| Interment Location | Visited | Sequence in Graves I Have Visited |
|---|---|---|
| Indianapolis, IN | August 20, 2004 | 6th Vice President visited |
Three U.S. vice presidents are interred at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, including Thomas A. Hendricks. Hendricks was VP under Grover Cleveland for just eight and a half months in 1885 before he passed away unexpectedly. He was the fifth and penultimate VP to die in office in the nineteenth century. Hendricks is buried just a few yards away from Theodore Roosevelt’s veep, Charles Fairbanks. VP Thomas Marshall’s mausoleum is not too far away from Hendricks either, nor is President Benjamin Harrison’s plot.
A prejudiced man who also did not support quick, substantive change, Hendricks voted against the Reconstruction Era constitutional amendments during his tenure as a U.S. senator. Those were the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished chattel slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment that solidified citizenship rights, and the Fifteenth Amendment that barred discrimination of voting rights based on race. Defeated for re-election to the Senate in 1868, he successfully ran for governor of Indiana in 1872. In 1876, he was Samuel L. Tilden’s running mate on the Democratic Party ticket. They lost a contested election to Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler. Paired with Grover Cleveland atop the ticket in 1884, Hendricks was finally elected VP.
Fast Facts
Born: September 7, 1819 in Fultonham, Ohio
Spouse: Eliza Carol Morgan Hendricks (m. 1845-1885)
Political Affiliation: Democratic Party
Gubernatorial Tenure: 1873-1877
Vice Presidential Tenure: 1885 under Grover Cleveland
Died: November 25, 1885 in Indianapolis, Indiana
Age: 66
Interment: Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana
"Had the white men of this country a right to establish a Government, and thereby a political community? If so, they had a right to say who should be members of that political community. They had a right to exclude the colored man if they saw fit. Sir, I say, in the language of the lamented [Senator Stephen A.] Douglas, and in the language of President [Andrew] Johnson, this is the white man's Government, made by the white man for the white man. I am not ashamed to stand behind such distinguished men in maintaining a sentiment like that."
- Thomas A. Hendricks
February 16, 1866 in an address delivered to the U.S. Senate, arguing against passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Barnes, William H. History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1868. https://books.google.com/books?id=niwOAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
