Short Biography of Joseph E. McDonald

McDONALD, Joseph Ewing, a Representative and a Senator from Indiana; born in Butler County, Ohio, August 29, 1819; moved with his mother to Montgomery County, Ind., in 1826; apprenticed to the saddler’s trade when twelve years of age in La Fayette, Ind.; attended Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., and graduated from Asbury (now De Pauw) University, Greencastle, Ind., in 1840; studied law in La Fayette, Ind., was admitted to the bar, in 1843, and practiced; prosecuting attorney 1843-1847; moved to Crawfordsville, Ind., in 1847, where he practiced law until 1859; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-first Congress (March 4, 1849-March 3, 1851); was not a candidate for renomination in 1850; elected attorney general of Indiana in 1856 and was reelected in 1858; moved to Indianapolis in 1859; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of Indiana in 1864; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1881; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; chairman, Committee on Public Lands (Forty-sixth Congress); died in Indianapolis, Ind., June 21, 1891; interment in Crown Hill Cemetery.

Source: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000412

tJOSEPH E. McDONALD. A lawyer of exalted ability, a statesman of the highest type, and a man of sublimated integrity and honor, Hon. Joseph E. McDonald left a deep impress upon the history of Indiana and also upon that of the nation. Both were dignified by his noble life and splendid achievements, and he stood as an honored member of a striking group of men whose influence in the social and economic life of the nation was of most beneficent order. He served as a member of both branches of the United States Congress and was accorded other evidences of popular confidence and regard, the while he ever ordered his course according to the highest principles and ideals, so that he was found true to himself and to all men. Such was his prominence in public affairs and in professional life in Indiana and its capital city that it is but a matter of justice to here enter a brief tribute to his memory and perpetuate at least a brief record concerning his career.

Joseph Ewing McDonald was born in Butler County, Ohio, on the 20th of August, 1819, and was a son of John and Eleanor (Piatt) McDonald. The father traced his lineage to stanch Scottish origin and the family was founded in America in the colonial days. John McDonald was a pioneer of the old Buckeye state and was known as a man of strong mentality, impregnable integrity, and generous and kindly nature. He was industrious and diligent in connection with the practical affairs of life and manifested the business ability so characteristic of the sturdy race from which he was sprung. He died when the subject of this memoir was an infant, and his widow subsequently became the wife of John Kerr, of Fairfield Township, Butler County, Ohio. She was of French-Huguenot ancestry and was a member of a family that was first founded in New Jersey, from which state representatives later made permanent settlement in Pennsylvania. From the latter commonwealth came the founders of the family in Ohio. Mrs. Eleanor (Piatt) McDonald Kerr was a woman of much talent and gracious personality, and her distinguished son ever gave credit to her for the beneficent influence she exerted in the formative period of his character. in the autumn of 1926, John Kerr removed with his family to Montgomery County, Indiana, where he secured a tract of government land and initiated the herculean task of reclaiming a farm from the forest wilds. He passed the closing years of his life in the home of his step-son, the subject of this memoir, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he died in 1856. He and his wife were both devout members of the Presbyterian Church, as was also John McDonald, father of him whose name introduces this review.

Joseph E. McDonald was significantly the artificer of his own fortunes, and he literally built the ladder upon which he rose to a place of distinction and great influence. He was seven years of age at the time of the family removal to Indiana, and he remained on the home farm until he had attained to the age of twelve years. He early began to contribute to the work of the pioneer farm and availed himself of the meager advantages afforded in the primitive schools of the locality and period. For two years within this period he was enabled to attend school at Crawfordsville, which was then a mere village. He was naturally receptive and studious, and when not employed at work on the farm he passed the greater portion of his time in reading and study, the while he began to formulate his boyish dreams into actuating motives. He often stated in later years that when but ten years of age he decided to prepare himself for the legal profession, and this ambition must have been prompted more from his reading than from personal acquaintanceship with members of the profession.

