A history of Ohio, with biographical sketches of her governors and the ordinance of 1787, Part 11

Author: Ryan, Daniel Joseph, 1855-1923
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio, A. H. Smythe
Number of Pages: 436


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General Halleck ordered Morgan to be imprisoned in the Ohio Penitentiary; accordingly the rebel raider, with about seventy others of his command, were confined there on the Ist of October, 1863. On the night of November 27th, Morgan and six com- panions escaped. It appears that by patient under- ground work a passage way from beneath the cells to the prison yard had been made. When every- thing was ready, Morgan and captains having pre- pared dummies and placing them in their beds so as to deceive the officers on watch, made their egress to the prison yard, and by a rope of bed-ticking they drew themselves to the top of the great wall, and thus regained their liberty. A polite note to the Warden, notifying him that their work was accom- plished with two small knives by working three hours a day for sixteen days, and reminding him that " Patience may be bitter, but its fruit is sweet," was all that was left of Morgan in Ohio.


To meet and suppress Morgan the state paid $250,- ooo to fifty-five thousand inilitia. The enemy dan- aged property in the amount of $495,000, and the necessary damage by the Union troops was $152,000; thus Morgan's summer raid cost the people of Ohio $897,000.


Vallandigham from his Canadian refuge continued to cast, like an evil genius, the shadow of his treason over his party in Ohio. His trial and banishment had made him a martyr in the hearts of his political associates. From the centre of the Southern Con- federacy came the cry that he should lead his party


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From 1860 to 1865.


in the coming contest for Governor. The conserva- tive and far-seeing Democrats opposed this, but with resistless enthusiasm he was unanimously nominated as their standard bearer at the State Convention, June Isth. At the same time a committee of leading Democrats was appointed to communicate with Pres- ident Lincoln and respectfully request him to restore Mr. Vallandigham to his home in Ohio. Mr. Lincoln replied to this committee that if they, or a majority of them, would, in writing, subscribe to the following propositions, he would revoke the order in relation to Vallandighanı :


I. That there is now a rebellion in the United States, the object and tendency of which is to destroy the National Union; and that, in your opinion, an army and navy are constitutional means for suppress- ing that rebellion.


2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase or favor the decrease, or lessen the efficiency of the army and navy while engaged in the effort to sup- press that rebellion.


3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the officers, soldiers and seamen of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to sup- press the rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided and supported.


To these conditions Mr. Vallandigham's friends re- fused to assent to subscribe. From his refuge in Canada the Democratic nominee addressed a mes- sage to his supporters in Ohio, in which he accepted the nomination for Governor.


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The Union Convention met at Columbus on the 17th of June, 1863. The committee which called the convention invited "all loyal citizens who are in favor of the maintainance of the Government and the pros- ecution of the war now being carried on for the sup- pression of the rebellion against it." Governor Tod was not deemed popular enough for re-nomination, and the convention nominated John Brough. The nominee was an old line Democrat, who had served as Auditor of State from 1839 to 1845, but had not been prominent in politics for many years. He was a loyal and effective supporter of the war, a good stumper, and a man of great popularity.


Since the days of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," there has been no such canvass as the Vallandigham campaign of 1863. It was viewed with anxiety by the forces in the field, ou both sides, and by the entire country at home. The Confederacy saw plainly, and realized its full import, that the contest in Ohio was between its friends and enemies. They knew, and expressed it, that the election of Mr. Vallandigham would be a rebuke to Mr. Lincoln and his adminis- tration, would array Ohio against the war and would give vantage-ground generally to the rebel position. All this was felt by the loyal people of Ohio, and they expressed themselves unmistakably at the polls. Mr. Vallandigham, who had arrived home June 15th, participated personally in the canvass and rallied with all his powers his supporters to a man. But there was no mistaking Ohio's loyalty; by one hun- dred thousand majority she elected John Brough her Governor.


