There was almost continuous Indian troubles in the Ohio Valley from 1788 to 1795, when, after General Wayne's successful expedition, peace was made at Fort Greenville. After that date the American immigration began and there was no material trouble with Indians until the formation of Tecumseh's confederacy in 1811. The Indians were overwhelmed at the battle of Tippecanoe (q.v.) on 7 November of that year, by the troops under General Harrison, and sued for peace, but when the war with England came on there were Indian hostilities of minor im portance continuing until the close of the war in 1815. After that year there was a gradual extinction of Indian titles, the Indians being concentrated in the northern part of the State and finally removed west of the Mississippi. The last removals occurred in 1836 and 1838.
The sobriquet "Hoosier,'" commonly used to designate the State and its people, was first ap plied to them about 1830. It was not coined for that purpose, as is commonly supposed, but was a slang word signifying an uncouth rustic, which was in common use in the South at the time, and is still commonly used there in that sense.
The history of the State after its admission was chiefly that of peaceful development— clearing lands, opening roads, building towns and cities and establishing industries. The most notable feature was the disastrous internal improvement enterprise on which the State en tered in 1836. It contemplated transportation routes on seven main lines, involving the con struction of 1,289 miles of railroads and canals. That the routes were fairly well chosen is shown by the fact that they are now practically all occupied by successful railroad lines. The chief defect was that the improvements were mostly high-line canals, and the breaks in these before completion caused such great damage that the estimated cost was enormously increased. The financial panic of 1837 added to the diffi culties, and the effects of this were aggravated by the general entering of the States on such enterprises on borrowed capital. The total debts of the several States swelled from about $13,000,000 in 1830 to $207,894,613 in 1842. In 1839 Indiana was unable to realize on the sales of her bonds, and was forced to default interest on those already issued. The canals and roads being unfinished, did not furnish the revenues anticipated. Compromises were effected by which the work done was turned over to cred itor but the State was left with a debt of about $10,000,000 without any property to represent it. In all, Indiana built 453 miles of canals, at a cost of $7,725,262, all of which are now aban doned so far as transportation is concerned. But under private management, and more favor able conditions, the transportation lines de veloped rapidly, and in 1849 the one railroad originally contemplated was paying 8V2 per cent dividends on its stock. In 1860 there were 2,126 miles of railroads in successful operation in the State.
In the war with Mexico, Indiana furnished troops to the number of 4,470. Of these there were killed and wounded 183, and died of other causes 218. When the Civil War began the State occupied an important position, and its resources were utilized to the uttermost by its war governor, Oliver P. Morton. The State furnished 196,363 men for the war, and 784 paid for exemption, or in other words supplied 74.3 per cent of her total population capable of bear ing arms, by the census of 1860. Only one State in the Union surpassed or equaled this record, Delaware being credited with 74.8 per cent of her military population. But of the supply credited to Delaware nearly one-tenth was in money commutation for exemption, and nearly one-tenth of the men in actual service was colored. On the basis of white troops fur nished for three years or more of service, In diana supplied 57 per cent of her military popu lation of 1860, and on this basis was surpassed only by Kansas, which is credited with 59.4 per
cent. Of the troops sent by Indiana 7,243 were killed or mortally wounded in battle, and 19,429 died of other causes, making a total death loss of over 13 per cent of all troops furnished. One feature of the war period in Indiana, and some adjoining States, was the formation of secret treasonable societies known as Knights of the Golden Circle, and later Sons of Liberty. These attracted much attention at the time, and much comment later, but in reality they were neither extensive nor dangerous. They were organized with a system of °circles within circles,° with mysterious rites and blood-curdling oaths, but the masses of the members understood that they were merely for mutual protection, and the treasonable designs were affairs of the inner circles. Among their members there were a number of government detectives who kept the authorities informed as to every movement, and at the final exposure the chief witness for the government was Felix Stidgers, a detective who had become so prominent in the order that he was made °Grand Secretary for Kentucky," and knew all of the secrets of the order. As is aptly stated by Governor Morton's biographer, °No one can read the history of the secret organizations in Indiana and not feel that, widespread as they were, there was not an in stant in which they were not securely within the grasp of the war governor.° After the war, Indiana became peculiarly a political battle ground. In 1868 the Republicans elected Con rad Baker governor by less than 1,000 plurality, and in 1872 the Democrats elected Thomas A. Hendricks to that office by the narrow plurality of 1,148, although General Grarft received the vote of the State for President. After 1872 neither party carried the State at two con secutive elections until after 1896, and neither carried it by a majority of all the votes cast, or by a plurality of as much as 20,000. One result of this close balance has been an improvement in State legislation, the Democrats leading in the legislature of 1889 which they held although they had lost the State offices and the Presidential vote of the State in the preceding year. Indiana in that year adopted the Australian ballot system, be ing the second State in the Union to do so, with some improvements that have been ex tensively copied. Other notable reform laws are a school-book law that has made a large re duction in the cost of books used in the com mon schools; a, Board of State Charities law that has greatly improved the charitable and penal institutions of the State; a fee and salary law putting officials on salaries and requiring the payment of all fees into the public treasuries; a compulsory education law; laws for the encouragement of public libraries; laws for the incorporation of cities which provide the most modern modes of city government; laws for the reform of county and township government providing supervisory boards to which local legislation is entrusted, and a tax law that has been largely effective in equalizing taxation and has been copied elsewhere. Another feature of Indiana's development that has attracted notice in later years is its produc tion of native writers of poetry and fiction. Among the former may be named Joaquin Miller, John Hay, William Vaughan Moody, John James Piatt and James Whitcomb Riley; among the latter Gen. Lew Wallace, Maurice Thompson, Edward Eggleston, Charles Major, Meredith Nicholson, Booth Tarkington, Eliza beth Miller (Hack) and Annie Fellows John ston. There have also been many native writers in other lines of no mean ability.
The list of governors of Indiana is as fol lows: