USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. I, Pt. 2 > Part 44
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The sequel of the Margaret Garner case was thie assault by Gaines on the attorney John Jolliffe which took place in Covington, Jime 1, 1857. Mr. Jolliffe had crossed the river to dine with a friend when he was accosted by Gaines whom he did not remember. Gaines used very violent lan- gnage towards him, calling him a negro thief and warned bystanders to look out for him as he
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had probably come over to steal their negroes. This collected quite a crowd to whom Jolliffe appealed for protection. The mob, however, seemed to sympathize with his assailant but for- tunately Mr. Warnock happened along and took him under his protection. Gaines struck Jolliffe with a cowhide and had it not been for the pro- tection of the officers of the law, the latter would undoubtedly have been roughly handled by the mob who threatened to lynch him. Gaines was arrested for the assault and finally after a trial was fined a small sum.
Another case was that of the fugitive Ander- son in 1857 wherein Judge Lcavitt of Cincinnati in the habcas corpus proceeding discharged the sheriff's prisoners. At this proceeding at which George E. Pugh and Clement L. Valland- igham appeared for the slave catchers, the At- torney General of the State appeared at the re- quest of Governor Chase.
TIIE CONNELLY CASE.
A case that aroused much excitement in 1858 was that of Connelly, then a re- porter on the local staff of the Commercial. He aided two fugitive slaves from Covington and concealed them for some days in a room back of his office. Their whereabouts were discov- ered by their master and in his absence the of- ficers broke into the room. The negroes fought desperately and in the struggle the colored man received a pistol shot from which wound he subsequently died. A writ was thereupon sued out to arrest Connelly for harboring fugitive slaves. He fled from the city and went to New York. He was however brought back by the Cincinnati marshal and placed on trial before Judge Leavitt. The district attorney was Stan- ley Matthews and counsel for the defendant, ex- Governor Corwin and Judge Stallo. The trial lasted a number of days and aroused great pub- lic interest. The proceedings were published at length in the newspapers as well as the entire speeches of counsel and the charge of the court. The jury however found Connelly guilty and he was given a very light sentence,-imprison- ment in jail for 20 days and a fine of $10. He was installed in the best room of the jail and furnished by the abolitionists of the city with bedstead and bedding and writing materials and with the best board that could be furnished. A
large number of people visited him every day. It became the fashion of the ladies of the city to carry him fruit and dainties. The teachers of the public schools headed processions and ministers of the churches called upon him in or- ganized bodies. The Methodist Conference which was in session at the time visited him in a body. A week later the Unitarian Confer- ence met here and its members headed by Horace Mann also called upon Connelly. At the end of his imprisonment the Turners and other societies of the city escorted him from jail with a torch- light procession headed by a band of music and a number of carriages, in which were seated Judge Stallo and other prominent citizens. The procession paraded through the principal streets of the town and finally went to Turner Hall where Connelly delivered a speech. He subse- quently delivered a number of speeches on the subject of the "Underground Railway," devoting the proceeds to the anti-slavery cause.
THIE EARLY CASE.
A fugitive slave case that aroused a great deal of indignation was heard in March, 1859, before United States Commissioner C. C. Browne. According to the evidence, a colored man Lewis Early who had been a slave of one George Kilgour of Cabell County, Virginia, was brought in 1856 to the house of a Mr. Robinson in Ross County, Ohio. With him was an email- cipation paper signed by his master who was a brother-in-law of Mr. Robinson and attested by three witnesses. Mr. Robinson who had known of the intention of Mr. Kilgour to free Early gave him employment and there he had remained until the time of his arrest, almost three years later. Unfortunately the house in which his papers were kept was destroyed by fire in 1856 and with it his "free papers." On March 25, 1859, he was arrested by a United States official as a slave and brought before the commissioner at Cincinnati. He was represented by Messrs. Jolliffe and J. W. Caldwell, who naturally set up the fact that he had been freed by his master. A son of the former master was present with the power of attorney directing him to recap- ture Early as a fugitive. Robinson testified as to the paper and the authenticity of the signa- tures and to the fact that his master had told him that he had freed this slave. In spite of the fact that the owner himself and the attesting wit-
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nesses were not before him and against what seemed overwhelming evidence, the commissioner remanded Early to the charge of the officers and he was spirited away in time to avoid the writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Leavitt.
