This column first appeared in April 2011. Al is on a research trip.
During the 1880s, Indiana industry began to grow rapidly due to the Indiana Natural Gas Boom and the ensuing creation of many new labor unions and a return to Democratic control of the General Assembly. One of the events to occur during the period became forever known as the “Black Day” of the General Assembly. February 24, 1887 was the date the Indiana General Assembly dissolved into legislative violence when fighting broke out in the Senate chamber and spread throughout the statehouse. The event resulted from an attempt by Governor Isaac P. Gray to be elected to the United States Senate and his own party’s attempt to stop him. It escalated when the Democratic controlled Senate refused to seat the newly elected Republican Lieutenant Governor, Robert S. Robertson, after being ordered to do so by the Indiana Supreme Court.
It was a risky proposition indeed when you take into account the fact that Robert S. Robertson was a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from the Civil War. Robertson (1839-1906) left his position as an officer in the Ninety-third New York Infantry to become an aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Nelson A. Miles in December 1863. Five months later, during the Wilderness Campaign, near Corbin’s Creek, a Confederate charge broke the Union line. Robertson rallied the men by turning back the enemy attackers, forever changing the course of the battle and saving certain defeat for the Union. For his actions, Robertson would later receive the Medal of Honor. Three weeks later, at Totopotomoy Creek, while carrying orders to a front line position, he suffered a serious leg wound that ended his military service. After the war he settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana before being tapped by his party for the post of lieutenant governor.
When Robertson tried to enter the chamber he was accosted in an attempt to block his path to the podium and later attacked in what would spiral into four frantic hours of intermittent fighting that eventually spread throughout the entire Indiana Statehouse. Shots were fired and the fight only ended after Republicans and Democrats began threatening to kill each other and the Governor ordered police to take charge of the building. Subsequently, the Republican controlled House of Representatives refused to communicate with the Democratic Senate, ending the legislative session.
Isaac P. Gray was elected as a Democratic Governor of Indiana in 1884 along with Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mahlon D. Manson. Gray had been a Whig before the party collapsed in the mid 1850s, and decided to become a Republican following the war. In his first run for office in 1866, he competed against George Washington Julian (an illustrious Irvingtonian) in the Republican primary, hoping to become a candidate for Congress, but was defeated. While a Republican, Gray oversaw the forceful passage of important post-American Civil War constitutional amendments while a member of the Indiana Senate. He became a Democrat in protest of the corruption of the administration of Ulysses S. Grant but as a Republican was often stymied by his Democratic adversaries who gave him the nickname “Sisyphus of the Wabash.”
Gray desired to be elected by the Indiana General Assembly to the United States Senate, but leaders in his adopted Democratic party did not want him to rise farther because of his actions while still a Republican. The assembly was split with Democrats controlling the Senate 31–19, while the House of Representatives was split 52–44–4, with Republicans holding the majority, and Greenbacks holding four seats. In a joint session, it would split the vote 75 Democrat, 71 Republican, with the 4 Greenbacks holding the deciding votes. Knowing that he could probably sway one of the Greenbacks to vote for his bid for the United States Senate, Gray began to attempt to have his name entered as a candidate. To create an issue and eliminate Gray’s candidacy, the Democrats convinced Lt. Governor Manson to resign. In the debate for selecting a Senate candidate, Democrats argued that without a sitting Lieutenant Governor, the Governor should not be sent to the Senate because there was no one to fill his position.
However, undeterred, Gray still wanted to be U.S. Senator so he met with the Indiana Attorney General and Secretary of State to determine the legality of electing a Lieutenant Governor during a midterm election. Both officials agreed that it would be legal, so the Secretary of State set forth an announcement that an election for the office would take place in the 1886 mid-term election. Gray wanted a Republican elected as his Lieutenant Governor, hoping Republicans would support his desire for the Senate knowing that a Republican would succeed him as Governor. Both parties ran a candidate but Republican candidate Robert S. Robertson won the election.