Brough was the greatest of Ohio's "War Gover-


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From 1860 to 1865.


lors." His wonderful executive ability, his faculty for devising ways and means for execution and his power to grasp situations and results made him at the time he entered office a most valuable man in such a crisis. His first measure was to call a meeting of the Governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. This historic convention of the. "War Governors " of those loyal States sent a thrill through the nation. On April 21st, 1864, they notified Mr. Lincoln that they could furnish him for one hundred days with 85,000 men, without a dollar of bounty or a single draft. Ohio's share of this splendid array was 30,000 inen. It was a terrible drain to make upon Ohio, but it was nobly inet. Under the man- agement of Governor Brough's Adjutant General, B. R. Cowen-a man of strong character and excellent judgment-the entire quota assumed was filled by the day of rendezvous. Then General Cowen proudly telegraphed the Secretary of War: "More than thirty thousand National Guards are now in camp and ready to muster." In this way did Brough open his administration. The same forcible style character- ized it throughout. At times he seemed harsh and tyrannical, but beneath his rough and blunt exterior could be seen the methods of incorruptible honesty and pure patriotismn. He declined a renomination, and died during his term of office.


The record of Ohio through the trying period of the war shows the undaunted patriotism of her brave sons in the field, and the loyalty of her citizens at home. In addition, the women of Ohio played a part that cannot be forgotten. The Ladies' Aid Societies did a work that had quite as much to do towards


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cheering the boys on the battlefield and around the campfire as the loyal ballots of the men. It is matter worthy of remembrance that the first regular organi- zation in the country for the relief of soldiers was organized at Cleveland on the 20th of April, 1861. The echoes of the guns of Sumpter had scarcely died away before Ohio's daughters were thinking of ameliorating the hardships of the Ohio boys who so promptly marched to war. This organization alone, the " Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio," distributed a million dollars worth of food and cloth- ing, and up to November 27th, 1867, it disbursed in · cash $162,956. A similar organization in Cincinnati collected and disbursed $313,926. Botli of these heroic societies became branches of the United States Sanitary Commission. A popular method of raising funds for their purpose was through fairs attended and managed largely by the women. In the fall of 1863 the Cleveland Society cleared $78,000, and the great Cincinnati Fair in the winter of the same year reaped a net amount of $235,406, all of which went to the soldiers and their families. Similar organiza- tions and efforts were maintained and directed in almost every city in the State. Every church and Sunday-school was a willing channel through which gifts from the loyal people of Ohio found their way to the front.


When the war closed no state in the Union had reaped such laurels of patriotism and valor as Oliio. She had furnished to suppress the rebellion three hundred and seventeen thousand of her citizens -- far more than asked of hier by the general govern- ment. She gave to the country Grant, Sherman,


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From 1860 to 1865.


Sheridan, McClellan, Rosecrans, McPherson, Buell, Gilmore, McDowell, Mitchell, McCook and a dozen other heroes of the war. She furnished to the cabi- net the head of the War Department in the person of Edwin M. Stanton, the greatest executive the world ever saw. One of her Governors-S. P. Chase -became the Minister of Finance when finance was almost one of the arts of war. In the Senate two of her sons, Benjamin F. Wade and John Sherman, were the respective chairmen of the Committee on Conduct of the War and the Committee on Finance. In the House Robert C. Schenck was placed at the head of the Military Committee. Wherever wisdom, valor, conviction, patriotism were needed, there Ohio men were to be found.


When peace came, the great State, which had sent into the field an army of her sons equal to the war footing of Great Britain, received them within her borders as civilians to become again workers in the shops, the mines, the counting-rooms and on the farms. With peace and return to civil life came prosperity unbounded, and with pride in her past and hope in her resources Ohio inarched forward to a quiet and uneventful future.


Appendix.


I. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE GOVERNORS.


II. THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.


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Appendix.


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE GOVERNORS.


EDWARD TIFFIN.


No man who has occupied the gubernatorial chair of Ohio possessed a greater genius for the administration of public affairs than Edward Tiffin, its first governor. He appeared upon the scene of action in the Northwest Territory in its creative period, when the work of moulding the destinies of a future commonwealth was committed to the care of a very few men. Head and shoulders above them all stood Edward Tiffin. His official life displayed a better general average of statesmanship than that of any of his successors. This was due to the times, the forinative condition of affairs and the surround- ing circumstances attendant upon the building of a new state. These conditions gave greater opportun- ities for action than any of his successors ever enjoyed. Yet he met all these opportunities and utilized them, which is the best indication of ability. His work in advancing and developing Ohio has not been equalled by any man in its history.


