Crawfordsville

Montgomery County Historical Society

Who was Henry Smith Lane?

Henry Smith Lane--1811-1881:
On the morning of June 17, 1856, the first Republican national convention opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 11:15 the galleries of the Musical Fund Hall had filled with two thousand energetic participants. By 4:30, with the hall temperature exceeding one hundred degrees, attendance swelled further. At that hour a tall slim man in a blue jeans swallow tail suit ascended the speaker’s platform with a shaky limp. Immediately the audience noted his pale complexion peering through a graying beard. With a complete absence of front teeth and a cheek filled with chewing tobacco, several observers thought the man unfit to speak.
Approximately one hour later, however, a fledgling party had been mesmerized by a dramatic address given in the spirit of Cicero. The classicist speaker was Henry Smith Lane, leader of the Indiana delegation. His presentation, the keynote address, secured the convention chairmanship for himself and guaranteed the Republican presidential nomination for the glamorous far western explorer John C. Fremont. Fremont did not prove an attractive candidate in the 1856 election, but Lane’s support of another political long shot four years later did assist in the nomination of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. Henry S. Lane would then follow the President’s path to Washington as a United States Senator.
The story behind Lane’s rise to prominence in the Republican party begins in 1842. Surprisingly, it was in that year he vowed to retire from politics forever. Lane had recently finished a term in the United States House of Representatives. He had proved himself an active and valued member of the Whig party, but lost all interest in politics after he had suffered a personal tragedy.
On an icy December night in 1842 Lane and his wife, Pamela, were both injured when their stage coach plunged over a precipice. Lane suffered a broken rib and initially Pamela Lane complained only of bruises. Several weeks later, however, she died a sudden and horrible convulsive death in Lane’s arms. The details of her illness in light of present day medical knowledge suggest she may have died of a ruptured gall bladder.
The death of his wife severely affected Lane. Correspondence indicates he was extremely close to her. Letters also reveal that their perilous journey had taken place primarily to show Mrs. Lane the sights of Washington. It is unknown if Lane blamed his busy political life for her death, but his decision not to seek another term was a direct result of the loss of heart he felt. In the spring of 1843, still in ill health as the result of the rib injury, Lane retired to his Indiana home in Crawfordsville. He had every intention of returning to his earlier vocation as a small town lawyer which he had practiced at since bringing Pamela to Crawfordsville from their birth place in Kentucky in 1833. Soon, though, historical and personal events changed his plans.
In 1844 the famous Whig politician Henry Clay, Lane’s mentor and political idol, received his party’s presidential nomination. Hearing this news the former Indiana Congressman simply could not resist the occasion to assist the famous leader. In the House a young Henry Lane, only twenty-nine, won Clay’s respect. Although he had earned that respect through numerous supportive speeches on the House floor, the 1844 election provided a chance to take an active part in the spread of a political doctrine that he lived and breathed.
The doctrine was conservative by the standards of the time. It concentrated on practical government assistance to economic growth that favored internal improvements. For example, Whigs typically rallied over projects like canal construction that could assist farmers in bringing their grain to market, but showed little interest in grander, and increasingly popular, proposals for growth that advocated territorial expansion. Clay thus tended to sympathize with land owners who had a vested interest in stable economic expansion, and at election time relied on that traditionally conservative class for support.
Lane ferociously campaigned for the Whig candidate throughout Indiana, but found his efforts frustrated due to the changing tide in American politics. The country was reflecting that expansionist mood by 1844 and the Whigs, who tended to be more removed from the masses than Democrats, did not sense this developing philosophy of Manifest Destiny. During the election Clay continued to focus on internal reforms and refused to depart from his party’s conservative philosophies. Clay then further exasperated the public by taking an ambivalent position on the admission of Texas to the Union.
Sam Houston’s leadership of American settlers in a Texas war of independence from Mexico during 1836 had generated great excitement throughout the country. Southern and some western land owners sympathized with the movement, and feared Clay might reject the addition of that state’s great spaces which seemed ideal for cotton production. Texan requests for admission to the Union were twice denied, and by 1844 reports circulated that Houston had turned to Europe for support and money.
Clay’s uncertain stance also concerned those of the Northeast and Northwest. They however worried that the Whig candidate might encourage Texas statehood and therefore increase the political base of the southern slave economy which opposed protective tariffs. Tariffs on imports at this time were believed by many in those regions to be a key impetus to the increasing numbers of young factory towns and segments of the northern farm market. In addition, abolitionism was just beginning to make its influence felt in politics. Northerners in particular opposed slavery on moral grounds and openly feared the increased political influence of that southern institution.
The Democratic nominee, James K. Polk, cleverly exploited that controversial issue to his party’s own political advantage. He intentionally catered to the country’s expansionist leanings by advocating the acquisition of Texas, and simultaneously promising to acquire the Oregon Territory. Oregon would logically be free once gaining statehood and could balance southern interest should Texas become a slave state. Democrats justified their proposal by arguing that the United States always claimed Oregon, and that Texas was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase. They hoped not only to win votes, but permanently cement an alliance between the South and the growing West. Through that strategy Democrats also hoped to discourage any accusations of sectionalism.
Late in the campaign Clay realized his error and attempted to state a more popular position on Texas, but it was too late. Polk’s clever tactic guaranteed his party the election, and although the victory was only by a margin of 40,000 popular votes the Democratic party won states from all sections of the country. As a result the Democrats secured a majority in both houses of Congress, although, their victory was not so much a show of confidence in the Democratic party as a desire for national expansion. The election’s real significance, however, concerned the ever increasing need of candidates to satisfy rapidly divergent national interest. That explosive balancing act between northern industry, southern slavery, and a universal desire for territorial acquisition in the West, foreshadowed the coming of the most turbulent period in American history.
For Henry Lane, who at that time largely ignored the issue of slavery and industrialization, Clay’s defeat provided but one more reason to retreat from the life that first brought him to Washington. In 1845 he tried once again to do just that. In that year he remarried. Joanna M. Elston, the young daughter of prominent Indiana businessman Isaac C. Elston, proved to be as influential in his eventual return to Washington as the political events about to unfold.
In the first year of their marriage Joanna personally directed the construction of an elegant southern style mansion on the wooded outskirts of the small town of Crawfordsville. A great white house on a hill, it dominated the field of her childhood fantasies known as Elston Grove. Christened Lane Place, Henry hoped to make the home a quiet haven in which to settle down and concentrate on his law practice. Crawfordsville, located in Montgomery County in west central Indiana, had served as his residence since 1833 and suited his character well. It was a steadily growing solidly Whig community with numerous businesses, a jail, and the county court house. The town even possessed a college, Wabash, and showed potential as a key commercial center.
That at any rate was the hope of Joanna’s entrepreneurial father, the Major. Since starting the town’s first general store in 1823, Lane’s father-in-law had begun to dabble in land speculation that by 1860 would popularly title him one of the wealthiest men in Indiana. Joanna Lane, a nineteen year old bride at the time, was as ambitious as her father, but chose Henry Lane as the focus of her energy. She often called her husband “Mr. Lane,” in a tone suggestive (to this author’s ears) that he did not always worry as much about his career as she did. And while he never intentionally sought personal gain from the Elston family, Joanna and her father became a crucial source of support during the dramatic upheavals in history which soon began to engulf Lane.
The first of a series of events that propelled Lane back to Washington was the Mexican war. On May 13, 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico. Polk’s flirtation with Manifest Destiny had reached a climax. The President not only fulfilled a campaign promise to acquire Texas and the Oregon Territory, but had become determined to annex New Mexico and California. He hoped to use diplomacy and money to accomplish his dream. Finding those methods frustrated, the President eventually exploited a border incident in which Mexican troops had crossed the Rio Grande and attacked a unit of American soldiers. Polk had previously planned to ask for a declaration of war on the grounds that Mexico refused to honor its financial obligations and had thus insulted the administration by refusing an offer of thirty million dollars for the land. But when the electrifying news of the scrimmage reached Washington, Polk seized the moment to secure a more substantial declaration of war. Congress accepted the President’s interpretation with only two dissenting votes in the Senate, and fourteen in the House.
Henry Lane, like most northern Whigs, vehemently opposed Polk’s actions. However, he was a patriotic American in the true nineteenth-century sense of the word. Like countless citizens of virtually every nation in time of war, the former congressman became overcome by nationalism. By the end of the month he was assisting to draft resolutions commending the President’s actions. In June he again offered his services and gave rousing patriotic speeches in Indianapolis and Crawfordsville, resulting in the organization of a group of volunteers for a military expedition. Indiana’s governor James Whitcomb commended his actions and, it is believed after a personal request by Lane, appointed him their captain when the group assembled in Indianapolis on the twentieth of June, 1846.
