Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III, Part 63

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Henry Howe & Son
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III > Part 63

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"In the winter of 1802-3, when the last territorial legislature was in session at Chilli- cothe, there had been some warm disputes about the proposed boundaries of the State of Ohio, soon to be organized, and a mob had assembled one night in the streets, as was first thought originating in this dispute, but afterwards found to have no connection with it.

"The next morning Gen. St. Clair came into the room occupied by Gov. Morrow, Judge Duulevy, and the late Judge Foster, of Hamilton county, and attributing this mob to political disputes took occasion to abuse our democratic institutions in very indecorous terms and expressing the opinion that they could not last and that we must soon return to a stronger government, such as had made England the model of nations.

"No reply was made to Gov. St. Clair ; but immediately Judge Duulevy sat down and drew up iu writing a faithful report of Gov. St. Clair's declarations. The paper was signed by himself, Gov. Morrow and Judge Foster, sworn to before a justice of the peace, and forwarded to Thomas Jefferson, then President ; and Gov. St. Clair was im- mediately removed and Gen. Harrison ap- pointed in his place.

" Though this removal was charged to the party intolerance and prescription of the

Republicans of that day and much noise made on account of it by Gov. St. Clair's personal and political friends, the movers in it never thought it necessary to make any explana- tion, and it remained a secret until two of the three actors had passed away. Then the last, Gov. Morrow, communicated it to me, as no longer necessary to be kept unex- plained."

Mr. Dunlevy theu quotes from Judge Buruet's " Notes," wherein the judge charges St. Clair's removal as done to gratify the malice of St. Clair's enemies, by Mr. Jeffer- son, "who has been," wrote the judge, " his friend and adviser .. That removal was one of the first evidenees given by the new ad- ministration that politics were stronger than friendships and partisan services more avail- ing than talents."

"But friendships and enmities had nothing to do with this removal. The men who had brought it about were real republicans and had faith in republican institutions, then for the first time in the history of the world on trial in their purity ; and they could not hear this form of government rudely assailed as it had been by one, who, in his place, should be its protector and be sileut. They spread the facts before Mr. Jefferson, and he agreeing with them, Gov. St. Clair was at once re- moved and Gen. Harrison put in his place."

WM. C. SCHENCK, father of Gen. R. C. Schenck and Admiral Jas. F. Schenck,

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was born near Freehold, N. J., January 11, 1773. He studied both law and medicine, undetermined which to make his life-profession, and finally adopted that of surveyor. He came to Ohio as agent for his uncle, Gen. John N. Cumming, probably also of Messrs. Burnet, Dayton and Judge Symmes. He became one of the most competent surveyors in the West. In 1796 he surveyed and laid out the town of Franklin ; in 1797 he set out to survey what was known as the " Military Tract; " in the winter of 1801-2 surveyed and laid out the town of Newark ; in 1816 surveyed and laid out Port Lawrence, now known as Toledo. In 1799 Gen. Schenck was elected secretary of the first territorial legislature ; was a member of the first senate of Ohio. In 1803 he removed from Cinein- nati to Franklin, where he lived till his death, in 1821. During the war of 1812 he held a commission in the militia. Owing to the confused and imper- fect condition of the records in the office of the adjutant-general of Ohio, it has thus far been impossible to determine just what services Gen. W. C. Sehenck performed with the army or what rank he held. Some time previous to the war he had resigned a commission of brigadier-general of militia, which rank- he held for a long time. At the outbreak of the war he was present with his troops in the field at an early date.

Gen. Schenek was one of the early and active promoters of the Ohio canal system. In 1820 he was appointed by Governor Brown one of the commis- sioners " to survey the route of a canal."

In further prosecution of the project, Gen. Schenck made a speech before the legislature, to which he had been elected from Warren county, warmly advocating the immediate construction of the canal. At the close of his speech he left the House, and went to his lodgings, was seized with a sudden attack of sickness and died in a few hours. He was highly esteemed throughout the State as a man of a high order of mental ability, unimpeachable integrity and an active, useful citizen.

JOHN McLEAN was born in Morris county, N. J., March 11, 1775. In 1789 his father, a man of humble cir- cumstanees, with a large family, re- moved to the West, settling first at Morganstown, Va., then near Nicholas- ville, Ky., later at Mayslick, Ky., and finally, in 1799, in what is now Warren county, O. Here he occupied and cleared a farm. Young MeLean worked on this farm until eighteen years of age, in the meanwhile obtaining such educa- tion as the meager opportunities af- forded.

He received instruction in the classics ... during the last two years, paying tuition and supporting himself by his own labor.

When eighteen years of age he went JOHN McLEAN. to Cineinnati, and by writing in the county clerk's office supported himself while studying law. In 1807 he was admitted to the bar and began practising at Lebanon.

In October, 1812, he was elected to Congress from his district, which then in- cluded Cincinnati, by the Democratic party. In 1814 he was re-elected, receiving the vote on every ballot cast in the district.

He gave a warm support to the administration of Madison ; originated the law to indemnify individuals for property lost in publie service ; introduced a resolu-

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tion which led to granting of pensions to widows of fallen officers and soldiers. He sometimes voted against his political friends ; yet so highly was his integrity and judgment esteemed that he lost no party support.