The foregoing are but few of many cases of escaping slaves. The operations of Mr. Coffin and his friends continued to the days of the war and even the children of the city grew to under- stand that too many questions were not to be asked about any negroes whom they might see in unusual surroundings.
Another episode that almost precipitated a riot was the effort of a negro at the end of April, 1860, to obtain possession of two of his children for the purpose of selling them into slavery. Fortunately the unnatural desire of this heartless father was frustrated.
At the end of the following month, on May 28th, considerable excitement was aroused by an effort to kidnap a free negro for the purpose of
selling him into slavery. A man named Jere- miah Johnson accosted the negro whose name was Upson and offered him a position on the river. When the Walnut street ferry landing was reached, Johnson endeavored to induce the negro to go upon the boat but the latter became suspicious and refused to obey. Thereupon Johnson pointed a revolver at his head and threatened to kill him if he made any resistance. The negro's screams gathered a large crowd to whom Johnson affirmed that the negro was a fugitive slave and offered a reward of $20 for assistance in getting him upon the boat and across the river. The negro insisted that he had never been a slave and called for assistance, whereupon two gentlemen riding along the levee in a carriage insisted upon Johnson letting him go. The result of the affray was the release of Upson and a thorough beating for Johnson who was afterwards arrested on the charge of kid- napping ..
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CHAPTER XLI.
FROM THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL TO THE WAR-VI.
THE PROFESSIONS.
THE BENCH AND BAR-THE CHURCHES-THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND ITS COLLEGES-THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS -THE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL - GERMAN IN THE SCHOOLS -PRIVATE SCHOOLS - SEC- TARIAN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES - THE HIGH SCHOOLS.
THE BENCHI AND BAR.
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Many of the judges of the various courts dur- ing the two decades prior to the war were men of distinction and the bar itself possessed many able lawyers. Some of them have been referred to in earlier chapters ; a number helong properly to a later period. It is impossible of course to enumerate all, but a few should be mentioned in detail.
Stanley Matthews was born at Cincinnati, July 21, 1824. He was a son of the celebrated pro- fessor of mathematics at Woodward College and Transylvania University,-Thomas J. Mat- thews. His boyhood was passed in Kentucky but upon the removal of his father to Cincin- nati in 1832 to accept the presidency of Wood- ward, he accompanied him and studied in that institution until 1839. He then entered Kenyon College at Gambier where he graduated the following year, showing special proficiency in the classics. He studied law for two years in Cincinnati and subsequently taught school two years in Tennessee. There in February, 1843, he married Mary Black, the daughter of a resi- dent of that State. He began the practice of the law there and also edited for a time a weekly political paper called the Tennessee Democrat. In 1844 Jie returned to Cincinnati where hic
formed a partnership with Judge Key and Isaac C. Collins. By the favor of the president judge, William B. Caldwell, he was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney. His interest in the anti- slavery cause induced him temporarily to aban -. don the law and in 1846 he became the principal editor of Dr. Bailey's anti-slavery paper,-The Cincinnati Herald,-which he edited for about a year. He was elected clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1848 and served at the time Chase was elected Senator. He returned to the practice of the law in 1850, almost immedi- ately to go on the bench as one of the new judges. After his resignation in 1853, he asso- ciated himself . with Vachel Worthington. He served a term in the Ohio State Senate and in 1858 became United States district attorney by appointment of President Buchanan. He re- signed at the outbreak of the war to accept a commission in June, 1866, as lieutenant-colonel of the 23rd Regiment Ohio Vol. Inf. The colonel of the regiment was W. S. Rosecrans and the major, Rutherford B. Hayes. He sub- sequently became colonel of the 5ist Regiment Ohio Vol. Inf., and served with the Army of the Cumberland in Kentucky and Tennessee. He was for a time. provost marshal of Nashville, after which he was put in command of a brigade.
