Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/293

 254

The Green Bag,

Stephen Wood, was a next door neighbor of Gen. William Henry Harrison. In 1848 he was elected a member of the lower house of the Indiana Legislature; and the next year a member of the convention that framed the present constitution of Indiana. In the Legislature he was chairman of the commit tee on banking; and as banks and banking was a subject much discussed in the constitu tional convention, he took a leading part in {he debates and became one of the leaders in that, the best representative body of the ablest men ever convened in the State. Three months (May 16, 1851,) after the constitutional convention adjourned, Mr. Henclricks was nominated for Congress, and elected at the October election. He was reelected twice, serving until March 3, 1855. In the following August he was appointed com missioner of the General Land Office, and continued to serve in that capacity until late in the summer of 1859, when he resigned. In 1860 he was nominated by the Democratic party for Governor, but was defeated by the Republican nominee, Henry S. Lane, chair man of the national convention that nom inated John C. Fremont in 1856 for the Presi dency. The same year he removed to In dianapolis, where he resided until his death. March 6, 1863, he took his seat in the United States Senate as the newly elected Senator from Indiana, and served one full term. In 1872 he was elected Governor of Indiana, the only member on the State Democratic ticket that was elected that year. In 1876 he was nominated by the Democratic party for VicePresident. In 1884 he was renominated for Vice-President, and elected. He died at his home in Indianapolis, November 25, 1885. Mr. Hendricks, as an orator, was radically different from both Mr. Harrison and Mr. Voorhees. Mr. Harrison's speeches contain hundreds of remarkable sentences, many of them as quotable as those of a great poet. Mr. Voorhees' speeches are radically differ ent from those of Mr. Harrison. They con

tain but few quotable sentences; but on the other hand, there are many long paragraphs of great beauty. But you will find neither of these characteristics in Mr. Hendricks' speeches. "It was not eloquence," said Sen ator Ransom of North Carolina, "for he was not, like Webster, an orator in the highest sense of the word." "In illustrations he was sparing," said Judge David Turpie, afterward United States Senator; "in diction, choice, accurate; upon occasion ornate and elegant; fluent without superfluity. In pronunciation a purist, clear, precise, with an ear of most delicate fancy. In the collocation, or agree ment of words in the clause or sentence, not so capable—as apt to close an important sen tence with one of the smallest of English prepositions as with a term whose quantities might give to both the voice and ear a ca dence of repose. For mere humor he found not often a place—though happy when so used; for invecture or denunciation, very sel dom. The most malignant miscreant in the record was treated by him usually as one who had but fallen into some mistake or error." "His manner as a public speaker," said Senator Benjamin Harrison, in closing the memorial services held in the Senate, "was animated and graceful. In style he was clear, often pungent, and always persuasive. Large audiences always assembled to hear him, and if he did not win over his adversaries, he left them kindly disposed, and always strength ened and consolidated his own party." "I may say, then, Mr. President," said Senator William M. Evarts. "that my esti mate of the late Vice-President is that of an eminent lawyer. Certainly his eloquence was persuasive and effective. Certainly his method of forensic address was quite admir ably free of all superfluity. If it be truly said, as I believe it is truly said, that the greatest trait in the greatest orator, notwithstanding all the splendor of his eloquence, Demosthe nes, was that, more than all other orators, he was distinguished by the fact of the abso