USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 13
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accorded a continuous senatorial career for twelve years (1868-1880). Judge Thurman's service in the Senate won for him the esteem and confidence not only of his own party, but, to a great extent, of his countrymen without regard to party. When he entered the Senate he found his party col- leagues but a handful of Democrats - a minority numbering but one to five of their Republican opponents. He was readily assigned the leader- ship of his political confreres. He coped with a galaxy of eminent statesmen. He met during his service Sherman, Conklin, Blaine, Edmunds, Morrill, Evarts, Logan, Carpenter, Hoar, Chandler, Morton, Cameron and others, most dis- tinguished for ability. eloquence and statecraft. He was easy the peer of any in his own party, and in him the chiefs of his antagonists met a "foeman worthy of their steel." There was not one important debate in the Senate while he was a member in which he did not take a conspicuous part, and no member was more respectfully or attentively listened to. He was not a showy speaker. His long connection with the Ohio Supreme Court Bench gave him a certain judicial manner, which was always noticeable whenever he addressed the Senate. It was like a judge summing up a case to the jury. Apart from his great legal attainments, clearness of comprehension, logical method of statement and readiness in reply, this habit of taking both sides of the ques- tion into account and considering them impartially was, to a certain extent, one of the sources of his great influence. It was this which gave his words such weight that whenever he stood up to speak men always expected to get a clear idea of the question at issue. He was less a partisan pleader than a judicial expounder. His methods of defense and attack were singularly effect- ual in a serenely deliberative body like the Senate. He seldom delivered pre- pared and formal speeches, and although he often spoke at length upon im- portant questions, his efforts were usually off-hand and extemporaneous. He exercised great influence, due to his pure and honest character and his blunt and fearless courage in the exposure and denunciation of fraud and corruption - no matter whether the exposure might uncover foe or friend. He won a reputation for judicial fairness and readiness, dignity and power in debate, es- pecially upon questions of constitutional law. Of his legal standing as a mem- ber of the Senate and the opinion concerning him shared by one of his greatest opponents the anecdote is related that during a long legal argument Senator Conkling repeatedly turned to Judge Thurman, addressing his remarks appar- ently to him alone. They were not particularly complimentary or agreeable, and Judge Thurman, feeling that Mr. Conkling was giving him too much of his attention, asked excitedly and in an angry tone: "Does the senator from New York expect me to answer him every time he turns to me ?" Conkling hesitated a moment, and the crowded galleries bent over expecting a scene. They were disappointed. With his inimitable grace, Mr. Conkling replied : " When I speak of the law I turn to the senator from Ohio as thie Mussulman turns towards Mecca. I turn to him as I do to the English common law, as the world's most copious fountain of human jurisprudence." Mr. Thurman was chairman of the important committee on judiciary of the Senate. It was
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in that capacity that he rendered his best service to his country, and in this, so far as it was the unpartisan service of resisting attempts upon the public treasury, he was loyally aided by his close friend, the leading Republican law- yer of the Senate and a member of the judiciary committee also, Judge George F. Edmunds, of Vermont. Together they secured the passage of the "Thur- man Act," enforcing the obligations of the Pacific Railroad to the government, the most signal victory won in our time in a pitched battle between the peo- ple of the United States and those who wished to despoil them. How Thur- man's ability and character were seen by his political opponents is shown by the following extract from James G. Blaine's "Twenty Years of Con- gress " :
" His rank in the Senate was established from the day he took his seat. He was an admirably disciplined debater, was fair in his methods of state- ment, logical in his argument, honest in his conclusions. He had no tricks in discussion, no catch phrases to secure attention, but was always direct and manly. He left behind him the respect of all with whom he had been associ- ated during his twelve years of honorable service."
In a letter to the writer of this article, received soon after Judge Thur- man's death, ex-Senator George F. Edmunds, of Vermont, thus speaks of him :
" He was a man of extraordinary learning, both in law and literature. He was easily the recognized chieftain of his party during his career in the Senate. He was a clear, concise and powerful debater. Although we differed radically upon subjects that are called party politics, I always felt absolutely safe in relying upon his powerful co-operation and patriotism in respect to all business affairs of the Nation. And where we differed I could not but admire and respect the intensity of his conviction and his pure earnestness of pur- pose. He was a man of absolutely upright character and honor."