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While in camp in April, 1863, he was elected a judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, hav- ing for, his associates Storer and Hoadly. This office. Ife resigned in July, 1865, and at once became one of the leaders of the bar. Although formerly a Democrat, he subsequently acted with the Republican party. Although in 1872 he was temporary chairman of the Liberal Republican Convention, he refused to support Mr. Greeley, the nominee. In 1876 he was defeated for Con- gress by Henry B. Banning. He appeared be- fore the Electoral Commission as counsel for Rutherford B. Hayes and took an active part in the political events of that troublous period. Upon the resignation of Mr. Sherman to go into President Hayes' cabinet, he was selected to serve out Sherman's unexpired term. Subse- quently President Hayes and afterwards Presi- dent Garfield nominated him for a vacancy on the Supreme bench of the United States, caused by the resignation of Justice Swayne. He was confirmed May 12, 1881, and served on the bench until his death, March 22, 1889. Justice Mat- thews was a man of prodigious learning, great force as a debater and advocate and of eminently judicial temperament. He stands among the nation's greatest lawyers.
George R. Sage was born in Pennsylvania in 1828 and moved with his family to Cincinnati in 1849. He was educated at Granville College, afterwards Denison University and at the Cin- cinnati Law School. He was admitted to prac- tice in Kentucky in June, 1852, and on the day of his admission argued his first case in the Court of Appeals. The case involved almost a half a million dollars and among the counsel were some of the ablest lawyers of the State. Hle was admitted to practice in Cincinanti in the fall of that year and two years later became a member of the firm of King, Anderson & Sage. In 1855 he married the daughter of Thomas Cor- win and entered into partnership with his father- in-law in 1857. The firm removed to Lebanon in 1858 but before Governor Corwin's death in December, 1865, Mr. Sage returned to Cincin- nati. Hle soon formed a partnership with Thorn- ton M. Hinkle, who had married his sister, and this partnership continued until his appointment to the District bench of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio on March 21, 1883. Prior to this time, he had held the office of prosecuting attorney of Warren County for six years. A peculiar circumstance connected with the beginning of his judicial career was the fact that the oath of office known as the "iron-
clad oath". which was to the effect that he had never voluntarily borne arms against the United States, etc., was administered to him by Judge Hammond of Tennessee, who had himself been obliged to take the special oath provided for those who had participated in the Rebellion. After a most successful career upon the bench, he retired in 1898 and died a few months after his retirement.
Rutherford B. Hayes for the dozen years prior to the war was quite prominent at the bar of Hamilton County, of which he was a citizen until his removal to Fremont in 1873. He was born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1822 and educated at Kenyon College and afterwards at the Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1845 and finally established himself in practice in Cincinnati in 1849. Here he took an active interest in social and literary life. His connec- tion with the Literary Club established about the time of his arrival was always regarded by lin as of the greatest value, as it brought him into contact with such men as Chase. Ewing, Cor- win, Matthews, Conway and Force, who were leaders in the community at that time and after- wards. In 1856 he was nominated for the office of Common Pleas judge but declined and in 1858 he was elected city solicitor to be reelected the following year. In 1861 he was defeated for re- election with his party. Prior to the war he had been a Whig and joined the Republican party in 1856. He was chairman of a committee on resolutions selected by the mass meeting held in Cincinnati after the news of the attack on Fort Sumter and became captain of the military organization formed by the Literary Club. In 186t he was appointed a major of the 23rd Regi- ment Chio Vol. Inf., and ordered to West Vir- ginia. He served throughout the war with dis- tinction, showing conspicuous bravery at South Mountain, Clovd Mountain and particularly at Winchester. His distinguished services at Cedar Creek won him a brigadier-general's commission and towards the close of the war he received the rank of brevet major-general. While in the field he was nominated by the Republicans of the Second Congressional District of Ohio and elected to Congress. Ile was also nominated by the soldiers in the field for the governorship of the State. Ile was again elected to Congress in 1866 and in 1867 was nominated and elected Governor of the State, being reelected two years later. At the end of his term in July. 1872. he was again nominated for Congress but was defeated with his party. In the following year
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he removed to Fremont with the firm intention of retiring from public life. Contrary to his wishes he was nominated for the governorship in 1875 and was elected. His subsequent career is a part of the history of the nation. lle was the Republican standard bearer in 1876 and be- gan his administration as President in the fol- lowing March. At the conclusion of his admin- istration, he retired to his home in Fremont, where he lived until the time of his death in 1893, devoting his time to benevolent and edu- cational matters.
