Page "Jonathan Jennings" Paragraph 35

Historians have varied interpretations of Jennings ’ life and his impact on the development of Indiana.

The state ’ s early historians, like William Woollen and Jacob Piatt Dunn, wrote of Jennings in an almost mythical manner and focused on the strong positive leadership he provided Indiana in its formative years.

Dunn referred to Jennings as the “ young Hercules ”, and praised his crusade against Harrison and slavery.

During the prohibition era in the early twentieth century, historians like Logan Eseray and Arthur Blythe wrote more critical works of Jennings, describing him as a “ crafty and self promoting politician ,” and dismissed his importance and impact on Indiana, saying the legislature and its leading men set the tone of the era.

They tended focused on his alcoholism and destitution in later life and the basis of their opinions.

Modern historians like Howard Peckham and Keith Miller say that the truth of Jennings ’ legacy lies somewhere between the two extremes.

Miller, quoting Woollen, says that the state “ owes him a debt which can never be calculated ” for his role in preventing the spread of slavery and in changing the future of the state by pulling it out of the sphere of the southern slave states and making Indiana a truly northern free state.