His boyhood was spent in the city of Carlisle, England, where he was born June 19th, 1766. He emigrated to this country when eighteen, and after an excellent medical education, obtained in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, settled in Berkeley county, Virginia. There amid the scenes and lives of the 107 K


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A History of Ohio,


early Virginians he spent several years as a quiet and successful physician.


In 1797 Edward Tiffin with his family removed to Chillicothe in the Northwest Territory. The Indian wars were over, the " Treaty of Greenville," resulting from General Anthony Wayne's terrible chastisenient of the savages, was signed, and the new and rich land within what is now the State of Ohio, was open for settlement. Within all that territory there was no place more famed for its wealth of beauty and fertility of soil than the Scioto Valley. In its very inidst was planted the settlement of Chillicothe. It became the nucleus of a great Virginia emigration, and among the pioneers came Edward Tiffin. With the early settlers lie was still a physician, practicing with marked success, financially and professionally. In the sparsely settled country of that day his labors carried him over many miles of travel, and he formed an acquaintance that explains his popularity in after years. He held decided views on politics ; the prin- ciples of Jefferson were adopted by him early in his Virginia life, and his anti-Federal proclivities were well known in his new home.


In 1799 the people of the Northwest Territory assuined the legislative forin of government, and under the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 they elected a legislature, there being at that time five thousand inale whites in the territory. Dr. Tiffin was sent as a representative from Chillicothe, and upon the assembling of the first Territorial Legisla- ture at Cincinnati he was unanimously chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. He held the position until Ohio became a State.


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Edward Tiffin. 169


Dr. Tiffin was a man of strong religious and moral convictions. In his early life he was an Episcopalian ; i11 1790 he associated himself with the Methodist Church, and was consecrated by Francis Asbury, the missionary bishop, as a local preacher. Thus he brought into the new territory beyond the Ohio, with his professional skill, the still greater influence of the spiritual physician. In both capacities he held the confidence of his fellow-citizens throughout his life. Upon his entry to the church he manumitted his slaves, and his subsequent record shows how sincere were his convictions on this subject.


As President of the first Constitutional Convention, he won still greater honors, and established his repu- tation as a man of unquestioned ability ; so pro- nounced and universal was this that he was elected Governor, in January, 1803, without opposition. He was re-elected in 1805, without opposition, and in 1807 declined a third term, which public sentiment was ready to confer upon him. During his second term he summarily arrested the participants in the Burr expedition, which resulted in the flight of Burr and the breaking up of the conspiracy. His rigorous and prompt measures on this occasion called forth a public letter of thanks from President Jefferson.


In 1807 he was elected United States Senator from Ohio. While in the Senate he was the means of se- curing much valuable legislation for the new state. Appropriations for the Ohio River and for surveying the public lands were obtained by him, and much of the same kind of practical work which characterized him while Governor marked his Senatorial term. He resigned in March, 1809, owing to the death of his


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wife. It so affected him that he determined to retire to private life. Returning to his once happy home at Chillicothe, it was his intention to spend his re- inaining days in peace, but, notwithstanding his desires, his fellow-citizens elected him to the Legis- lature, where he was unanimously elected Speaker of the House. He was afterwards appointed Com- missioner of the Land Office, being the first to hold that position, and he performed much valuable ser- vice in systematizing the surveys and the claims relating to the public lands. He was in Washington when it was burned by the British, in 1814, and was the only Department officer who saved the papers of his office. So complete, compact and systematic did he have land records that they were easily carried into security.


His closing years found him Surveyor General of the West, which position he held through the admin- istrations of Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and into Jackson's. He died at Chillicothe, August 9th, 1829, after a remarkable life of usefulness and distinction.


THOMAS KIRKER.


