The Political Career of Benjamin F. Shively By H. S. K. BARTHOLOMEW With but few exceptions the men who have represented Indi- ana in the United States senate have been men of high char- acter, and the state is justly proud of most of those who have been elevated to membership in the highest law-making body in the land. Among the individuals who have been so honored are : William Hendricks, Oliver H. Smith, James Whitcomb Henry S. Lane, Thomas A. Hendricks, Daniel D. Pratt, Joseph E. McDonald, Daniel W. Voorhees, Benjamin Harrison, David Turpie and Albert J. Beveridge. Worthy of a place beside these honored names is that of Benjamin F. Shively who was twice elected but whose death occured when he had served but little more than a year of his second term. Among his col- leagues were such Senators as Augustus 0. Bacon, Ollie James, John Sharp Williams, Robert L. Taylor, Knute Nelson, Elihu Root, William S. Kenyon, Theodore E. Burton and John War- wick Daniel, but Shively was the peer of them all. Benjamin Franklin Shively was born on March 20, 1857, about a mile west of the little village of Osceola in St. Joseph County and near the bank of the lordly St. Joseph River. His father was Joel Shively, a minister of what was then called the Dunkard or Dunker church, but whose official name is now the Church of the Brethren. His mother, before her marriage, was Elizabeth Penrod. The Rev. Shively traveled over St. Joseph and Elkhart counties preaching to the people of his faith wherever he was called. He was one of the best known among the Dunkard preachers of his day and generation. Both he and Mrs. Shively were held in high esteem in the com- munity in which the greater part of their lives was spent. There were eight children in the Shively family, three of whom died at an early age. Those who grew up were Benjamin F., Aaron,' Christian, Rebecca and Catherine. Of these, Christian is the only one now living. Aaron died in the latter part of 1931. Neither of these two brothers ever married. Rebecca who became Mrs. David S. Kindig died in 1918. She and the writer attended the old Elkhart County Normal school at the same time. Benjamin spent the early years of his life in the same way as did most country boys of that day, working on the farm 252 Indiana Magazine of History through the summer and attending the district school in the winter. This he continued to do until he was sixteen years old, when he began teaching. He taught for two terms at the Willow Creek school, two terms at the Pleasant Valley school and a year at Osceola. Southwest of Osceola was the Rogers School, which was known as the roughest school in that section of the country. The older boys prided themselves on their prowess in being able to run out the teacher winter after win- ter. When Mr. Shively was teaching at Osceola, the boys at the Rogers School again drove their teacher out. Then the township trustee called on Mr. Shively and asked him to come over after his school closed and finish the term. He did so and had no trouble. After he became of age, Mr. Shively spent several summers in the harvest fields of Minnesota. When harvesting was over he remained to go with a threshing machine. His brother said that Benjamin enjoyed “feeding” the machine, which, as all who ever observed “feeders” know, was hard work. In the meantime, he learned the plasterer’s trade and did some work at stone masonry. He worked at those trades in Mishawaka and also in Osceola, where he helped to build the schoolhouse which preceded the present one in that village. In addition to all this he managed to attend an eight weeks’ term of the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso. Outside of what he gained there and in the country schools, he was self taught until he entered a school of law. In Benjamin’s boyhood days, the Rev. Joel Shively belonged to the Republican party and the son naturally followed in his footsteps. After the panic of 1873, both father and son began to study the money question and both came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the country’s financial system. By 1876 both were ready to join the newly formed Greenback party. In 1880 Benjamin began the publication of a Greenback paper in South Bend, the South Bend Era. This he continued for several years. In 1882 he was tendered the Greenback party’s nomination for Congress in the thirteenth Congressional district. He accepted t h e nomination a n d stumped the district, a part of the time walking from one speaking place to another because he could not afford to pay carfare. The late Appellate Judge, E. A. Dausman, who was then a Democrat and a member of the county central commit- Bartholomew: Benjamin F. Shively 268 tee, heard Shively speak in Nappanee. In a letter to the writer of this sketch, who was then attending school in Valparaiso, he toId of Shively’s gift of oratory and of the logical, forceful ad- dress which he had delivered. In closing his letter, Mr. Daus- man said : “I wish he were a Democrat”. In 1884 Mr. Shively again received the Greenback nomina- tion for Congress. For several years, he had been making a thorough study of the tariff question and found that on that question he was in harmony with the Democratic party. In the latter part of the campaign, a somewhat peculiar situation arose. Major William Calkins, the congressman from the thirteenth district, having received the Republican nomination for governor, several months later resigned his seat in Con- gress. This left a vacancy to be filled for a part of a term. Both political parties had held their congressional conventions some time before. The Democrats had nominated George Ford, a prominent lawyer of South Bend, while the Republi- cans had chosen Henry G. Thayer of Plymouth, also an able and worthy man. Both parties were anxious to effect a coali- tion with the Greenbackers on congressional candidates and each party made overtures to Mr. Shively. At that time the prospects for succeess were more favorable for the Republi- cans than for the Democrats. No Democrat had been elected in that district for twenty years. Had Mr. Shively been will- ing to Sibordinate his political convictions to expediency, he would have accepted the Republican nomination, but he was not that kind of a man. His studies of governmental questions had carried him away from the party with which he had been identified in his early years and he was now in accord with the Democratic party on all of the major issues. So, as any hon- est man would have done, he turned his back on the offer which held forth the greater promise of success and accepted the one which offered the lesser. Both the Democrats and the Greenbackers supported Mr. Ford for the long term and Mr. Shively for the short term and both were elected. Mr. Shively entered Congress at the opening of the short session in the following December and served until the fourth of March, 1886. He was the youngest member of that Con- gress, but by his courteous demeanor and his manly bearing he won the respect of all those members with whom he came in contact. Through the influence of his friend and fellow mem- 254 Indiana Magazine of History ber, George L. Yaple of Michigan, he was given an opportunity to make a speech, which was listened to with close attention and made a favorable impression even upon those members who had been serving for years.l At the close of his brief term of service in Congress, he en- tered the Law School of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He had been devoting as much time as he could spare to the study of law while he was editing his paper in South Bend, so that in a year from the time he entered the law school he was able to graduate. He at once entered upon the practice of the profession in South Bend, which thereafter was his permanent home. While he was in the law school, an incident occurred which showed his native modesty, a trait which characterized him throughout his life. A letter came addressed to Hon. B. F. Shively, M. C. The head of the law department brought the letter to his class and asked Mr. Shively if he had ever served in Congress. Mr. Shively replied that he had. The professor told him that he was the first ex-congressman who had ever attended that law school. Mr. Shively’s short service in the national House had made such a favorable impression that when the time came for the off-year congressional campaign, that of 1886, the Democrats of the thirteenth district began to consider him favorably as a candidate. Congressman Ford had already let it be known that he intended to retire at the end of a single term. The matter of a candidacy having been suggested to him by some of the Democratic leaders in the district, after giving it due consideration, Mr. Shively decided to let his name go before the convention, which was held at Warsaw. Elkhart County had two candidates in the convention, Lewellyn Wanner, a law- yer, and Laporte Heefner, a banker.