USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 7
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EDWIN M. STANTON, LL. D., was born at Steubenville, Ohio, Decem- ber 19, 1814. He was of Quaker deseent, and his ancestors, who were members of the Society of Friends, emigrated from Rhode Island to North Caro- lina about 1750. Ilis grandmother, Abigail Maey, was a descendant of Thomas Macy, the first settler of Nantucket, whose flight as a result of giving shelter to a pursued Quaker was made the subject of a fine poem by John G. Whit- tier (" The Exiles"). His father, David Stanton, and mother, Lucy Norman,
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moved from Virginia to Steubenville a few years before the birth of Edwin. Here David Stanton, the father, was a physician. At the age of thirteen Edwin, obliged to contribute to his own support, became a clerk in the book- store of James Turnbull, where he remained some two or three years, study- ing during his leisure hours as best he could, and in 1831 he entered Kenyon College, completing the course through the Junior year, when necessity com- pelled him to seek employment, and he went to Columbus and sought a clerk- ship in a bookstore, but returned in a few months to Steubenville and began the study of the law with his guardian, David L. Collier. He was admitted to the Bar in 1835 and opened an office and began practice in Cadiz, Harrison county. He at once exhibited every qualification of a successful lawyer, and shortly after commencing the practice he was elected prosecuting attorney of Harrison county. At the close of his term of office he removed to Steuben- ville, resuming practice at that place. In 1842 he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of the State. He prepared and published the reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio for the years 1841 and 1844 inclusive, being volumes 11, 12 and 13, Ohio Reports. In 1847 he removed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, forming a partnership with Honorable Charles Shaler, but also kept an office in Steubenville for nine years thereafter. His first Steubenville partner was Judge Benjamin Tappan, who edited and published a volume of the "Cases decided in the Courts of Common Pleas in the Fifth Circuit of the State of Ohio; commencing with the May Term, 1816." Mr. Stanton's second Steubenville partner was Colonel George W. McCook, Supreme Court reporter in 1852. In 1856 he removed to Washington, D. C. During his residence in Pittsburgh he acquired a large practice and won an inter-state reputation as a scholarly, talented and energetic lawyer. This experience and reputation, carried with him to Washington City, at once gave him great prominence among the foremost practitioners at the National capital. Mr. Stanton took part in many of the leading cases before the United States Supreme Court, often acting as counsel for the government in important land and intricate patent cases. He was associate counsel (1859) in the famous trial of Daniel E. Sickles for the murder of Philip Barton Key. Mr. Stanton had been a Democrat from his early days and had at this time become a prominent figure in the counsels of his party. In December, 1860, James Buchanan appointed him attorney-general of the United States. Upon taking the oath of office he said to a friend, "I have taken the oath to support the Constitution of my country; that oath I intend to keep both in letter and spirit." Ably did he keep his pledge amid the ensuing treasons and perils that threatened the Union. In November, 1860, believing that the menacing language of the Southern press, immediately fol- lowing the election of President Lincoln, betokened secession and the design to destroy the Federal government, Mr. Stanton boldly and vigorously advised President Buchanan to incorporate into his last message to Congress the doc- trine that the Federal government had the power and that it was its duty to coerce the seceding States. In the cabinet Mr. Stanton constantly and
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earnestly advocated swift and decisive action, denouncing the dangerous and disloyal temporizing spirit manifested by the other members, but, except himself and one other, Buchanan's cabinet was composed of men who favored secession, while Buchanan himself was too timid and irresolute to assert in any manner doctrines offensive to' his official family. Mr. Stanton retired from the Cabinet with the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration and resumed the practice of his profession. In January, 1862, it having become evident to President Lincoln that Simon Cameron should be as- signed to some other position than that of secretary of war, the Presi- dent, notwithstanding the most resolute opposition of Montgomery Blair, appointed Mr. Stanton secretary of war. Here he was in a position where his genius and almost boundless energy had full play. He immediately en- gaged in a thorough examination of the number and position of the United