When Edward Tiffin resigned as Governor, March 3, 1807, to become United States Senator, Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate, became Acting-Gov- ernor. At the following October election, Return J. Meigs, Jr., was elected Governor over Nathaniel Mas- sie. Meigs was declared, upon a contest, to be inel- igible to act as Governor, and Massie refused to serve. In this way Governor Kirker continued to


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Samuel Huntington.


serve until December, 1808. Governor Kirker, who was one of the pioneers of Adams county, was born in the County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1760. At the age of nineteen he came to America and settled at Lan- caster, Pennsylvania. In 1792 he moved to Man- chester, Adams county, Ohio. He was elected to the first General Assembly of the State, and served as Senator from 1803 to 1815. He was again elected Representative from Adams county in 1816, and was made Speaker; afterwards, from 1821. to 1825, he served as Senator. He was a conscientious member of the Presbyterian Church at West Union, Adams county, and served as an elder for twenty years. Governor Kirker died February 19, 1837.


SAMUEL HUNTINGTON.


Samuel Huntington was born at Norwich, Con- necticut, of Puritan stock. He graduated from Yale College in the class of 1785. The spirit of emigra- tion carried him to Ohio in 1800. He settled at Cleveland when it was a wilderness. He was a men- ber of the Constitutional Convention of 1802, and served successively as State Senator, Speaker of the Senate and Judge of the Supreme Court. While on the Bench he was elected Governor of Ohio, iu 1808. He again became a member of the Ohio Legislature in 1812. During the war with England he displayed patriotism and ability in sustaining the Ohio Volun- teers. He was impeached while on the Supreme Bench, but the proceedings were dropped when he was elected Governor.


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A History of Ohio.


RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS, JR.


Among the pioneers that came to Marietta in 1788 was the distinguished Revolutionary veteran, Return Jonathan Meigs, and his eldest son of the same name. The latter was born at Middletown, Connecticut, and graduated in the same class at Yale with Governor Huntington. Return J. Meigs, Jr., was a man of strong character and ability. In 1802 he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court. In 1804 he was made the military Commandant of the Louisiana Territory, by President Jefferson. He served also as a member of the Supreme Court of that Territory. Two years after he was appointed United States Judge for the Territory of Michigan. While there he was elected Governor of Ohio, over Massie, but was declared ineligible on account of non-residency. He was again elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and then United States Senator. In 1810 he was elected Governor and served two terms. He was especially vigilant, patriotic and gallant during the war of 1812. On March 25, 1814, he resigned as Governor to accept the Post Master Generalship in President Madison's Cabinet, which position he also held in Monroe's Cabinet until 1823. He died at Marietta March 29, 1825.


OTHNIEL LOOKER


Became acting Governor when General Meigs re- signed to go into Mr. Madison's Cabinet. He was born in New York October 4, 1757 ; served as private in the war for independence, but his revolutionary record is obscure. He came to the Ohio country in


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Thomas Worthington.


the tide of soldier emigration that followed the declaration of peace with Great Britain. He was a man of humble origin and calling. His political career commenced as a member of the House of Representatives; he afterwards entered the Senate, and became its Speaker. From this position he assumed the duties of Governor, which he performed for eight months. He represented Hamilton county in the Legislature from 1807 to 1817, excepting one term. At the election following the expiration of his gubernatorial term he was a candidate for Governor against Thomas Worthington, but was defeated.


THOMAS WORTHINGTON.


When Edward Tiffin settled at Chillicothe he was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Thomas Worth- ington, who was a Virginian, and was born in Jefferson county, February 10, 1767. Along with Tiffin, he inaugurated and carried to success the oppo- sition to General St. Clair, Governor of the North- west Territory. He was one of that firin and potent little band of Chillicotheans that pressed Ohio into Statehood.


Being connected by marriage with Edward Tiffin, he became associated with him in politics and busi- ness, and they exercised more influence in Ohio than any two men of their time. He was a member of the Territorial Legislature, and also of the Con- stitutional Convention of 1802. He served two terms in the United States Senate, and two terms as Governor of Ohio. At Washington he took first rank as an advocate of internal improvements,


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and it can truthfully be said of him that he is the father of that system. As Governor, he urged the establishment of a common school system, and favored strongly the building of canals. He founded the State Library. Salmon P. Chase called him a "gentleman of distinguished ability and great in- fluence." He died in New York City, June 20, 1827, while acting as a member of the Canal Commission of Ohio.


ETHAN ALLEN BROWN.