On June 11, the volunteers had assembled on the front lawn of Lane Place. They were preparing to march off to war, but not before Mrs. Lane could inaugurate their venture. The men, who had gathered shortly after dawn, eagerly awaited her presentation. Late in the morning Joanna Lane appeared through the door of the second level of the west portico. The crowd, which by then comprised many town folk, had been very boisterous, but soon quieted. In a setting no novelist could write, Mrs. Lane started to speak. As her words began, a thunderstorm could be heard beyond the horizon. The effect was extremely appropriate because her address sounded foreboding. Mrs. Lane’s words became atypical in tone for a Victorian wife’s accepted position. As the thundershower neared, she talked of their chance to “fall in defense of your beloved country,” and “peril your lives in defense of the Republic.” At the end of the ceremony, Lane accounts in his diary that the rain began to fall and with it the loss of the confidence all had earlier felt.
Armed only with a battle flag that Mrs. Lane had presented them, (and made by the Montgomery County ladies organization) the volunteers made their way to war. The journey first took them by way of Indianapolis where they entrained to Madison, Indiana. At both sites Lane temporarily halted their journey to satisfy repeated cheers for him to speak. Such occurrences were common when Lane traveled in the state, and are reflective of his widespread popularity as early as the 1840’s. At Madison he spoke to the local citizens of glorious crusades, patriotism, pride, and duty. One observer characterized the group as unpolished, but unconquerable frontier specimens reminiscent of backwoods Kentucky.
By June twentieth they reached Camp Clark, Mississippi, and remained until Mrs. Lane could visit to give her final goodbyes. On the fifth of July Lane’s volunteers boarded the paddle steamer Grace Darling for passage down the Mississippi river, at which time his men took advantage of the lazy voyage to rest. By the eleventh of July the boat reached New Orleans and the group made camp on the old Andrew Jackson battle ground. At that time the volunteers were equipped and reorganized as the First Regiment with Lane, promoted to major, as the group’s commander.
On July 17, 1846, the First Regiment was ordered to proceed to Texas. On that day they boarded the sailing barge Kazam for a journey across the Gulf of Mexico. Conditions aboard ship were horrendous. Men were bunked in cramped overcrowded cabins. Their meals consisted of diluted coffee with dry crackers, and at times spoiled meat. As the ship neared Texas, rough seas were encountered from a hurricane brewing in the western Caribbean. The storm caused the vessel to run aground at Padri Island, but all were safely evacuated by the ship’s long boat. Several days later they finally reached their assigned destination of Brazos Santiago, on the south Texas border with Mexico. Lane named this army campsite “a grave, a hell upon earth.”
For nearly five months Lane’s regiment served in desolate locations near the Rio Grande and waited for a more active assignment. They naively expected orders to march on Mexico and take part in one great battle that would end the war, although the only battles they raged were with measles and dysentery which ran rampant throughout the campsites. Repeatedly, Lane traveled inland to plead with area commander General Zachary Taylor for medicines, but they never arrived. As the months passed he helplessly watched his men die slow agonizing deaths from disease. By September, sixty comrades were dead and two hundred were suffering from critical illnesses. During one cold rainy night Lane made a sobering account in his diary. He recorded that as he lay shivering in a leaky tent with thoughts longing of home, the all too familiar sound of a funeral march suddenly interrupted and caused him to break down and weep.
Gradually, Lane lost the zeal he had once demonstrated and expressed doubts about the administration of the war. At that point he first exhibited the type of dissatisfied attitude toward government that later inspired him to be such a vocal force in the birth of the Republican party in the 1850s. He criticized members of both political parties, although retained an allegiance with the Whigs. In comparison to the commentary in his diary, Lane’s rhetoric was mild even though he gave a number of impromptu speeches in Mexico criticizing the war; some of which even found their way into national newspapers. One speech became so misquoted by the time it reached Crawfordsville, that some hometown Whigs denounced Lane for becoming a Democrat. Lane later explained that he merely attempted to say that the Whigs were wasting time by speculating on causes instead of solutions to the war.
By the first of December rumors circulated that the First Regiment might receive an active assignment. Until that time all military actions occurred far inland and out of sight of the Indiana volunteers. That fact made the First very unsettled, for its members sincerely hoped to take part in a battle. Most realized warfare was not as desirable as they outwardly boasted, but all did believe that they would find great personal glory in battle. The men of the First, who were still extremely loyal to Lane, reflected their commander’s own hopes.