States forces, and submitted to the Senate military committee the result of his prompt and exhaustive labor and researches. He proposed to bring together and consolidate the more than one hundred and fifty regiments of Union troops dispersed throughout the northern, eastern and western States. Congress accepted and carried out his plans. It is unnecessary, and indeed the space of this sketch would not permit a full or just account of the services to his country through this period of Edwin M. Stanton, our nation's greatest secretary of war. The events through which he passed and of which he was one of the most important and influential directors are matters of complete record and common knowledge. Mr. Stanton's efforts were indefatigable ; he used little time for rest, never seemed weary, and many of the greatest move- ments in that tremendous struggle were made under his personal dictation. To his untiring energy, keen intellect and profound sagacity, is due in no small degree the result of that conflict. He enjoyed the most cordial personal friendship of President Lincoln to the time of the latter's assassination in 1865. Upon Andrew Johnson's accession to the Presidency, Mr. Stanton was requested to continue in charge of the war department. He differed with the President, however, with regard to the reconstruction acts and other important. questions in the policy of the Executive. Mr. Stanton supported the position- of the Republican party, which had a majority in Congress. Matters at length reached such a pass that on the 5th of August, 1867, Mr. Johnson requested his resignation on the ground of " public considerations of a high character," to which Mr. Stanton replied that "public considerations of a. high character which alone had induced him to remain at the head of this department constrained him not to resign before the next meeting of Con- gress." He could not be removed under the tenure of office act, but on August 12th the President issued an order for his suspension, and he obeyed it under protest, General Grant being appointed secretary of war ad interim. The Senate refused to sustain the President in the removal of Mr. Stan- ton, and on January 13, 1868, reinstated him in office. Mr. Johnson re- newed the conflict by appointing General Lorenzo Thomas secretary of war ad interim, but Mr. Stanton held the fort and refused to vacate, staying.
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in his office day and night. The proceedings in impeachment of the President followed, and on the failure to impeach Mr. Johnson, on May 26 Mr. Stanton resigned. The Senate in confirming his successor adopted a resolution that Mr. Stanton was not legally removed, but relinquished his office, and subse- quently Congress passed him a vote of thanks for the great ability, purity and fidelity with which he had discharged his duties. Although Mr. Stanton's constitution was broken down by the tremendous strain which his efforts during the war had imposed on it, yet his circumstances compelled him to renew the practice of his profession-indisputable evidence of his honesty and integrity while holding public office. On December 20, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was immediately confirmed by the Senate, but he was never to take his seat, for he died on December 24, before his commission to that high office was made out. Mr. Stanton was married on the 21st day of December, 1836, to Miss Mary A. Lamson, daughter of William Lamson, formerly of Connecticut. The marriage occurred at Columbus, Ohio, at the residence of Rev. William Preston of Trinity Church, Mrs. Preston being the oldest sister of the bride. Mary Stanton died on the 13th of March, 1844. Mr. Stanton married in June, 1856, Miss Ellen A. Hutchison, daughter of Lewis Hutchison of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at which place he was then residing. Mr. Stanton left his widow and children in comparatively destitute circumstances. A testi- monial fund of $100,000 to repair the losses occasioned by the complete abne- gation of his private interests during the period of his secretaryship was by him refused in the firmest manner. Subsequent to his death, however, the amount was contributed for the benefit of his family.
HIRAM GRISWOLD was the son of Roswell and Jerusha Griswold. The family was of English descent, and upon its arrival in this country settled in Connecticut. Hiram was born at Colebrook, Litchfield county, Connecticut, July 5, 1807. His father was in moderate circumstances, with a farm situated among the rocks and hills of New England. Hiram was the third child in a family of twelve children, to no one of whom was the father able to give special advantages of education. Hiram was a striking example of a self- made man. He gained what education he could by winter's schooling in the district schools, in which he showed great aptitude as a scholar. At the age of eighteen he decided to push out into the world for himself, and obtained his father's permission to leave home. After teaching school for a few months in the State of New York, he followed the emigration West and located in Ravenna, Ohio, where he supported himself by teaching school. He gradu- ated from Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio. He resolved upon the study of law, and while still teaching began his legal studies at Ravenna and later completed the same under the fortunate guidance of Honorable Van R. Humphrey, of Hudson, Ohio. He was admitted to the Bar at Bucyrus, Craw- ford county, in 1829, and shortly thereafter began the practice at Canton, Ohio, where he opened an office, and where he remained for twenty-two years. His unusual ability and excellent mental training enabled him to make