On the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound, Ethan Allen Brown, the seventh Governor of Ohio, was born July 4, 1766. He studied law with Alex- ander Hamilton, and in 1802 was admitted to the bar. I11 1804 he settled at Cincinnati, and com- menced the practice of his profession. He soon made for himself the reputation and business of an able lawyer, and in 1810 was elected one of the Supreme Judges of the State by the Ohio Legisla- ture, which position he held for eight years. In 1818 he was elected Governor. Upon assuming position as Chief Magistrate, he agitated the question of con- structing the canals. He was re-elected Governor in 1820 over Jeremiah Morrow and General William H. Harrison. On the 13th of January, 1822, he was elected United States Senator. In 1830 he was appointed Minister to Brazil by President Jackson. He remained there for four years, and upon his return to this country he was appointed Commis- sioner of Public Lands. After two years of service, he retired to private life, and died February 24, 1852, at Indianapolis, after a long and honorable career.


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Allen Trimble.


ALLEN TRIMBLE.


The ancestors of Allen Trimble were Scotch-Irish settlers of the Valley of Virginia, in Augusta county, where he was born November 24th, 1783. In 1805 he removed to Ohio and took up his residence in Highland county. In the War of 1812 he com- manded a regiment composed of troops raised in Southern Ohio. His services were valuable and patri- otic. In 1816 he was sent to the Ohio House of Representatives, and the next year to the State Sen- ate. He was elected Speaker of the Senate in 1818, and held that position until January 7th, 1822 when he became acting-Governor, and served until the end of that year. He was chosen Governor in the elec- tion of 1826, and was re-elected in 1828. Notwith- standing that Ohio was Democratic at the November election of that year, Governor Trimble, as a Whig, was elected by a large majority. He was a man of deep religious sentiments and a consistent professor of Christianity. While he was not endowed with remarkable talents, he possessed that rugged, honest and shrewd ability so common among our pioneers. He died February 3d, 1870, at his home in Hillsboro, Highland county, at the patriarchal age of eighty- seven years.


JEREMIAH MORROW,


Was born at Gettysburg, Pa., October 6th, 1771. He settled in Ohio in 1795 at the mouth of the Little Miami River; he soon moved up into what is now Warren county. The fertile valley of the Miami soon attracted emigration and before long it was a populous territory. In this neighborhood Jeremiah


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A History of Ohio.


Morrow was truly appreciated as a man of worth. His neighbors sent him in ISor to the Territorial Legislature, then as a delegate to the First Constitu- tional Convention. I11 1803 he went to the Ohio Senate, and in the same year he was elected as a Representative in Congress. For thirteen years --- from 1801 to 1813 -Ohio was entitled to but one Representative, and Mr. Morrow served during the last ten years while his State was so represented.


He was a member of the United States Senate from Ohio from1 1813 to 1819, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands. In 1822 he was elected Governor over Allen Trimble, and was re- elected at the end of his term. His administration was the period in which the construction of the Public Works of Ohio were commenced. In 1840 he was elected to Congress again. Governor Morrow was a man of solid ability and of great simplicity of character. He died aged eighty years, March 22d, IS53.


DUNCAN MCARTHUR.


In Dutchess County, New York, on the 14th of January, 1772, Duncan McArthur was born of Scotch parentage. His disposition from his youth was for a life of adventure. In 1790 he joined General Har- inar in his campaign against the Indians and served until the close. In October, 1793, he accompanied Nathaniel Massie as a chainman on his first survey- ing tour up the Scioto River. In 1794 he was appointed a scout for the State of Kentucky, his business being to roam along the border for the purpose of keeping the whites advised of the move-


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Robert Lucas.


ments of the Indians. In the spring of 1796 he assisted Massie in surveying and laying out the town of Chillicothe. He was a brave soldier in the war of 1812 and did effective service, resigning his position as a Congressman to accept the commission of briga- dier general under General Harrison. Commencing in 1804, he served his county of Ross at different times in the State Legislature, in all about twenty terms. In 1822 he was a second time elected to Con- gress. In 1830 he was elected Governor and declined a re-election. He was a pioneer in every sense of the word; an active woodsman, an excellent marks- man and a bold Indian hunter. He died at "Fruit Hill," his residence, near Chillicothe, in 1840.




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