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the field. It proved to be a strong one. Erasmus B. Collins was at the head for Secretary of State, with Hiram E. Talbott for Auditor, and William B. Noffsinger for Treasurer; and Prof. Caleb Mills, the noted "One of the People," ended the list as candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Opposed to Mr. Hendricks for Congress was Lucien Barbour, a talented lawyer of Indianapolis, who had been a Democrat, and who exerted himself to combine all the opponents of Democracy. As for Mr. Hendricks himself, he did not desire a renomination, as he had stated at the beginning of his second term; but the charge that he had misrepresented his constituents in voting for the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the challenges made to him personally by the Opposition to defend his course, led him to accept the nomination which his party was eager to bestow upon him.

The Know Nothing movement, which was afterward to react upon the movers, grew rapidly in strength and numbers, and Mr. Barbour made his strongest appeals to the spirit which it evoked, finding that the Democrats were nearly unanimous in support of the Territorial bill.

Mr. Hendricks met the issue squarely. In his speech at Shelbyville, in the canvass, he used the following language:

"When the Democratic administration of Mr. Jefferson came in, liberal laws were enacted, and our young Republic said to the oppressed millions of Europe, 'Come, and cheap lands shall furnish you a home; come, and the flag of the free shall wave over and protect you; come, and just laws shall make you free.' They did come, and with them came the scholar, the artist, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer; and they brought no trouble upon our fathers, but much strength, and contributed largely to the development of the country. Our fathers were then only five millions strong, but they were not afraid for their liberties or for

their Protestant religion in the adoption of that policy. Since that day half a century has gone by, and our last census shows us to be a people of twenty-three millions, with a native white population of seventeen and threequarters millions and a population of foreign birth of only two and one-quarter millions. Our foreign population, animated by a common sentiment of admiration for our institutions, have abandoned the land of their birth, and with their wives and children have settled down among us, making our fortunes their fortunes, our hopes their hopes, and our destiny their destiny. When have they refused to discharge any duty required by the Government? Do they not promptly pay their taxes, diligently labor upon the highways, faithfully serve in our armies, and valiantly fight in defense of our country? It is not true that our liberties or our religion are endangered by the presence of our foreign population.

"Our fathers intended to secure the liberties of the citizen, that the church and State should be separate, and that the church should not control the State nor the State corrupt the church. No test can be made by law whereby one class of men shall be promoted to office and another class deprived of office because of their religion. The Constitution prohibits it for the reason that such a thing ought not to be done."

"The wave of political revolution," remarks the editor of the Lancaster Intelligencer, "rose beyond the highwater mark of partisan folly in many States; and though it ebbed more swiftly even than it flowed, the ugly marks of its ascendency were visible for many years, and the debris which floated on its crest is still to be seen scattered here and there in American politics."

Defeat came to the Democrats of Indiana in October. The entire Fusion State ticket was elected, and Mr. Barbour was chosen to the seat in Congress. This was

Mr. Hendricks's first defeat, and he bore it with becoming dignity.

A single session of Congressional service remained. His diligence was unabated, and he wound up his labors in the House with careful and statesmanly attention to every measure. With the magnificent scheme of a Pacific railroad his name is connected, for he earnestly advocated that measure and promoted its interests in many ways. On January 17, 1855 he offered an amendment to the Pacific Railway bill, to strike out the provision for the Southern Pacific, expressing the hope that some one else would move to strike out the provision for the Northern Pacific. He regarded the construction of a triple line at once as an undertaking too vast to be successful, and wisely preferred to secure beyond question the success of a single line. Ere his term had expired, the surveys for the Central Pacific were ordered, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that the enterprise was secured.

CHAPTER X.

COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE.

At the close of the session of Congress, Mr. Hendricks returned to Shelbyville and resumed the practice of his profession, with little idea of re-entering the public service, at least for years to come. His wife busied herself in setting their home in order for a permanent residence. Summer passed, and for the first time in four years Mr. Hendricks was at that season disengaged from the cares attendant upon an approaching session.

Late in the season, one August eve, as he sat in his law office, the postmaster came by and handed him a letter. It was from the Executive Mansion, and was directed in the hand-writing of the President. With a puzzled expression on his features, Mr. Hendricks broke the seal. The envelope contained a commission, signed and sealed, appointing the ex-Congressman to the office of Commissioner of the General Land Office-one of the most important trusts in the power of the President to bestow. It would not be easy to depict the surprise of Mr. Hendricks at its reception. He had not sought any appointment at the hands of the Executive. The position was one which Abraham Lincoln had sought in vain of President Taylor, to whom he had rendered great service, laboring successfully to aid in securing the nomination and election of that hero. Even the services of Lincoln to the Whigs, and especially to Taylor, in 1848, and the entreaties of his friends, had failed to secure for him

the coveted appointment which now came unasked to Mr. Hendricks.

The latter did not at once accept. He wished first to learn the situation at Washington and the reason of his appointment; for he surmised that it was a compromise effected between rival claimants, and that it might be only at a personal risk that he could receive it. Mrs. Hendricks joined in his solicitude. After some discussion, it was agreed that the appointee should repair to Washington at once and investigate, leaving his wife to follow at her leisure in case of a final acceptance of the commission. Mrs. Hendricks bravely undertook to arrange the contingent settlement of affairs at home in the event of a removal to Washington. Arrived at the capital, Mr. Hendricks was not long left in doubt. The frank soldier-President assured him that the appointment was made on his own motion and for merit, and was not the result of a bargain or compromise. It was accordingly accepted.

Probably the appropriateness of this appointment had been suggested to the mind of the President by the thorough mastery of the subject of the public domain, evinced in the speeches of Congressman Hendricks, and the special interest which the latter had taken in all congressional matters relating thereto. It is not difficult to account for this interest. In boyhood Mr. Hendricks had witnessed and participated in the upbuilding of a new community, and as the son of a Government surveyor, had enjoyed a special insight of the workings of the public land system.

The office of Commissioner was as old as the Government itself. Until 1849 it had formed a Bureau of the Treasury Department. At that date the Department of the Interior was constituted, with the Land Office as a chief division. The Secretary of the Interior at this time was Robert McClelland, of Michigan, successor of the

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