Robert B. Warden was born in Kentucky in 1824 but his early life was spent in Cincinnati, where he was educated at the Athenaeum,-the Catholic college in this city. He began the study of the law in 1840 under the tuition of Judge Read and afterwards that of Judge Timothy Walker. At the age of 17, he was made a deputy clerk of the court and remained in that office until 1845, when he was admitted to the bar. Just after attaining the legal age in 1850, he was elected by the Legislature president judge of the Common Pleas Court and in 1851 the people chose him as one of the judges of that court. He became the reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1853 and in December of the following year he was appointed by Governor Medill to the Supreme bench of the State to fill the unexpired term of Judge Corwin. He served but a little over a month when he was succeeded by Judge Swayne, who had been regu- larly elected to the office. fle then resumed his position as reporter of the court. He subse- quently removed to Washington in 1873, where he was for a time engaged in writing the life of Chief Justice Chase. He also practiced law before the Supreme Court in that city. He was subsequently a member and attorney for the Board of Health for the District of Columbia. Judge Warden was the author of many books largely of a political character and a scholar of wide attainments and an accomplished orator. He died in 1888.
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Johann Bernhard Stallo was born in 1823 in Oldenburg, of a race of schoolmasters. Ile came to Cincinnati in 1839 and engaged as teacher in a private school. A German school- book written by him led to his appointment. as an instructor in the newly founded Catholic St. Xavier College. Here he taught for three years almost every department of knowledge. specially devoted himself to higher mathematics, physics and chemistry. In 1843 he was chosen to teach these subjects at St. John's College in
New York City. There he remained for four years, at the end of which time he published a work entitled "General Principles of the Philoso- phy of Nature." He subsequently returned to Cincinnati, where he was admitted to the bar in 1849. He was appointed by the Governor to succeed Judge Stanley Matthews as judge of the Common Pleas Court and afterwards elected to that position. After his resignation in 1855 he entered upon the general practice, in which he made a great reputation. A case that won him world-wide fame was the so-called Bible case, in which there were engaged with him George Hloadly and Stanley Matthews and opposed to him William M. Ramsey, George R. Sage and Rufus King. This was an effort on the part of certain citizens to prevent the enforcement of a regulation adopted by the School Board, for- bidding the reading of the Bible in the public schools as being contrary to the spirit of free schools intended for the children of parents of all religious sects and beliefs. Stallo was for the board. The arguments in this case have been published and have won the admiration of the bar and the public generally throughout the country. Hle did much to establish the standing of this bar as among the first in the United States. The case was heard originally before Judges Storer, I lagans and Taft, who decided against the board (although Judge Taft wrote a dissenting opinion of great force), but this decision was reversed by the Supreme Court. Judge Stallo took an active part in the Liberal and Reform move- ments in 1872, although he was not able to sup- port Mr. Greeley. In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland. United States Minister to Italy and after the expiration of his term he resided in Florence until the time of his death on January 6, 1900. In 1882 he pub- lished in the "International Scientific Series" his "Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics," and afterwards, in 1893, "Abhandlungen und Briefe." He was for years associated in the practice with E. W. Kittredge and afterwards with Joseph Wilby under the firm name of Stallo, Kittredge & Wilby. Throughout his life Judge Stallo was regarded as one of the leading German citizens of his adopted country.
Donn Piatt was more distinguished as a jour- nalist than as a lawyer. He was a younger brother of Jacob Wykoff Piatt and was born in Cincinnati in 1819. He was educated at the Athenaeum, afterwards St. Xavier College. He subsequently studied law. The practice of the profession was not especially congenial to him
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and he distinguished himself as a correspondent - of the leading newspapers. He became noted as one of the wittiest of American journalists. After his brief service as judge of the Common Pleas Court, he became secretary of legation at Paris under John Y. Mason. Ile took an active part in behalf of Fremont in the campaign of 1856. During the war he served on the staff of General Schenck.' He was subsequently the chief of the staff of Col. William Birney. After the war he became the Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial. He edited the Washington Capitol for several years with such vigor that during the controversy of 1876 he was indicted for conspiring to disturb the peace of his country. After 1888 he edited Belford's Maga- sine for a time. The later years of his life were spent at his well known residence at Mac-o-chec. He died November 12, 1801. Colonel Piatt wrote several books of biography, a novel, some plays and even indulged in poetry. He was a striking figure both in the life of the city and of the nation.
l'atrick Mallon, who was born in Ireland, be- gan the study of the law in Troy, New York, and came to Cincinnati in 1845, where he entered the law office of Judge Alphonso Taft. Immediately upon his admission to the bar in 1848, he entered into partnership with Judge Taft and Judge Key under the firm name of Taft, Key & Mallon. An account of the main features of his life ap- pears in the second volume of this work. Al- though a lawyer of force and learning and a zealous advocate. Judge Mallon's charm of man- ner and undoubted sincerity saved him from much of the asperity to which the practice of the law is subject. His death a few years since took from the bar one of its most popular mem- bers.
