aside, fellow citizens, all party bickerings, all local considera- tions, all personal prejudices or prepossessions and vote independently for the men that are most capable of discharging that important duty. Select men of talent an4 integrity, if such can be found, and all is well. You are free and ought to act as free men. You have nothing to guard yourselves against more than an improper indulgence of your preju- dices and prepossessions. More than a year later the Western Sun was able to say in an editorial: Political parties are forgetting their animosities and extinguishing those fierce contentions that have so long triumphed over patriotism and reason. We hail the period of their decline as the harbinger of better days.15 The first state election, held on the first Monday in August, 1816, reflects this spirit of conciliation. On November 4 the newly-elected legislature met in Corydon. Three days later the two houses met in joint session, canvassed the returns and 'Smith, 0. H., Early Tfiale and #ketches, 86. =June 14, 1817. Leonard: Pemonal Politics in Indiana 5 declared Jonathan Jennings elected governm ; Christopher Harrison, a native of Maryland and a citizen of the Daniel Boone type, lieutenant governor, and William Hendricks as the temporary representative in congress. The next day the two houses met again in joint session and elected James Noble, a native of Kentucky, of Virginia ancestry, and a partisan of Jennings, as one United States senator, and Waller Taylor, the bitter enemy of Jennings, as the other.16 0. H. Smith said of politics at the time: Affairs of the state were in the hands of three parties or rather one party with three divisions-the Noble, Jennings, and Hendricks divi- sions which were! all fully represented in the convention that formed the constitution of 1816.
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