When twelve years of age Mr. McDonald entered upon an apprenticeship to the saddler's trade, at Lafayette, Indiana, and he continued to be identified with this line of work for six consecutive years, save for a period of three months spent in attending school. He had already become proficient in the common English branches, and his fund of knowledge had been appreciably expanded through special advantages afforded him during his term of apprenticeship. He was afforded access to the extensive and well selected library of Dr. Israel T. Canby, of Crawfordsville, where he continued his higher academic studies until 1840, except for a short interval, in 1839, when he was employed with the state engineering corps that was surveying the bed for the Wabash & Eric canal. In the meanwhile he had maintained himself in college largely by working at his trade during vacations and at such other times as opportunity was offered. In 1840 he entered Asbury (now DePauw) University, at Greencastle, where he continued his studies for six months, at the expiration of which he returned to Crawfordsville, where he was engaged in teaching school for one term. In the spring of 1841 Mr. McDonald went to Williamsport, this state, where he passed one year as clerk in the store of his elder brother. He had not in the meanwhile abandoned his determination to enter the legal profession and had waited only until such time as circumstances would justify his beginning the work of preparation therefore. In the spring of 1842 he began the study of law under the preceptorship of Zebulon Beard, of Crawfordsville, who was then one of the leading members of the bar of the state. Under such favorable direction the young man made rapid progress in his accumulation and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence, and in the spring of 1843 he was admitted to practice, after examination before the Superior Court, consisting of Judges Blackford, Dewey and Sullivan. Prior to receiving his license to practice he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the office of prosecuting attorney of Montgomery County, of which Crawfordsville is the judicial center, and in the election in August, 1843, he was successful at the polls, where he received a gratifying majority over his Whig opponent, Robert Jones, a prominent member of the bar of that county. Prior to this time the prosecuting attorneys for the various counties had been selected by the legislature, and thus Mr. McDonald had the distinction of being the first prosecutor chosen by popular vote in Montgomery County. He made an excellent record as a pubic prosecutor and in August, 1845, he was chosen as his own successor, defeating Robert Evans, the Whig candidate. He thus continued incumbent of the office for four consecutive years. In the autumn of 1847, Mr. McDonald established himself in the private practice of his profession in Crawfordsville, where he thus continued until 1859.

In the meantime Mr. McDonald had shown his eligibility and power for leadership in political affairs and had become one of the vigorous and prominent exponents of the principles of the Democratic party in his section of the state. In 1849 he was elected to represent the Eighth district in Congress, and he served one term as a member of the lower house of the federal legislature. In 1856 there came further recognition of his professional talent and political popularity, in that he was elected attorney general of Indiana, an office in which he was the first to be chosen by popular vote. His record gained to him wider reputation and public endorsement, as was shown conclusively in his re-election two years later. In 1859 he established his home in Indianapolis, where he entered into partnership with Judge Addison L. Roache, who had served on the bench of the Supreme Court of the state, and the firm of Roache & McDonald forthwith assumed a place of distinctive priority at the bar of Indiana. It secured a large and representative clientage and appeared in connection with much important litigation in the state and federal courts in Indianapolis.

In 1864 Mr. McDonald received the nomination of his party for governor of the state, and he made a vigorous and effective campaign against no less distinguished and popular an antagonist than Hon. Oliver P. Morton, the war governor, with whom he made a joint canvass of the state. Though he met with defeat at the polls he received six thousand more votes than were polled for the Democratic state ticket at the preceding election. On the 5th of March, 1875, he took his seat in the United States senate, in which he was elected to succeed Hon. Daniel D. Pratt. He assumed a position of prominence in the senate, by reason of his recognized ability and his recognized loyalty to his important constituency. He was made chairman of the committee on public laws and the second member of the important judiciary committee. He was known as one of the best informed and most versatile lawyers in the senate and his influence permeated in many directions. He was a member of the senate committee that visited the city of New Orleans to investigate the counting of the Louisiana vote in the election of 1876, and also of the Teller-Wallace committee that investigated election frauds in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Mr. McDonald was chairman of the Democratic state convention of Indiana in 1868 and was a member of the state central committee of his party from 1868 to 1874. He served one term in the United States senate and then opened a law office in the city of Washington, D. C. Thereafter he divided his time between the national capital and Indianapolis, in which latter city he also continued to maintain an office until his death. In Washington he was engaged in connection with many important cases presented before the Supreme Court, and among the most notable of these were those in connection with the telephone patents and the Mormon affairs. During every state and national campaign for many years his services were in almost constant requisition in making speeches in support of the principles and policies of the party of which he was a recognized leader, and at the Democratic national convention of 1880 he narrowly escaped being made the standard-bearer of the party on the presidential ticket. At one stage of the proceedings of the convention one of its sagacious delegates made the statement that the choice would either be the old ticket or Senator McDonald would be made the candidate for the presidency. For reasons not necessary to mention, political exigencies and expediency finally led to the nomination of General Hancock.

Mr. McDonald's health was excellent throughout his life until December, 1890, when the disorder that finally brought about his death appeared in the form of a mild attack of indigestion. In April, 1891, he came from Washington to Indianapolis, where he was destined to pass the residue of his long and useful life among the friends who had proved their loyalty and of whom he was deeply appreciative. For several weeks after his arrival he was able to ride to his office and there spend a few hours each day, but the visits gradually became irregular and finally ceased altogether. Thereafter he remained at his home, an uncomplaining sufferer, until the final summons came, on the 21st of June, 1891.