While he was generally classed as a strict party man and as essentially a conservative, his consistency of purpose and integrity were always evident. He opposed the Civil Rights Act on the grounds upon which it was after- ward overthrown by the Supreme Court ; he opposed the Redemption Act, supported the Bland-Allison Act and the anti-Chinese legislation. He was a member of the Electoral Commission in 1877, and one of the seven voting to seat Tilden as against the eight voting for Haves. During the administration of President Hayes, when the Democratic party was in the ascendency in the Senate, Mr. Thurman was chosen president pro tem. of that body. The Repub- licans controlled the legislature chosen to elect Mr. Thurman's successor. James A. Garfield was their choice, but before the time for him to take his office, he had been elected President of the United States. As he was inau- gurated March 4, 1881, Mr. Thurman retired from the Senate, yielding his seat to John Sherman, then retiring with the cabinet of Mr. Hayes. Between President Garfield and Senator Thurman there had long existed the most cor- dial personal relations, and the newly-made President appointed the retiring senator, with ex-Senator William M. Evarts, of New York, and ex-Senator Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin, as United States Commissioners to the Inter- national Monetary Conference held in Paris in 1881. Upon his return, after a
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year spent in Europe, Mr. Thurman was elected with ex-Chief Justice Thomas M. Cooley, of Michigan, and ex-Minister Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, to serve upon the Advisory Commission in the troubles over the differential rates between the trunk railroads leading across the country. In the Democratic National Convention of 1876, at St. Louis, Senator Thurman received a few votes as a nominee for the Presidency. In the convention of 1880, at Cincin- nati, the first ballot gave him the entire vote of the Ohio delegation, with considerable support from other States. In 1884 he was a delegate at large to the National Convention of his party at Chicago, and was again put in nom- ination, and stood next to Cleveland and Bayard on the first ballot. In the convention of 1888, at St. Louis, he was nominated for Vice-President by accla- mation, but in the election was defeated, with Mr. Cleveland at the head of the ticket. In this campaign, although in his seventy-fifth year, he surprised both political friends and foes by the vigor of his efforts. He made powerful speeches for his party in many of the leading cities of the Union. After that. political contest he lived quietly in retirement in his beautiful home at Columbus. IIe died peacefully, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, December 12, 1895. Senator Thurman was in appearance a striking and picturesque person- age. His figure, heavy-set and rather below the average height, supporting a massive head, with large, rugged features, framed in a somewhat shaggy beard and long, profuse locks of hair, at once suggested a leonine nature and mind. In harmony with this was a heavy but pleasing voice. His presence com- manded attention and respect under any surroundings. But the chief ele- ments that entitled him to the esteem of the public and the admiration of personal friends were the modesty and simplicity of his manner, the integrity of his motives, the honesty of his methods and the purity of his private life. He was ever kind and generous, and never neglected to extend a helping hand to the deserving who sought his advice and assistance. Looking back upon his past life, he once said, in tones that broken health made tremulous, to one of his lifelong friends : " I never intentionally wronged a human being out of a cent." Perhaps nothing better illustrates the man's life than that simple remark. In fact, honesty and justice were religion with him. The creeds of the churches never bothered him greatly. He read and studied the Bible as he studied all that he deemed worthy of an earnest man's attention in litera- ture, but he never professed a religious belief. It has been justly observed that the sobriquet of " Old Roman " that was applied to Judge Thurman of late years had more appropriateness than such nicknames, especially of eulo- gistic kind, are apt to have in our politics. There was, indeed, something Roman in the combination of his character. He was not a gentleman of the Chesterfieldan school of politeness ; his address was liable to be abrupt, but kindly ; his courtesy was inherent, not assumed or acquired ; he was genial, and his good humor seldom ruffled. He abhorred ostentation, never advertis- ing himself in the press ; kept no scrap-books of newspaper compliments, and despised the public man who kept a diary. On his seventy-seventh birthday anniversary the Thurman Club of Columbus, Ohio, tendered Mr. Thurman a
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banquet, known as the " Old Roman " banquet, at which a thousand men, many of them of national renown, drawn from all parts of the country, par- ticipated. President Cleveland presided, and toasts were responded to by many prominent government officials and leading orators. It was a remarka- ble and rare tribute to a citizen in private life-a voluntary homage to the character of one wholly withdrawn from public office or influence. Perhaps this sketch cannot be more fittingly closed than with the quotation repeated by Governor Mckinley at the Thurman Memorial Meeting held at Columbus a few days after Mr. Thurman's death. Said Mr. Mckinley :
