Senator Smith of Indiana

It was in the caucuses of his party that Smith excelled, like so many Hoosier politicians to this day. In 1836 he was elected Senator by the General Assembly. He herded his five hundred hogs to Cincinnati, arriving there at night covered with mud. Gentlemen in the lobby inquired about the Indiana senatorial election, asking which of the two leading candidates had been chosen. "Neither," said Smith. Then who? "I am elected." "You! What is your name?" Smith told them. "You elected a United States Senator! I never heard of you before." "Very likely," said Smith, and next day sold his hogs for seven thousand dollars cash and went home to Indiana.

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Indiana: an Interpretation by John Bartlow Martin
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1947 page 42.