M. W. Oliver was of a very distinguished an- cestry from an Ohio standpoint. Ile was a son of David Oliver and a grandson of the Revolu- tionary colonel, Robert Oliver, who came West with General Putnam in 1788. His mother was a daughter of David E. Wade, one of the carly settlers of the city whose name has been men- tioned so frequently in this work, He was born in Indiana in 1825 and was afterwards educated at Woodward. He graduated at Miami Uni- versity in 1847. He afterwards studied law under Judge O. M. Spencer. He graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1849 and was admitted to the bar in 1850. He was elected to the Com- mon Pleas bench in 1856 and served until 1859, when he resigned. In 1861 he was again
elected to the bench and served the full term of five years. At the expiration of his term he again resumed the practice but retired in 1871. Ile served at various times as a member of the Legislature, on the Board of Aldermen, as trustee of the Miami University, as park com- inissioner and as a member of the Union. Board of Cincinnati High Schools. Ile was also the president from its organization of the Price Hill Inclined Plane Railroad Company.
William Martin Dickson was born in Indiana in 1827; he came to Cincinnati in 1850 after graduating from the Harvard Law School, and tutored for a while in Judge Wright's family, was employed as instructor in Greek at St. John's College, and also acted as a reporter on the old Cincinnati Times. In 1852 he married Annie Marie Parker, a cousin of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. He was the first to hold the position of prosecuting attorney of the Police Court, to which he was elected in 1853. During his term occurred the Bedini riots and the agitation against the Germans. His conduct in these mat- ters was such as to win him the everlasting support of the German population of the city. He took an active part in the fugitive slave cases on behalf of the slaves. Ilis term of ser- vice on the bench was short but he succeeded in winning for himself the confidence of the bar. He was a Lincoln elector in 1860 and it was at his house that Lincoln stopped when visiting the city. He organized the first colored regiment during the war and during the threat- ened attacks upon the city he had charge of a negro brigade at Camp Shaler over the river. Ilis interest in the colored people never flagged and he was instrumental in procuring for theni the right to ride in the Cincinnati street cars. He retired from active life in 1866 at the age of 39. During the next 23 years he devoted mich time to literary work and his initials "W. M. D.". became well known in the leading journals of the country. He was killed October 15, 1889, by the accident on the Mount Auburn Inclined Plane Railway. A sketch of Judge Dickson, appearing in the second part of this work, contains other facts of his life not men- tioned here.
Oliver M. Spencer was born in what was afterwards West Walnut Hills in Cincinnati in 1800. Ile was a third son of the well known Oliver M. Spencer, whose capture by the Indians was so interesting an incident of the carly his- tory of the city. He was educated at the Cin- cinnati College and afterwards at the Reeves
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Law School at Litchfield, Connecticut. Upon his return to Cincinnati he was associated with a number of prominent lawyers, among them Judge Bellamy Storer. He soon became attor- ney for the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Com- pany and enjoyed a large practice until 1854, when he was elected to the newly organized Su- perior Court. He was reelected in 1858 but died in 1861 before the expiration of his second term. As a judge he was especially remark- able for his painstaking industry and his ex- treme dislike for the technical details which he thought had a tendency to obscure the general principles of the law. He was regarded as the great common lawyer of the bar and it is said that no opinion delivered by him was overruled by the Supreme Court of the State. By tempera- ment and training he was eminently fitted for : judicial training, although he had taken some part in politics prior to his election to the bench. In 1851 he with George W. Runyan was elected to the House of Representatives, but they were displaced by George E. Pugh and Alexander Pierce, who were declared to be elected in con- formity with the law dividing the State into districts. He also opposed George H. Pendleton as candidate to Congress but was defeated.
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