" I can never forget when the shafts of malice were cast at General Gar- field, Judge Thurman was among the first to proclaim his faith in the honesty and purity of that statesman. I want to read you what General Garfield said sixteen years ago, when elected to succeed Judge Thurman in the Senate. This, my friends, is the message to you from the martyred President. I would have every word placed on your record. It is not only a voice from the dead, but expresses the sentiment of every one of our sixty millions of people. Gar- field said :
"'I recognize the importance of the place to which you have elected me, and I should be base if I did not also recognize the great man whom you have elected me to succeed. I say for him that Ohio has had few larger-minded, broader-minded men in the record of our history than Allen G. Thurman. Dif- fering widely from him as I have done in politics, and do, I recognize him as a man high in character and great in intellect; and I take this public occasion to refer to what I have never before referred in public, that many years ago, in the storm of party fighting, when the air was filled with all sorts of missiles aimed at the character and reputation of public men, when it was even for his party interest to join in the general clamor against me and my associates, Senator Thurman said in public in the campaign on the stump-when men are as likely to say unkind things as at any place in the world-a most generous and earnest word of defense and kindness for me which I shall never forget so long as I live. I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden wall of party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of this world. And where we can fairly pluck them, and enjoy their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so.'"
RICHARD A. HARRISON, Columbus. Richard A. Harrison is a native of our mother country, that land that shares with ancient Rome the honor and glory of originating the legal and judicial system that is the pride and model of our modern civilization. He was born April 8, 1824, in the city of Thirsk, Yorkshire county, England. His father was Robert Harrison, a mechanic and a local minister of the gospel in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a man of sterling character and pronounced intellectuality. His mother was Mary Almgill, a woman of the good English stock of the beautiful and prosper- ous shire of York. Richard came to the United States with his parents in 1832 ; the family were induced to make this transplanting of their home from " Merrie England " to the "home of the free and the land of the brave " by the accounts which they had received from a son who had preceded them in
R. A. Hariton .
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the emigration. They first settled in Waynesville, Warren county, Ohio, and shortly thereafter removed to Springfield, Clark county. Richard at this time was but eight years of age, and was the youngest of nine children. His parents bestowed upon the boy all that parental love could prompt, and the thrift and frugality of a humble home could spare. But Richard's training was mostly in the preparatory school of adversity and later the broader univer- sity of the world's affairs. The rudiments of his education were acquired in the public schools of his village, especially the Springfield High School, from which young Richard graduated during the principalship of the scholarly and accomplished Rev. Chandler Robbins. While still in school he con- tributed to his own support by faithfully fulfilling the humble duties of "devil " in a printing office, and at the age of twelve, thrown solely upon his own resources, he sought and obtained employment in the office of the Spring- field Republic, then edited and managed by John M. Gallagher, at one time speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, the editor of the Ohio State Journal for several years, and a man of great ability and encyclopedic information. The Republic was in those days the influential Whig paper of the State. Under this most practical and valuable tutelage, Richard remained until 1844. It was the formative and informing period of the boy's mind, and in this academy of the " Art of Arts"-the printing office-which has graduated self-made men whose merited laurels in life's struggles have out- shone the honor of many another's college degrees, Richard, like that other " Poor Richard " of Benjamin Franklin, became accomplished in the accurate knowledge and facile use of his mother tongue, as well as endowed with that knowledge of multitudinous affairs that it is the province of the press to gather and disseminate. Without doubt it was in these years, when he stood plodding patiently at the compositor's case, that the foundation was laid of his ready and precise diction, so that both in speech and with the pen "his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command." The true