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rapid progress in his profession, and he soon took a most prominent place at the Bar of Stark county. Mr. Griswold was a man possessed of sterling quali- ties of character and popular manner and address. On the stump no stronger man stood before the people of Ohio. With a strong courage, clearness of conviction, with a happy gift of language, with a commanding presence and an earnest and forcible delivery, he was upon the platform one of the first and finest representatives of the principles of the Whig party in the West. He was frequently urged during his residence in Canton to accept public office, even being offered the nomination to Congress from his district, but he refused political preferment, desiring to build up, as he did, a large and successful practice. In 1846, while a resident and practitioner of Stark county, he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court to succeed Edwin, McMaster Stanton. Mr. Griswold served in this office for five years, to and including 1851, report- ing volumes 14 to 19 inclusive, Ohio Reports. He was an able court reporter, painstaking and very popular with members of the Bar. Under his adminis- tration the reports became more voluminous, owing to the rapid increase of lit- igation attendant upon the growth of population in that, prosperous decade. In 1851 he was nominated by the Whigs of the Ohio Legislature as their can- didate for United States senator. Among his opponents for that position were Thomas Ewing, Samuel F. Vinton, Judge Lane, Attorney-General Stanbery, Judge Johnson and Charles Anderson ; but the Whigs had not a clear majority, and after some eighteen ballots, during which Mr. Griswold came within two votes of election, the Whigs, perceiving that no election was possible except by a coalition with the Free-soilers, withdrew with his consent the name of Mr. Griswold. Thereupon, after several names had been presented and rejected, Benjamin Wade, of Ashtabula county, was brought forward and elected. In the year 1852, shortly after his retirement from the reporter's office, in order to have a wider field for his legal practice, Mr. Griswold removed from Canton to Cleveland, where he entered into a partnership with M. S. Castle, and in which city, for twelve years, he maintained the unques- tioned position of one of the foremost leaders of the Bar. In the fall of 1855 he was elected a member of the State Senate from Cuyahoga county, serving in the 52nd (1856-1858) General Assembly with such distinguished colleagues as Stanley Matthews, Hezekiah S. Bundy, Alfred Kelly, William Lawrence, Ralph P. Buckland and John T. Brasee. While Mr. Griswold was a resident of Cleveland, there occurred at Harper's Ferry that momentous event known as John Brown's Insurrection, October, 1859. The details of that tragic incident are familiar history. In that hour of John Brown's solitary danger, Hiram Griswold volunteered his services in defense of the Abolition hero. He participated in the trial as one of Mr. Brown's legal counsel, and dared to stand by his martyred friend to the last. With the name of John Brown that of Hiram Griswold will go down through history. It was natural that a man with such strong and intense convictions should feel a deep interest in Kansas. He longed to cast his fortunes with those of this young, liberty-loving State. Finally, in 1863, he yielded to this desire and removed to Leavenworth, Kan-
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sas, where he resided till the day of his death, October 11, 1881. During his residence in Kansas he maintained the same high position at the Bar that he had held in Ohio. He was elected attorney-general of Kansas in 1864, and served one term. Immediately after the passage of the bankrupt act he was appointed, by Chief Justice Chase, register of bankruptcy for the State of Kansas, which position he filled until the repeal of the act. In 1832 he mar- ried Miss Eleanor Gordon, daughter of John Gordon, of Pittsburg, Pa. She died some four years after their removal to Leavenworth. Three years before his death he married Mary J. Chisholm of Bath, N. Y. This widow is now living in Leavenworth, Kansas. A sister, Mrs. William S. Phillips, resides at West Winsted, Connecticut, and a brother, Edward R. Griswold, at Cleve- land, Ohio.