Before the 1887 legislative session began, Democrats filed a court appeal to prevent Robertson from being seated on grounds that the election was unconstitutional. When the January 1887 session began, Republicans immediately began making a commotion during the opening prayer and succeeded in getting Robertson announced as the new Lt. Governor. The majority Democrats ignored the minority Republicans and proceeded to elect their own Lieutenant Governor, Alonzo Green Smith. Republicans followed suit by filing a court case to prevent Smith from being seated. The Marion County Court of Appeals then ordered that neither man would be seated until the Indiana Supreme Court ruled on the matter.
With shocking rapidity by today’s standards, the Indiana Supreme Court decided in favor of Civil War hero Robertson by stating that the state constitution did not restrict any such election and that a candidate elected by popular vote could not be replaced by a vote of the Senate.
On the Monday following the court ruling (February 24, 1887) Robertson arrived at the statehouse to take his lawful seat presiding over the Senate. As he entered the Senate chamber, a group of Democratic Senators attacked him. The heroic former soldier was beaten to the floor and the Senate president pro tempore ordered the doormen to throw him out of the chamber and bar the door. Robertson was quickly removed and the door locked securely behind him while the Republicans inside demanded that he be allowed to enter. Once refused, the Republican Senators began attacking the Democratic Senators. As the fight progressed, one Democratic Senator pulled a gun and fired it into the ceiling, threatening to start killing Republicans unless the fight ended. The shot ended the fight in the Senate, but caused panic to sweep the rest of the building.
Word quickly spread through the Republican-controlled Indiana House of Representatives where the fight began anew, with Democrats and Republicans fist fighting. It soon spread through much of the building, but outside the Senate chamber Republicans were far more numerous and quickly gained the upper hand. An angry mob of at least six hundred Republicans swept the building and began throwing Democrats out of the structure. They then proceeded to beat down the door of the Senate chamber, dragging the Democratic Senators outside, where a few Republicans threatened to kill them if they attempted to return. From his position outside the locked Senate chamber, Lt. Gov. elect Robertson began to loudly protest his treatment to all within earshot as Republicans inside shouted through the still locked door that there had been a violent fight and gunfire.
Governor Gray had already sent for both city and county police reinforcement, ordering them to protect the Democrats and bring the situation under control. After four hours of fighting, the battle known as “Black Friday” of the General Assembly was over. The next day, House members issued a resolution refusing to have further communications with the Senate, claiming they were now an unconstitutional body due to their refusal to seat Robertson. Robertson returned to his Fort Wayne home and was never seated (although the official record books list him as Indiana’s Lt. Governor from 1887 to 1889). The lack of communication effectively ended the legislative session.
Governor Gray abandoned his attempt to be elected senator. His only noteworthy achievement as Governor was his ability to have the initial funds appropriated to begin construction of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. However Gray was not without his fans and many Democrats believed he had served in a manner so satisfactory as Governor that thereafter he became the recognized leader of the Indiana Democratic Party. This partisan feeling was cemented after the death of Cleveland’s first Vice-President, former Indiana Governor Thomas A. Hendricks, who died just eight months after being elected as Grover Cleveland’s second-in-command. So fervent were Gray’s followers that they insisted his name be placed on the ticket as Cleveland’s Vice President in 1888. The “Gray Democrats” claimed this unaccepted second spot suggestion would have secured the presidency for Cleveland with a victory over Hoosier Benjamin Harrison.
Instead Cleveland chose Allen G. Thurman for the spot in 1888, primarily because Gray’s enemies again brought up his actions while a Republican. Once again, he was nearly nominated to run for Vice President with Cleveland in 1892, but was defeated yet again after his opponent (Adlai E. Stevenson I) ascended the podium to retell the story of Gray’s “flip-flopping” years earlier. The February 1887 event received major attention in newspapers across the state leading to the ominous name of the “Black Day” of the General Assembly and it seemed that Isaac Gray could never escape its shadow.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