lawyer, like the genuine poet, is born, not made. And the natural and irresistible bent of Richard's mind was in the direction of the legal profession, and he readily accepted the opportunity of becoming a stu- dent in the law office of William A. Rodgers, one of the most eminent members of the Ohio Bar. This he did in the year 1844. The late William White, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas ten years and of the Supreme Court of Ohio twenty years, and at the time of his decease a judge of the United States Dis- trict Court, was a school-mate of Mr. Harrison and a fellow-student in the law office of Judge Rodgers in Springfield, Ohio. Mr. Harrison, after eighteen months' study under the direction of Judge Rodgers, entered the Cincinnati Law School, the first law school established west of the Alleghanies, at that time having such admirable instructors as William S. Groesbeck and Charles Telford. The full course of the school was but six months, and he graduated in the spring of 1846, and by virtue of his diploma was admitted, without further examination, to the Bar on his twenty-second birthday, April 8, 1846, at London, Ohio, by Judges Hitchcock and Wood of the Supreme Bench. At
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that time the Supreme Court consisted of four judges, and at the close of the December term, in March, held in Columbus, the court divided and two judges went upon the circuit, which lay north of the National Road, and two upon the southern circuit. London was the location of the first court to be held in the southern division. Mr. Harrison was then, as he has been heard to relate, "poor as Lazarus"- even being compelled to purchase on credit the few books of his office library - at once began the practice of his profession at London, where he resided until May, 1873, when he removed to Columbus. His rise was not meteoric, like the "flight of mercury," but steady, sure and permanent, like the enduring growth of the oak which Mr. Harrison so much in solidity of mind and stability of character resembles. His clients came cau- tiously at first, soon confidently and in numbers. An amusing incident occurred during the trial of the first case in which Mr. Harrison appeared as counsel in a court of record. On the morning of the day before the trial he left his boots to be mended, explaining to the shoemaker that the work must be done before the court met the next morning, as he had no other footwear except a pair of old-time "carpet slippers." He was assured that the boots would be ready at the appointed time without fail; but the promise was not kept. The case was called. The shoemaker happened to be a witness for the plaintiff, and his journeyman had been subpoenaed as a witness for the defendant, who was Mr. Harrison's client. On cross-examination of the shoemaker, Mr. Harrison asked him whether he had not made certain statements to his journeyman, which were very different from his testi- mony in-chief. The witness admitted he had made such statements, but explained that when he made them to the journeyman he was not under oath. Mr. Harrison then inquired, "John, you are still under oath, are you ?" The witness said, " Yes." "When, then, will you have my boots mended ? " " By to-morrow 'noon," was the answer. The boots were done a couple of hours before the time fixed under the solemnities of a judicial oath. His practice was that of the usual practitioner of the day, the " circuit traveller" with its crude means of transit, its romantic and varied experiences in court and tavern. Not only throughout southern Ohio, but in other parts of the State his clientage called him. Mr. Harrison has never been an office-seeker ; public office has never been in the line of his ambition or his taste, but true citizen that he is, he has discharged his duty to the commonwealth of both State and Nation when called upon by his fellow-men. His political honors have been many, and to the gift of each he has added the luster of his learning, the value of his invincible integrity, sound wisdom and indefatigable devotion to duty. In politics he was first a Whig and then a Republican. In the fall of 1857, when Salmon P. Chase was re-elected governor of the State, Mr. Harri- son was elected a member of the House of Representatives from Madison county. It was an exciting and close contest, Mr. Harrison, as the Repub- lican candidate, being opposed by a formidable combination of the adherents of the Democratic and " Know-Nothing " parties. Mr. Harrison was success- ful by a majority of twenty-four. In the Ohio House of Representatives,