WILLIAM LAWRENCE, A. M., LL. D. He was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, June 26, 1819; graduated at Franklin College, September, 1838, with the highest honors of his class. Graduated at Cincinnati Law School, March, 1840, and admitted to the Bar in November of the same year, and has been engaged in the active practice of his profession ever since, excepting when his official duties prevented. As a lawyer, Mr. Lawrence has taken high rank, his clientage being scattered over many States. His name appears as counsel in many volumes of the Ohio and the Ohio State Reports, and in the reports of the Supreme Court of Kansas and of the United States. From July 15, 1841, to July 15, 1843, he was the law partner of Benjamin Stanton, afterwards member of Congress and lieutenant governor of Ohio. From July, 1851, to February, 1854, he was a law partner with his law student, William H. West, afterward attorney-general of Ohio and judge of the Supreme Court. 'From April, 1866, to August, 1871, he was the law partner of Emanuel J. Howen- stein, and later a partner with his son Joseph H. Lawrence. The political career of Mr. Lawrence has been most conspicuous and creditable. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Logan county for the year 1845-46. He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives 1846-48 ; member of the Ohio Senate 1849, '50 and '54. During his legislative service he was the author of and caused to be enacted, among many other important measures, the Ohio Free Banking Law, from which the National Banking Act was largely modeled. He was Whig candidate for Presidential elector, 1852; was judge of the Common Pleas and District Courts in Ohio, 1857 to 1864; editor of the Cleveland Western Law Monthly, 1861 to 1864. In 1862 he was colonel of the Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, engaging in active service in the State of Maryland; in 1863 was appointed by President Lincoln district judge in Florida, but declined the office; was elected representative to Congress from his district in 1864, and served continuously in that body by virtue of re-elec- tions for ten years. He was one of the counsel selected by the Republicans in Congress, under the act of January 29, 1877, and argued in favor of the claims of the Republican Presidential electors for Oregon and South Carolina, before the Hayes-Tilden "Electoral Commission," and the records of that memorable contest show with what learning and ability Mr. Lawrence presented his argu-
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ments. He was appointed first comptroller of the United Treasury Depart- ment, serving from July, 1880, to April, 1885. His published reports during that period are regarded as model financial and state documents. Mr. Lawrence's learning has not been confined to the field of his profession. Possessed of a mind as versatile as it is vigorous, he has been recognized by his speeches and publications as high authority in many departments of knowl- edge. He was a student of medicine and surgery from 1841 to 1843. and his medical education has been a valuable aid to him, not only in his legal pursuits, but in the practical affairs of a busy life. He was editor of the Logan Gazette from 1845-47; trustee of the Ohio Wesleyan University from July, 1878, to the present time. For many years Mr. Lawrence has been deeply interested in the agricultural interests of our country and State, and particularly in the subject of sheep raising, wool growing and the question of the tariff pertain- ing thereto. In January, 1891, he was elected president of the Ohio Wool Growers' Association, and by annual re-election has so continued ever since. In October, 1893, he was elected president of the National Wool Growers' Association and still retains that office. The New York Commercial Adver- tiser, November 30, 1895,'said : " He has made more speeches and written more newspaper articles on the wool tariff * * than any other citizen of the United States." April 9, 1896, Senator Mantle, in a speech in the United States Senate, said : " He is beyond question the highest and best informed authority upon the wool question * to be found in the country." Mr. Lawrence has been a prolific and scholarly writer in nearly all the depart- ments of study that have engaged his attention. His miscellaneous law articles in law journals, his speeches and pamphlets used as political campaign documents in Presidential and other elections, his judicial decisions and his miscellaneous addresses, if collected, would make several volumes, besides his speeches and reports in Congress. His printed briefs in law cases would in themselves constitute a large library, and embrace the discussion and elucida- tion of nearly every principle of law. Many of these briefs are preserved in the government law library at Washington. He has been a frequent con- tributor to the leading law publications of the country, and has a ready famili- arity with more branches of the law than members of the profession generally possess. As lawyer and judge he has acquired a most thorough comprehension of both constitutional and common law. While serving in Congress, as a member of the judiciary committee, of the committee on the revision of the laws, and as chairman of the committee on war claims, be became unusually conversant with the Constitution and the laws of the United States and inter- national law, including the laws of war. And as first comptroller of the treasury he became versed in the national executive common law and in the construction of statutes. Several authors of law text-books have availed them- selves of Judge Lawrence's valuable assistance in the preparation of their works. Bishop in his works on "Statutory Crimes," and on "Criminal Law," has quoted with approval excerpts from the legal arguments of Judge Law- rence. Paschal in his annotated " Constitution," speaking of Judge Lawrence's
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treatise on "The Law of Impeachable Crimes," used in the impeachment of President Johnson, said : "In all that great trial there is no more accurate and precise learning than is to be found in the brief of authorities upon the law of impeachable crimes and misdemeanors, prepared by Honorable William Lawrence, of Ohio, which was adopted by Mr. Butler." He was appointed reporter to the Ohio Supreme Court at the beginning of 1851 and served but one year. Although he edited but one volume, No. 20 and last of the Ohio Reports, it is the most voluminous of all the Ohio and Ohio State Reports, and in the presentation of the cases, accompanying the opinions, Mr. Lawrence gave evidence of his legal learning and eminent qualifications for this office, which he so briefly held. Mr. Lawrence is still engaged in active practice, at his home, Bellefontaine, Ohio.
