Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/300

 Col. Richard IV. Thompson. post. The smoke grew thicker, the excite ment more intense, the duties more exacting, but the " old man eloquent " still clung to the gavel until younger men began to desert the hall for lunch when he relinquished his task. From his earliest entrance upon public life he became a pre-eminent success. Sincerely. devoted to those fundamental purposes that inspired his service, energetic in the discharge of his duties, and endowed with those per sonal attributes which command respect and devotion, he at once assumed a position of leadership. For half a century his voice was heard upon the stump and his influence felt in the councils of his party. That he was sincere in his devotion to bis profession and his reluctance to accept office is clearly de monstrated by his public acts. As astute a politician as ever manipulated the party ma chinery of the State, he must have seen that the publication of his ecclesiastic works meant his certain ostracism from all elective of fices. Always ready to serve his party, he was ever loth to share the official fruits of victory. Tradition says that he was literally forced to accept his first legislative nomina tion. His first intimation of congressional candidacy came with the official notification of his call to duty. He refused the most honor able posts that he might retain his legal prac tice. The position as Minister to Austria — now held by an eminent Indiana lawyer — was offered and refused. Lincoln with the most flattering persistency urged him to accept a life position in Washington, but to no avail. Untainted by a single defeat, armed with per sonal popularity, and irresistibly brilliant in the management of men, he might have had any office within the gift of his party. Had he been more desirous for power and place; had he loved position more and Indiana less; and had he been less faithful to his profes sion he might have been president of the United States. During the latter days of his life he became a hold-over delegate-atlarge to the national conventions. His se

271

lection became as much a matter of course as the convention itself. His appointment to the cabinet of Hayes was the natural fruition of a life of unselfish service. As Secretary of the Navy he be came the servant of the people. The con tractors who had previously grown corpulent at the public crib realized that the depart ment was run on honest business principles. He familiarized himself with every phase of his duties, purified the department with the air of publicity, and examining the crevices with marked thoroughness, mastered the sit uation. His bright eyes followed the move ments of every penny of appropriation. He turned the search-light of strict integrity on the slightest allowance. His drafts upon the national treasury were never questioned. At the end of the first fiscal year, one and a half million dollars of appropriations were returned unexpended. Partisanship bowed before this luminous example of lofty patriotism — and after four years of conscientious service, he carried with him from the department the benediction of all American citizens. Upon his voluntary retirement from Con gress in 1843, ne determined to devote his energy to the practice of his profession. To that end he removed from Bedford to Terre Haute, then as now the metropolis of west ern Indiana. Terre Haute numbered at that time no more than two thousand people who settled about the crude brick courthouse which dispensed justice from the center of a locust grove. In those days the lawyer was necessarily allied with the horse. From court to court he would travel on horseback, brav ing the most inclement weather with a laugh, and exchanging about the fireside of the inn those famous stories that have become the traditional literature of the west. Shortly after Thompson's arrival, the following card might have been seen in a Terre Haute paper : — "R. W. Thompson, attorney and counsellorat-law, attends all the higher courts of the State and the Circuit Courts of Vigo, Clay, Sullivan,