The Indiana State Legislature

A One-Vote Oddity

Acquitted of Murder, He Elected a Senator 

I have searched for hours in books documenting the history of the period. I and others have spent hours searching the internet and talking to reference librarians trying to document the history of the events in question (see page 34, 38 and 62). I can’t prove or disprove the all of the events related here. Certain facts can be verified, others are hard to separate the fact from the myths that may have accrued around them. In the story below, I have left those things that I could not completely verify in small caps. From my research, I believe that every point in the story has an air of credibility to it.

(see text notes, for background)⁷

 Freeman Clark was a farmer in Indiana. He was also accused of murder. A young lawyer came to his rescue and gained Freeman’s acquittal and Freeman never forgot his debt. Some years later, his former lawyer, was running for office. It was1842 and Daniel Kelso was seeking to become the Indiana State Senator. Kelso had been an Indiana House of Representative from 1833-1835, then he had returned to private practice. Now he was seeking higher office.

Clark, Kelso’s former defendant was now old and seriously ill. From His bed he begged his sons to carry him to the county seat to cast his vote for Daniel Kelso. They were not easily convinced but finally they relented and Freeman Clark was carried to the polling booth to cast his vote. On the way home from his last public duty, Clark died.

That vote of gratitude from Freeman Clark was the deciding vote. Daniel Kelso became the Indiana State Senator in 1844—by one vote. Freeman Clark’s exercise of his constitutional privilege, his last act upon the earth tipped the scales and Daniel Kelso entered the Indiana State Senate.

But there is more to this story.

(Continued next post)

Footnotes

7. On many internet sites related to various “one-vote” elections, the information is just false. In some, half the information is true but is inaccurate in critical details. In the case of the Freeman-Kelso-Hannigan stories (see pages 34, 38, 62) there is a mixture of inaccuracy, history and unverifiable statements with just enough tantalizing tid-bits to make the whole both fascinating and befuddling. Here’s what is absolutely verifiable. Daniel (not “David,” as the websites proclaim) Kelso existed, served in the Indiana legislature, and seems to have been a friend of Hannigan who not only existed, but served as the U.S. Senator from Indiana and played a prominent role in the annexation of Texas as the internet story states. The evidence related to the election of Kelso and Hannigan by one vote has not yet been completely verified.

     Unfortunately, some of the most tantalizing “evidence” comes from a historical novel titled Magnificent Destiny, by Paul L. Wellman (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962). One is tempted to dismiss the story about Freeman and Kelso except for a couple of facts: 1) In his forward (p. 6), Wellman writes that “all important occurrences are as accurate as a good deal of research and study can make them.” 2) Page 466, where the information related to Freeman and Kelso is laid down, appears to be a one-page digression from the novel to give legitimate historical detail. 3) Nine pages later the novel is completed and Wellman writes an Afterward that gives broad hint to the attention he paid to historical detail. And 4) all subsequent research has reinforced the significant roles that both Kelso and Hannigan played in the history of the Jacksonian period. For these reasons, I decided to include them. That, and the fact that they make a good story! Let the reader or researchers draw their own conclusions from what I have included here.