Pearls of wisdom from Hoosier governors as the cataclysm approaches

Brian Howey
| Columnist

Listening to the four living governors at the Indiana State Fair Foundation’s Harvest Dinner brought to mind the only real farmer to serve in the state’s highest elected office.

This was James Douglas “Blue Jeans” Williams, who appeared on 3,500 acres near Monroe to serve in the General Assembly, Congress and then as our 17th governor. His career was made in the pioneer era of the state, the Civil War, and then expanding the rights of many Hoosiers.

A reporter described Governor Blue Jeans Bill this way: “Lank, to all the world like Lincoln, and as tall, with a face that might be photographed for Lincoln, and a lurching gait and a carelessness of dress exactly like the dead president’s , Williams is a figure that never fades from the minds of thousands of people who once saw him.”

During the American Civil War, Williams was accused of being a “Copperhead” Democrat for wanting Governor Oliver P. Morton to reveal how emergency funds were spent. When he won the governorship in 1877, he defeated future President Benjamin Harrison. He championed women’s rights, advocated for widows to inherit farmland, and found funding for the Purdue University grounds as well as the new (and current) Indiana Statehouse.

When these four living governors — Democrat Evan Bayh (1989-97) and Republicans Mitch Daniels (2005-13), Mike Pence (2013-17) and incumbent Eric Holcomb — were on stage, moderator Cindy Hoye asked them for their “pearls of wisdom” for future generations.

Daniels picked up on a topic this column has covered in the past: that every 80 years, America faces a cataclysm. There were the Revolution of 1776, the Civil War of 1861, and eight decades later the Great Depression that led to World War II.

Daniels’ first piece of advice was, “Try to be a person people trust.”

Then he referred to the coming catastrophe: “On account of the infirmities of their elders, I think it very, very likely that one of those crises, which will come to any country, and come to ours at different times in the past—our revolution in the Civil War , depression – I think this (coming) generation is going to have to deal with it.

“If you look at history, the failure or success of the civilizations that came before us was how they handled the great crisis,” Daniels said. “I think today’s young people will more likely be in their driving years when that happens. It could be domestic or our debts and economy, or international in origin. We must be aware that this happens, some believe cyclically over so many decades.”

And to great applause from the audience, Daniels added of the next generation: “They’re going to rise to the occasion and do a better job than some of their predecessors did. They will have a shot at greatness. Then greatness is actually defined.”

Bayh was introduced as “Senator” and quickly said, “It’s Governor Bayh.” As the program ended, he noted his current service on a national intelligence commission. “I’ve been focusing on what’s going on in China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela,” he said before getting to the point.

“Our children’s generation will be shaped by a global competition that is happening now,” Bayh said. “It will be the struggle and struggle between the autocracy and dictatorship that those countries represent and the freedom and liberty that the United States and our allies represent.”

This comes as some candidates talk about suspending the US Constitution or promise to be “dictator on day one” if elected.

“Living in a dictatorship is, in some ways, quite simple,” Bayh continued. “You are in the service of the country. You have no rights, no freedoms. You are just disposable to the rule of a tyrant. Your individual freedom does not matter. You just do what you’re told.

“It’s hard to live in a democracy,” Bayh said. “It’s difficult. It’s all about our individual freedom and what the government can do occasionally to empower us to our full potential as individuals. That’s why we rebelled against the king once upon a time. So that’s the first thing I would tell the next generation: Stand for freedom.”

He said of the Russians and Chinese: “They cannot beat the United States of America. It is possible to defeat ourselves.”

“How do we reinvigorate and reanimate democracy?” Bayh asked. “The genius of our democracy is not like some of these countries democracy is to find common ground together.”

He quoted his grandfather, col. Birch Evans Bayh: “No one ever learned anything by talking. But you can learn a lot by listening.”

Bayh concluded in a way Governor Blue Jeans Bill would have admired: “I was born on our family farm in Shirkieville, Indiana. You can’t talk to too many Hoosiers who weren’t a generation or two from the family farm.

“This fair and our agricultural heritage are part of the fabric that binds us together as Hoosiers. Moreover, there are the values you learn: hard work, ingenuity, thrift, being a good neighbor, being patriotic. These are the core values of Indiana.”

Howey is a senior reporter and columnist for State Affairs/Howey Politics Indiana. Find X @hwypol.

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