Henry Smith Lane (February 24, 1811 – June 19, 1881) was a

United States representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, Senator, and the

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave pl ...

Governor of Indiana The governor of Indiana is the head of government of the State of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state governmen ...

; he was by design the shortest-serving Governor of Indiana, having made plans to resign the office should his party take control of the

Indiana General Assembly The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. Th ...

and elect him to the United States Senate. He held that office for only two days, and was known for his opposition to

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. A Whig until the party collapsed, he supported compromise with the south. He became an early leader in the Republican Party starting in 1856 serving as the president of the first party convention, delivering its keynote address, and was influential in the nomination of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

. With the repeal of the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...

, he became a full-fledged

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, and in the Senate he was a pro-Union advocate and a strong supporter of the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative si ...

to end the rebellion.

Early life

Family and background

Henry Smith Lane was born in Bath County, Kentucky near Sharpsburg on February 24, 1811, the son of James H. and Mary Higgins Lane. He received a classical education from private tutors and studied law; he was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in Mount Sterling, Kentucky in 1832. He moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1835 working at the

Bank of Indiana The state Bank of Indiana was a government chartered banking institution established in 1833 in response to the state's shortage of capital caused by the closure of the Second Bank of the United States by the administration of President Andrew Jac ...

and opening a law office, taking mainly criminal cases.Woollen, p. 120 Lane was an opponent of slavery early in life, and came to support Henry Clay while he lived in Kentucky. At age 20, he delivered an anti-slavery speech to the Colonization Society in October 1831. In the speech he declared, "The History of all times admonishes us that no man or community of men can be kept forever in slavery." While Lane opposed to expansion of slavery he was not in favor of abolition, but like Henry Clay he believed that over time slavery would die out if it was prevented from spreading.Woollen, p. 128 In 1833 he married Pamela Bledsoe Jameson. The couple had no children, and his wife was killed in a stage coach accident 1842; Lane escaped the accident with only minor injuries. Active in Whig politics, he was a member of the

Indiana Senate The Indiana Senate is the upper house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The Senate is composed of 50 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. Senators serve four-year term ...

in 1837 as a representative of Montgomery County and a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1838–39. Lane was elected to the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in 1840 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Tilghman A. Howard, he won reelection defeating John Bryce by overwhelming majority the next year, and served until 1843. He did not seek reelection to a second full term. While in office, he was in favor of compromising with the south over the slavery issue and openly condemned the abolitionists agitators as promoting disunity.

Mexican–American War

During the 1844 elections, Lane

stump Stump may refer to: * Stump (band), a band from Cork, Ireland and London, England * Stump (cricket), one of three small wooden posts which the fielding team attempt to hit with the ball *Stump (dog): Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee (born 1998), 200 ...

ed most of Indiana for presidential candidate Henry Clay. He married Joanna Maria Elston, a daughter of Isaac Compton Elston, a major investor in the Bank of Indiana in 1845. Lane returned to his law practice after the election and remained there until the outbreak of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

. In May 1846, Lane attended the war meeting held in Indianapolis, and became and active member, writing part of the resolutions the meeting issued, pledging troops for the invasion of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. After the meeting, Lane set out to personally raise a company of men to join the war effort, and he served during the war at its head, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the First Regiment Indiana Infantry. His regiment spent most of the war in Mexico, guarding supply lines and military posts, and saw little action. When his companies' enlistment expired, Lane returned to Indiana by ship, landing in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

, Indiana. He there confronted many members of the Whig party who were opposed to the war and publicly decried their lack of support for the cause. Lane then set out to organize a new company and set out again for Mexico as part of the Fifth Indiana Regiment Infantry, and remained in Mexico for the duration of the war.Woollen, p. 121

Shifting parties

After returning from the war, Lane was a candidate for Congress in 1849, challenging Joseph E. McDonald. The election was a close contest, but Lane was ultimately defeated and returned to private life. He abandoned the profession of law and engaged in the banking business at Crawfordsville in 1854. The same year the

Know Nothing Party The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

was established and Lane joined, along with many other disaffected Whigs. In the legislature he was a strong supporter of sending a Know-Nothing candidate to the United States Senate. The debate began the start of a period of divisive state politics that would continue until the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. The Democrats refused to allow the new party any national representation, and Ashbel Willard, who was President of the State Senate, was able to lock up voting and prevent any Senator from being elected. The situation exploded and the Know-Nothings responded by locking up the entire General Assembly.Woollen, p. 122 The results were disastrous and the Know-Nothing party quickly fell apart, but the battle brought Lane national fame in standing up to the Democrats. In 1856 Lane attended the first Republican National Convention. He was elected president of the convention and gained national recognition for his oratory. After the convention he returned to Indiana and stumped the state for the new party. That year Republicans gained a strong representation in the General Assembly and, with the support of some Democrats, were able to elect Lane and William McCarty to the United States Senate. The two men went to Washington to challenge the state's sitting senators, but the Senate refused to accept the new senators. In 1857, the

was repealed. The act had a profound effect on Lane's position on slavery. While before he had supported compromise on the issue, the law's repeal led him to become a full-fledged abolitionist and favor anti-slavery action on the national level.

Republican

Gubernatorial campaign

Lane returned to Indiana where he continued to spread the ideas of the new party. In 1860, the state Republican convention chose Lane to run for governor, and Oliver Morton as lieutenant governor. They challenged

Thomas Hendricks Thomas Andrews Hendricks (September 7, 1819November 25, 1885) was an American politician and lawyer from Indiana who served as the 16th governor of Indiana from 1873 to 1877 and the 21st vice president of the United States from March until his ...

on the Democratic ticket. Prior to the election it was negotiated that Lane would be elected to the Senate and Morton would continue as governor. The men canvased the entire state. After a major speech in

Evansville Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, Lane attended the second Republican National Convention, and was influential in helping

win the presidential nomination. Lane and Lincoln had a friendly relationship and Lincoln once said of Lane, "Here comes an uglier man than I am".Woollen, p. 123 Returning to Indiana after the convention, he held a final debate with Hendricks in Fort Wayne. Lane was not as skilled a debater as Hendricks, but was considered a superior orator. Lane refused to have any more debates with his opponent, and instead traveled across the state again giving speeches. The election was close and Lane defeated Hendricks by about 1,000 votes and was elected governor; he was inaugurated January 14, 1861. However, he served just two days, and resigned to accept a seat in the U.S. Senate to honor the agreement with running mate Morton, who then became governor.

Senator

Lane was again elected by the Republican-controlled Indiana Legislature, but again the Democratic-dominated U.S. Senate refused to seat him. As southern states began to secede from the Union, however, the Southern majority quickly gave way and Lane was permitted to be seated. He served from March 4, 1861, to March 3, 1867, and was a supporter of President Lincoln's policies during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills (Thirty-seventh through Thirty-ninth Congresses) and a member of the Committee on Pensions (Thirty-ninth Congress).

Return to private life

After his Senate term ended, Lane returned to Crawfordsville, never again to hold elected office. He served as special Indian commissioner from 1869 to 1871, and was commissioner for improvement of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, appointed by President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

.Woollen, p. 124 On June 18, 1881, Lane entertained some friends at his home in Crawfordsville for the evenings. After the party he began to have severe chest pains, and he died the next afternoon, June 19 around 1 pm, of an apparent heart-attack. His death was reported nationally, and biers were held nationwide. Lane was buried on June 21, his pallbearers being former governors of the state, and fellow senators. He was buried in a vault in Oak Hill Cemetery, and that state erected a monument over his grave.Woollen, p. 127

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Dumas Malone (ed.), ''Dictionary of American Biography'', vol. 5, part 2, New York:Charles Scribner's Sons (1961), pp. 574–575. * * * *

External links

Retrieved on 2009-04-23 *
Biography and Jacob Cox portrait from the Indiana Historical Bureau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Henry Smith 1811 births 1881 deaths Republican Party members of the Indiana House of Representatives Republican Party Indiana state senators Republican Party governors of Indiana Indiana lawyers American bankers United States Army officers People from Bath County, Kentucky American military personnel of the Mexican–American War People of Indiana in the American Civil War Union (American Civil War) political leaders People from Indiana in the Mexican–American War Methodists from Indiana Indiana Know Nothings Republican Party United States senators from Indiana Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana 19th-century American politicians Burials in Indiana