Indiana Bicentennial 7.9: Thomas Marshall (1909 – 1913)

Thomas Marshall (1909-1913)  was born to a family of staunch Democrats who located in Indiana in 1817. Marshall was born in North Manchester, but his family moved around in an effort to find a climate that would help his mother’s tuberculosis. They spent some time in Illinois, during which they attended the Lincoln-Douglas debates and, apparently, four year old Thomas recalled sitting on the lap of both Lincoln and Douglas. They would move on to Osawotamie, Kansas in 1859. This would have been during the bleeding Kansas era, near the time of John Brown’s “Battle of Osawatomie,” when free soilers clashed with the pro-slavery forces. Marshall’s family made their way back to Indiana by way of Missouri and Illinois.

While in college at Wabash, in 1872, Marshall wrote an unfavorable article about a female lecturer at the school, accusing her of “seeking liberties” with the students. She hired Lew Wallace to sue Marshall for libel. Marshall hired Benjamin Harrison to defend him. Harrison was successful in the defense.

Marshall opened a law practice in Columbia City and gained some prominence. However, he had a drinking problem which began to interfere with his work. His wife apparently helped him to give up liquor by locking him up at home for two weeks. Thereafter, he became part of the temperance movement and gave speeches on the dangers of alcohol.

He was true to his family’s Democratic heritage and, because he lived in a Republican stronghold, was not initially successful in winning office. However, he stumped for other candidates across the state and became part of the state Democratic party’s central planning committee in 1904. He passed on a nomination to run for Congress but started angling for a nomination for the governor’s race. In this, he was opposed by former Indianapolis mayor and Democratic party boss, Thomas Taggart due to his prohibitionism. (You may recall a reference earlier in this installment where Taggart was selling the bicyclists on the virtues of Indianapolis as a site for a future convention.) But, a coalition of his supporters, Taggart opponents, and prohibitionists were enough to secure the nomination in the 1908 campaign. The rift between the Republican conservatives and progressives provided an opportunity for Marshall. He won narrowly, by about 10,000 votes out of 700,000 cast (48% to Republican James Watson’s 48.1%). Democrats controlled the House and Republicans retained control over the Senate.

Given how long the party had spent in the wilderness, the first order of business was to appoint Democrats to patronage positions. Marshall apparently kept the peace in the party by allowing Taggart to handle most of the selections. Marshall was more focused on policy. During the first General Assembly of his term – with split control of the chambers –  things proceeded slowly. Marshall was unsuccessful in his proposals for direct election of United States senators and improved railroad and insurance company regulation. He was, however, successful in obtaining the creation of the State Board of Accounts.

One of Marshall’s proposals, direct election of Senators could not be had through legislative action in the first part of his term, but was obtained through passage of the Seventeenth Amendment by the United States Congress and ratified by the states, including – on February 13, 1913 – Indiana. One theme that has run like a drumbeat throughout the first half of this bicentennial series has been the shenanigans and machinations of Indiana politicians angling for the Senate seat – backroom deals, an empty Senate seat, a governor for two days, a sketchy lieutenant governor’s election, fist fights, gun shots. While it’s no way to run a government, it sure has made some fun writing. I’ll miss that angle going forward. Maybe advocates of the 17th Amendment’s repeal can succeed with their horrible idea and provide some color for Hoosiers one day writing about our tricentennial.

Next time: Papa’s got a brand new constitution.