Lane had long pleaded with area generals for active service. He stated time and time again that his men must escape the diseased encampments and be given the chance to do the duty that took them from their families. Finally, the long awaited order came. The First broke camp on the tenth of December with orders to march on Monterrey, Mexico.
Although the trek proved brutal and for many deadly, spirits soared. A month later, however, after progressing three hundred and ninety miles, just six miles short of their destination, the regiment received orders to return to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the hell hole they had started from. The men were virtually in a state of mutiny. Lane quieted the complaints, but only after local commanders allowed his regiment to promote him to lieutenant colonel. By that time, Lane represented the only trustworthy figure in their eyes.
The disheartened ranks started the journey back just as another order arrived directing them from their present camp at Walnut Spring to Matamoros, still several hundred miles back toward the coast. During the bedlam Lane showed signs of extreme fatigue and depression. After the demoralizing return march, he described a very symbolic incident. Lane stated that while touring a former battlefield, he stumbled across the decomposed body of a Mexican soldier. At that point he felt deep regrets for having persuaded the volunteers into leaving their safe Indiana homes for such bureaucratic madness. As Lane stood there (his eyes affixed on the glare of a savior’s medal hanging around the soldier’s white bones) his heart was at a loss, for he realized he had come as close as he would get to the glorious war.
To Lane’s dismay the Indiana volunteers were never allowed to take part in any actions. Lane spent a total of ten months in Mexico. They were emotionally and physically draining. He, in fact, had complained of a regular series of health troubles since the stage coach accident and correspondence suggest that the brutal Mexican environment may have caused him to develop a slowly progressing case of heart disease. By May, Lane was on furlough in New Orleans where he met Joanna who had traveled south to meet him. The First Regiment was by then homeward bound and Lane had the opportunity to bid them farewell while in the city. On June 20, 1847 Lane, himself, made plans to return home. The Lanes checked out of the St. Charles Hotel and left New Orleans on the steamboat General Taylor. Up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, their first sight of Indiana came at Madison. There local officials remembered Lane’s speech from a year ago, and begged for an encore. Lane agreed to speak, but for far different reasons than before.
In Mexico he used every opportunity available to complain about the war, but did so only among officers. Madison provided his first chance since the war to speak honestly to the masses. This he did very well. Lane faulted many times in his speaking career among professional politicians, but never failed with the common folk.
His Madison speech was one of his finest. As the crowd assembled before the town courthouse, Lane told his story. In long and gruesome detail he described how so many of his men fell not at the hands of Mexican soldiers, but from denied requests for medicines. He described the awful environments of the campsites that became dusty infernos at one moment and cold wet graveyards at another. Lane denounced the war’s symbol as a glorious crusade for the pride of America. War, he explained, no longer held honor for him. Lane then complained about the government’s administration of the war, stating that occupation was Polk’s solution to settling territorial disputes. Then he expressed hope that a powerful force would be sent to give a decisive victory.
By that point the great orator had worked himself into a complete rage. He began to violently wave his arms and speak with heavy use of Biblical references applied in a very classical tone. Finally he completely departed from his notes. Continuing, Lane proclaimed neither the Whig nor Democratic party could mend the bureaucratic bungling that caused the inefficiency he witnessed and had contributed to the war’s cause. He then loudly, and clearly, called for the formation of a new political party.
Few details were given about such a new party. Ironically, f the speech only spurred the formation of another group of innocent volunteers who were quickly sent off to the very horrors he denounced. However one thing was clear: Lane had made a dramatic and courageous break with the politics that had shaped America since its birth. He now no longer identified solely with the Whig party, and no longer intended to retreat from the world of politics.
Henry Lane went on to found the Indiana Republican party. He became a key influence in the growth of the national Republican party and together with the incumbent governor from Pennsylvania, Andrew Curtin, served as the force behind the nomination of Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican national convention. Lane then went on to be elected the first Republican governor of Indiana but was asked to leave that post by the state legislature to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate during the Civil War. There, Lane became a key supporter of the President’s war policies. Sadly, after Lincoln’s assignation he served the President once more as pallbearer at his funeral. Lane himself died in 1881, one of Indiana’s most distinguished politicians.
excerpts from The Road to Washington, By Michael Hall

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