Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/225

 HENDRICKS

HENDRICKS

constitutional convention of 1850. He repre- sented the Indianapolis district in the 32d and 33d congresses, 1851-55 ; was U.S. commissioner of the general land office by appointment of President Pierce, 1855-59 ; was the unsuccess- ful Democratic candidate for governor of In- diana in 1860 against Henry S. Lane ; served as president of the Democratic state convention of 1862 ; and as U.S. senator 1863-69. He served on the committees on claims, public buildings, the judiciary, public lands and naval affairs. He opposed the reconstruction measure, the test oath, the civil rights bill, the freedmen's bureau bill and the impeachment of President Johnson. He favoi'ed large appropriations for vigorously prosecuting the war and proposed the increase of the soldier's pay to meet the depreciation of the currency. He was a candidate for President of the United States before the Democratic national convention of 1868, held in New York city, and on the twenty-first ballot, with Gen. W. S. Han- cock leading with 135J votes, he stood second with 132 votes, when the name of Horatio Sey- mour was so forcibly presented as to carry the convention. He was the unsuccessful Demo- cratic candidate for governor of Indiana against Actin^-Govern'^r C'jnrad Raker, losing the elec- >.-<~,-^ - - ^[^^/«j> tionby961

U.S SENATE CHAMBER.

was de- ^' feated for 1 L'-election the L S, sen- ate,the leg- islature be- ing large- ly Repub- lican, and he returned to his law practice in Indianapolis. He supported the Cincinnati nominations in 1872 and in October of the same year was the successful candidate for gov- ernor of Indiana, defeating Thomas M. Brown, Republican, by 1148 votes, the only name elected on the Democratic ticket except M. C. Hopkins, superintendent of public instruction, and in the November election the vote for the Republican electoral ticket was 3000 less than that received the month before by Mr. Hendricks. In 1875 his dutj' to his party in the state, the lieutenant- governor being a Republican, made him unavail- able for U.S. senator and Joseph E. McDonald was elected by the Democratic legislature. In the Democratic national convention of 1876 held at St. Louis, Mo., on the first ballot Mr. Hen- dricks received 133J votes to 4034 for Mr. Tilden and 75 for General Hancock. On the second ballot Mr. Tilden was nominated, and on the following day Mr. Hendricks received 730 of

the 738 votes of the delegates for the second place on the ticket and he was then unanimously nomi- nated as candidate for Vice-President. The elec- toral commission decided the election in March, 1877, in favor of Hayes and Wheeler, and Mr, Hendricks visited Europe in June, returning to the United States in October. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1884, and in behalf of the Indiana delegation nominated Joseph E. McDonald, of that state, as their choice for candidate for President of the United States, and after the nomination of Gro- ver Cleveland the entire 816 votes of the conven- tion were cast for Thomas A. Hendricks for the vice-presidential candidate. The Democratic electoral ticket was given 4,911,017 popular votes to 4,848,334 for the electors for Blaine and Logan and the electoral college in 1885 gave Mr. Hen- dricks 219 votes to 183 for John A. Logan. He assumed his duties as Vice-President of the United States March 4, 1885, presiding over the U.S. senate up to the close of its special session, April 3, 1885. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. After the adjournment of the senate in May, he returned to his home in Indianapolis. He attended the commencement exercises of the class of 1885 at Yale in June, where he delivered an oration before the law school on " The su- preme court of the United States and the in- fluences that have contributed to make it the greatest judicial tribunal in the world." He also attended the Harvard commencement of that year, and after visiting Boston and Pittstield, Mass., he rejoined Mrs. Hendricks at Atlantic City, and they subsequently made the trip of the great lakes, attended the funeral of General Grant in New York city and in September re- turned to their home in Indianapolis, where he rested, preparatory to his contemplated journey to Washington at the reassembling of congress in December. He attended a reception given in his honor by the citizens of Indianapolis Nov. 24, 1885, and on returning to his home he was taken ill and died on Thursday, Nov. 25, 1885.

HENDRICKS, William, senator, was born in Westmoreland county. Pa., in 1783 ; son of Abra- ham and (Jamieson) Hendricks and a de- scendant of Hendrick Hendricks, a Huguenot, one of fom* brothers who took refuge in Holland and came thence to America in 1683, settling in the province of New Jersey and subsequently remov- ing to the Ligonier valley. Pa. His father was a pioneer settler of Westmoreland county, the owner of a mill on Hendrick's Run, and a rep- resentative in the state legislature, 1792-93 and 1796-97. William was graduated at Jefferson college. Pa., in 1810; taught school, 1810-12, was a law student in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1812-14 ; a