GEORGE W. McCook was a member of the famous family of Ohio known as the " Fighting McCooks," a family that has achieved a reputation both in mil- itary and civil life, and which will occupy a place in our country's history accorded but few. He was the son of Major Daniel McCook, and was born in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1822. When quite young his family removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, where they remained until George was nine years old, when the family removed to Carroll county. While living here he attended Franklin College, at New Athens, Ohio. At the close of his col- legiate year he studied law in the office of Edwin M. Stanton, and being ad- mitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the State, then sitting in Trumbull county, he became a partner with his preceptor, Mr. Stanton, in 1843. While pursuing his profession he also became active as a politician, and a prom- inent member of the Democratic party, taking an influential part in the affairs of that organization until his death. With the outbreak of the Mexican War a company of volunteers was formed in Steubenville, called " The Steubenville Grays." This company organized in May, 1846, by electing George W. McCook, then a rising young lawyer, as captain. On May 27th the company left for Camp Washington, at Cincinnati, where it became Company I of the Third Ohio Infantry. Captain McCook was promoted to the lieutenant colonelcy, and a short time before the return of the regiment, Colonel McCook was placed in full command, Colonel Samuel R. Curtis, his predecessor, having been made inspector general. On July 3, 1846, the regiment proceeded to Cin- cinnati, New Orleans and thence to Texas, crossing the border at Fort Brown into Mexico, where they lay for six months at Camp McCook. Fromn thence they proceeded to Matamoras, and soon after Lieutenant McCook, with three companies, was detailed to relieve Colonel Morgan's regiment at the front, which they accomplished after one of the hardest marches of the war. The regiment subsequently proceeded to Monterey and Buena Vista. They returned home and were mustered out on July 3, 1847. On his return to Steubenville, Colonel McCook resumed his partnership with Mr. Stanton, when, in 1852, he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio, but he served but one year, preparing the first volume of the Ohio State Reports under the new Con- stitution. In the fall of 1853 he was elected attorney-general of the State by
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a large majority on the Democratic ticket, defeating both William H. Gibson. the Whig candidate, and Cooper K. Watson, the Free-soil candidate, and he served for the full term of two years, 1854-1856, but was defeated for re-elec- tion by his Republican opponent, Francis D. Kimball. Upon retiring from the office Colonel McCook resumed his law practice in Steubenville. A large part of Colonel McCook's practice was connected with the affairs of the Steu- benville and Indiana Railway Company, of which he was the attorney, and in 1859 he made a visit to Europe to make arrangements with the first mortgage bondholders of the road, in which he was successful. With the outbreak of the Rebellion, Colonel McCook was appointed by Governor Dennison one of the four officers to look after the interests of the Ohio troops. He took charge of the 126th Ohio Infantry, and in 1863 was made colonel of the 39th Ohio National Guards, which afterwards became the 157th Ohio National Guards, and was part of the one hundred day troops engaged in guarding rebel pris- oners at Fort Delaware. They were mustered out in September, 1864, when the colonel returned to Steubenville. Colonel McCook was a leader in Dem- ocratic politics in Ohio, several times being chairman of the State delegation in their National conventions. He nominated John C. Breckenridge in the Cincinnati Convention of 1856, for Vice-President on the ticket with James Buchanan, and at the New York Convention of 1868 he nominated Horatio Seymour for the Presidency. Colonel McCook was the Democratic candidat( for governor of Ohio in 1871, defeating in the convention Thomas Ewing and Durbin Ward. He was defeated at the polls by Edward F. Noyes, the Repul - lican candidate. During this campaign he was attacked by a disease of the brain, which compelled him to withdraw from the canvass, and after that he took but little active part in politics, living quietly at his home in Steubenville. He made several trips to Europe in quest of health. He died in New York. December 28, 1877, leaving three children, George W. McCook, Jr., Hettie B. and Robert McCook. He married Miss Dick, an adopted daughter of the Rev. C. C. Beatty, of Steubenville. Colonel George McCook was the second son, the first being Latimer, who died in 1872, in the West. The other brothers were General Alexander McDowell McCook, aid-de-camp of General Sher- man's staff ; General Robert McCook, assassinated by the rebels in Tennessee in 1863; General Daniel McCook, who fell in the front at Kenesaw Mountain. 1864 ; General Edward McCook, assaulted by Wintermute in Yankton, Dakot: : Charles McCook, killed at the first battle of Bull's Run ; Captain John McCool. an attorney in New York City. There were also two or three sisters.
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