were argely inspired by the Governor. The members. looked to him for guidance, and his influence was unmeasured. His correspondence was extensive. Admirably prepared letters went forth from the Governor's table to the President and his Cabinet, to Senators and Congressmen, to the Governors of other States, and sometimes even to men of note in Europe. Not content was he to circumscribe his influence by State boundaries. As the spokesman of Indiana, he brought his commonwealth up to its fullest measure of influence in the affairs of the Republic and of the world. The duty imposed on him by the entire emancipation" resolution was grateful to his feelings as an earnest advocate of universal freedom, and no man in any State could have been chosen who would perform that duty more delicately, yet forcibly. One of the interesting events of the session was the election of a successor to Waller Taylor in the United States Senate. Governor Hendricks was the popular choice. In Congress he had given his State importance out of all proportion to her rank. His Guber natorial term, yet unfinished, had endeared him still more to the people. He had taken the chair in a time of depression and gloom. He had cheered and wisely counseled the people, and had guided the destinies of the young State with a prudent hand. He was elected almost without opposition. On the 12th of February he announced his resignation in the following letter:

"GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE: Permit me to inform you that I have filed in the office of the Secretary of State my resignation as Governor, and to assure you of the great degree of gratitude which, under all circumstances, I must ever feel for the many signal instances of confidence reposed and honor conferred by the people and Legislature of the State. I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, Your obedient servant,

"WILLIAM HENDRICKS."

In the Senate Governor Hendricks won high distinction. He served through three Presidential terms-that of the younger Adams and those of Andrew Jackson. He favored an incidentally protective tariff, a judicious and economical system of public improvements, constitutional aid to education by means of land grants, and all legitimate aid to the growth of freedom. He sustained the vigorous foreign policy of Jackson, which won for the United States a name throughout the world; and he fully supported that great statesman in his strong repression of nullification proceedings and his vindication of the constitutional powers and independence of the Executive. In 1836, when extreme anti-slavery petitions. were poured in upon Congress, and the reasonable and unreasonable were alike unceremoniously rejected, he stood bravely with a small handful, of all the Senate, in opposition to the rejection of a prayer of the Friends of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, for the abolition of the slave trade in the Federal District of Columbia. Likewise, he exhibited moral courage in opposing the exclusion of anti-slavery publications from Southern mails. At the end of his second term-in 1837-the Whigs were in the majority in the Legislature; the Senator was succeeded by O. H. Smith, and retired to private. life at Madison, where he busied himself with the cares of a large estate until his death, in 1850. Senator Smith says of him: "Governor Hendricks was my early friend. He gave me the first office I ever held in the State; and although I was elected over him, in 1836, to the Senate of the United States, we were personal friends till he died. The Governor, in person, was large and commanding. His manners were very popular. He had a smile on his face and a warm shake of the hand for all he met. He was not of the very first order of talent, but he made all up by his plain, practical good sense. never attempted to speak upon subjects he did not under

He

stand. He made a good Governor and stood well as a Senator."

Mr. William Wesley Woollen, in an extended tribute to the memory of the departed statesman, remarks: "William Hendricks had as much to do with laying the foundations of this great State and commencing its superstructure as any other man, excepting Jonathan Jennings only. He was talented and energetic, and he won."

Mrs. Hendricks still survives. Recently she removed from her old home in Madison to Kansas City, to reside with her daughter, Mrs. E. P. Weyer, but still more recently returned to her old home. She is one of a remarkable family. Her father, Col. John Paul, was the founder of the city of Madison. Her brother was a prominent man of former times in that city. Her sister was the mother of Dr. S. M. Goode and Hon. John R. Cravens. Her cousin, and sister by adoption, was the mother of the Serings-S. B., James and John—and of Mrs. Joseph G. Marshall, Mrs. James H. Cunningham, Mrs. Jefferson Goodman, Mrs. Dr. George Cross and Mrs. Williamson Wright. Two of her sons won fame in the war, and gave up their lives for their country. The Madison Courier of January 4, 1886 contains the following mention of the venerable and illustrious lady:

**

"The Territory of Indiana was the home of wild beasts and savage men, when she came here. The Pigeon Roost massacre, the great league of Tecumseh, and the battles of Tippecanoe and the Thames were consummated during the period of her intelligent observation. * * * All of Indiana's proud, pushing, panoramic progress has passed in rapid succession before her vision. She was born in the last year of Washington's lifetime, and has been, therefore, a contemporary of every President of the United States. In her young wife-hood she twice rode to Washington City on horse-back from Madison, accompanied

by her husband, who sat as Congressman and Senator in the administrations of Monroe, Adams and Jackson. A third time the trip was made in a stage-coach, but that time the journey was not relished, the coach upsetting twice. Mrs. Hendricks speaks enthusiastically of her horse-back journeys. The animal she rode was as easy as a rocking chair. One time the trip was made in the Christmas holidays, and the mountains were crossed in the first days of January. The snow lay two and a half feet deep on the level; but the road was nicely beaten down by the great travel upon it, and no one suffered from the cold who traveled on horse-back. Mrs. Hendricks retains excellent possession of her faculties, and has superintended the management of her household to the last. * The only remaining member of the once numerous Hendricks family left in the city is William Parker Hendricks."

CHAPTER II.

MAJOR JOHN HENDRICKS.

During the seventeenth century, and especially in its closing years, the Netherlands were an asylum of refuge for the victims of religious persecution in Europe. There it was that the Pilgrim Fathers of America long sojourned, and from the port of Delft-Haven the historic Mayflower sped upon its way.

A pathetic story is told, the antiquarians say, in the port records of the old Dutch sea-board, of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Here a faithful maid is landed, bearing motherless, fatherless babes. There is recorded the arrival of a young child, separated in the terror of flight from all kindred. Then appears the name of a young bride, torn like Evangeline from her husband. And thus, even at this late day, removed as we are by centuries from the scene, there is a pang connected with every record of those old debarkations.

The assimilating powers of the Dutch were strong; and as now in America, the refugees and immigrants soon became nationalized. Indeed, it was to prevent this in their own case that the Pilgrims sailed to America. The English, Scotch, Irish and French who remained were in a few years accounted Netherlanders in fact. Thus it happens that many a family of Dutch name and ancestry is now found to bear upon its old armorial escutcheon the thistle, the plumes, the tartan buckle and the blue bells of Scotland, the harp of Erin, or other devices equally characteristic and belonging to