Throughout his long and earnest career Senator McDonald was unswerving in his allegiance to the exacting profession in which it was his to attain to so much of success and distinction. His association with important cases in Indiana history was of the closest and his skill and learning in his profession made him one of the really great lawyers of the country. Various causes which he represented in Indiana attracted unusual attention, and prominent among those was that of the State of Indiana versus Sidney Owens, charged with murder by poison. The prosecution was conducted by Judge Gregory, of Lafayette, and General Lew Wallace, of Crawfordsville, and there was a strong public prejudice against the defendant, whose interests were most ably represented by Mr. McDonald, who secured a verdict of acquittal, to the surprise of the entire bar of the state. Mr. McDonald was also counsel for Bowles, Milligan and Harvey, who were tried for conspiracy and treason by a military commission and sentenced to be hanged. The case was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States and the defendants were released on constitutional grounds. Mr. McDonald also appeared as counsel for the defense in the noted Beebe case, in which the Federal Supreme Court decided that the Maine liquor law was unconstitutional. He was also one of the attorneys for those who brought into the Supreme Court the issue of the constitutionality of the Baxter liquor law. He presented the leading argument in many important railroad cases tried in the federal courts and made the principal argument for the objectors in the count of the electoral vote of Louisiana before the electoral commission appointed to determine the result of the presidential election of 1876. He maintained that the creation of this commission was the exercise of a doubtful power, even in case of apparent necessity.

In politics Mr. McDonald ever held closely to the basic principles of the Democratic party as exemplified by Jefferson and Jackson, and few had more power and versatility as campaign orators. As a speaker he was cool, logical and resourceful. He believed in the intrinsic virtue of the people and in their ability and purpose to maintain our national institutions inviolate against the assaults of designing politicians. Regarded by all parties as a statesman of great ability, broad and liberal views, well fortified convictions and absolute personal integrity of purpose, long before the national convention of 1884 there was a general demand among the Democrats of Indiana for the nomination of Senator McDonald for the party candidate for the presidency. In presenting his name to the convention Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks referred to him as the peer of the best lawyers of the west, and continued with the following words: "Faithfully, diligently and ably, for six years, he represented Indiana in the senate, welcomed by the ablest of the senators as their peer. Mr. McDonald has been a student of the learning that has made the Democracy of the United States what it is today. He is familiar with the writings of his fathers and his opinions are based upon the sentiments that came to him through their pages. He is of clear perception, strong judgment, fair and just."

At the time of the death of Senator McDonald the Indianapolis Sentinel gave the following appreciative estimate in its editorial columns: "Kind of heart, colossal of mind, noble of purpose, strong of conviction and fearless of action, he put an indelible stamp upon the history of his time. In the laws of his state and of the nation he has left many enduring monuments to his worth. In the hearts of all who knew him he has left a lasting memory of his affection. In every sense he was one of nature's noblemen, and a nation will unite with that bereft family in mourning an end which, though coming when full of years and honors and ripe experience, our human understanding can regard as but most untimely." Senator McDonald was devoted to his home and family and to those admitted to the more intimate circle of his acquaintanceship will remain the deepest appreciation of the intrinsic nobility of the man. He was scholarly in his tastes and inclinations and read widely and with deep appreciation the best in literature.

On Christmas day of the year 1844 was solemnized the marriage of Senator McDonald to Miss Nancy Ruth Buell, a daughter of Dr. Buell, a leading physician of Williamsport, Indiana. The children of this union were: Ezekiel M., Malcolm A., Frank B., and Annie. The daughter became the wife of Mr. Caldwell and her death occurred on the 2d of June, 1877; Ezekiel M. died June 1, 1873, after having been associated with his father in the practice of law for five years; Frank B. died in Washington, D. C., on the 7th of January, 1887. Mrs. McDonald was summoned to the life eternal, and on the 3d of September, 1872, Senator McDonald married Miss Araminta W. Vance, of Crawfordsville, this state, who died February 2, 1875, leaving no children.

While a member of the United States senate, Senator McDonald was united in marriage to Mrs. Josephine F. (Farnsworth) Barnaso of Indianapolis, who survives him and retains her residence in Indianapolis, where, now venerable in years, she is held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the circle of her gentle and gracious influence. She was born at Westfield, New York, and is a daughter of the late Joseph Farnsworth, who was long numbered among the representative citizens of Madison, Indiana, he having been a native of the state of New York and having been a scion of a family, of English extraction, that was founded in America in the colonial epoch.

Source: "Greater Indianapolis: The History, the Industries, the Institutions, and the People of a City of Homes" ¹¹⁴²⁸