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which convened in January, 1858, Mr. Harrison met as colleagues such members as Judge J. A. Ambler of Columbiana, Judge W. H. West of Logan, Judge J. M. Briggs of Fayette, Judge W. R. Rankin of Franklin, James Monroe, later the veteran congressman from Lorain, Judge Isaac C. Collins of Hamilton, and Judge William B. Woods of Licking, later of the United States Supreme Court. Amid this galaxy of gifted scholars and statesmen, Mr. Harrison was accorded at once conspicuous rank. It was a largely Demo- cratic body. The judiciary committee consisted of seven members, with Judge Rankin as chairman. Messrs. Harrison and Ambler were the only Republican members, but to Mr. Harrison was accorded a very large share of the work, and in this field his legal learning, unerring judgment and fervid patriotism found ample employment. Through this committee Mr. Harrison introduced, and caused to be enacted, many of the leading laws of our State. Among these were the bills concerning the relation of guardian and ward ; providing for the semi-annual payment of taxes ; for the relief of the District Courts and others of equal importance. . Little oppor- tunity, however, was given Mr. Harrison for the development or display of his forensic powers. Those were the days when party lines were closely drawn, and important measures, especially of a political nature, were dictated by that tyrant of party politics, " King Caucus," and propelled by partisanship through the House without proper public deliberation or debate. But toward the sec- ond session, the winter of 1858-9, Mr. Harrison's eloquence burst forth in the discussion over the report of the commission appointed at the preceding session to investigate the State treasury defalcation. Governor Chase was serving his second term, having been re-elected by the Republican party. By this report of the commission, his political opponents attempted to implicate and besmirch the character of the governor. In his special message communicating the com- missioners' report to the House, the governor called attention to the invidious criticism embraced in the report. To rebuke the governor, it was moved to print the report of the commission without the message of the governor accom- panying it. The gross injustice of this political partisanship aroused Mr. Harri- son, and he obtained the floor for the defense of the wronged governor. In the delivery of his speech, the earnestness of his efforts brought on a sudden attack of hemorrhage of the lungs ; his friends, alarmed at the incident, insisted that he should not proceed with the discussion, but despite their importunities, after a brief respite, he continued his speech to its forcible conclusion. He was borne from the room in a condition of complete exhaustion. But his persuasive, logical and just argument dominated the House, and the message of the gov- ernor was published with the report of the commission and the attempted par- tisan thrust at Mr. Chase fell unavailing. It was a dramatic scene, but charac- teristic of Mr. Harrison's fearlessness and love of justice and fair play. In 1859 Mr. Harrison was promoted by his constituents to the State Senate. The Sen- ate of 1860-61 was distinguished for the ability and brilliancy of its members, among whom were Jamcs A. Garfield, afterwards President of the United States, Jacob D. Cox, later general of the army, governor of the State and
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member of General Grant's cabinet ; Judge Thomas C. Jones, Judge Thomas M. Key, James Monroe, E. A. Ferguson and others, whose names have since been illustrious in the annals of our State and Nation. Mr. Harrison was made chair- man of the judiciary committee, and was elected president pro tempore of the Sen- ate. In this position he exhibited the qualities of an admirable presiding officer; calm, dignified, impartial, with a thorough comprehension and a ready applica- tion of the principles of parliamentary law. The session of 1861 was one of the most memorable in the history of the State. It was the period of the out- break of the great rebellion and the Nation's peril. During that session questions of the greatest moment, not only of State, but of Nation, were con- sidered and acted upon. Those were the times that tried men's souls, and called for the exercise of the utmost calmness, the deepest wisdom, the most unflinching courage and unwavering patriotism, and often the sacrifice of life- long party principles. Among the matters brought before the members were the measures to strengthen the public credit, provide ample currency, raise and equip armies, provide ways and means for the common defense and the main- tenance of the Federal Union in all its entirety and integrity. To all these Mr. Harrison gave courageous, efficient and zealous support. The power and resources of his mind, the strength of his character, the deep devotion of his loyalty, were all consecrated to the opportunities and duties of the hour in behalf of the cause of the country of his adoption. Before the Rebellion shook the Nation with its initial reverberations, Mr. Harrison, as a loyal lover of peace and humanity and a disciple of law and order, did all in his power to avert the storm of civil; war. James Buchanan was still President, and in view of the threats of the Southern States, had sent a special message to Congress on the subject of the contemplated uprising of the South against the federal government, in which he had ostensibly taken a position in favor of the maintenance of the Union. Mr. Harrison with his Republican colleagues took the ground that they should assume the integrity and sincerity of Presi- dent Buchanan in his message, and in support of such a policy, Mr. Harrison had the honor, on January 12, 1861, to introduce in the Ohio Senate the fol- lowing joint resolutions, of which he was the author :
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