In 1815 he declined a nomination to the U. S. Senate; the year following he was unanimously elected, by the Ohio Legislature, a judge of the Supreme Court.

Judge McLean occupied the Supreme bench of Ohio until 1822, when President Monroe appointed him commissioner of the general land office, and in July of the following year Postmaster-General.

This department he brought, by untiring industry and energy, from great dis- order into a greatly improved condition, introducing an economical, efficient, and systematie mail service, which met with such general approval that Congress raised his salary from $4000 to $6000 a year. He continued in this office until 1829, when President Jackson tendered him the departments, first of war and then of the navy ; these he declined, not being in sympathy with Gen. Jackson in the disposition of offices, holding that the man best suited to the place should have it, irrespective of party affiliations. President Jackson appointed him an as- sociate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. He entered upon his duties in January, 1830. His charges to grand juries were distinguished for eloquence and ability. The most important of these were in regard to the aiding and abetting " unlawful military combinations against foreign governments," referring to the Canadian in- surrection and its American abettors; his opinion dissenting from that of Chief- Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case, in which he held that slavery had its origin in power, was contrary to right and upheld only by local law.

He was long identified with the party opposed to slavery and his name was prominently before the Free Soil Convention, held at Buffalo in 1848, as a can- didate for the Presidential nomination. He was also a candidate in the Republi- can National Conventions of 1856 and 1860.

In person Judge MeLean was tall and commanding ; his habits were simple, and his manners genial and courteons. During a part of his publie life he resided on his farm in Warren county. He died at Cincinnati, April 4, 1861.

THOMAS CORWIN was born in Bourbon county, Ky., July 29, 1794, and died in Washington, D. C., December 18, 1865. When four years of age, his father, Matthias, removed to Lebanon, and represented his district in the Legislature for many years.

Shortly after his arrival at Lebanon young Corwin was sent to a school taught by Francis Dunlevy. Corwin acquired knowledge with great ease, and learned perfectly the whole alphabet the first day at school. He did not long continue at this school.

In 1806 he again attended school, and was taught by an English Baptist clergy- man, the Rev. Jacob Grigg. This teacher encouraged recitations and dialogues by the scholars, and it was in these exercises that Corwin, then but twelve years ., of age, first distinguished himself by his oratorical powers.

Corwin's father was too poor to make a scholar of more than one son of his .... large family, and so the elder brother Matthias was kept at school and Thomas set at work on his father's farm. It was necessary at that time that during cer- tain seasons of the year supplies and produce should be transported by wagon to- -- and from Cincinnati. It was the custom for five or six teams of neighboring farmers to go together, and young Corwin drove his father's. It was thus that he first acquired the name of " Wagon Boy." During the war of 1812 he drove his wagon, filled with supplies for the army of Gen. Harrison, to the camp on the waters of St. Mary's of the Maumee. This was no small undertaking for a youth of eighteen, as the journey was attended with many difficulties and dangers.

Corwin continued on his father's farm until 1814, when he entered the county clerk's office, then in charge of his brother Matthias.

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The next year he began the study of law in the office of Judge Joshua Collett, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1818.

It was a common custom in many of the early settlements to have debating so- cieties, and Mr. Corwin was a member of one in Lebanon, where he soon gained a very high reputation for eloquence. He was an earnest student of English his- tory and prose and poctie classics. His ability and eloquence as an advocate soon gained him an extensive practice. His public career began in 1822, when he was elected to the Ohio Legislature, serving seven years. In 1830 he was chosen to Congress as a Whig, and was subsequently re-elected until he had served ten years.

In 1840 he was nominated for governor by the Whigs, and canvassed the State with Gen. Harrison, addressing large gatherings in every county, and exerting great influence with his unsurpassed oratory.

He was elected governor by a majority of 16,000, but two years later was de- feated for the governorship by Wilson Shannon, his former opponent.

In 1844 Mr. Corwin was elected to the United States Senate, where, in 1847, he made his celebrated speech against the Mexican war, in which he made use of the figure of speech, " Welcome you with bloody hands to hospitable graves."

He served in the Senate until 1850, when he was called to the head of the treasury department by President Filhore, a position he held until 1852, when he retired to private life and his law practice at Lebanon.

In 1858 he was again elected to Congress and re-elected in 1860.

He was appointed minister to Mexico by President Lincoln, where he served during the whole of President Lincoln's first term. In 1865 he came to the United States on leave of absence, and did not return, remaining in Washington and practising law until his decease.

ANECDOTES OF CORWIN.

During Corwin's first term in the Ohio Legislature some member introduced a bill to repeal the whipping law. Corwin gave the bill his earnest support. A member, who had formerly resided in Connecticut, opposed the bill, and said he had observed that when a man was whipped in his State he immediately left it. Whereupon Corwin rose and said, " I know a great many people have come to Ohio from Connecticut, but I have never before known the reason for their coming."

Mr. Addison P. Russell, of Wilmington, Ohio, whose charming literary works have gained for him the sobriquet of the "American Charles Lamb," has written a fine sketch, entitled "Thomas Corwin," from which we make the following ex- tracts :

The Crary Speech .- His famous speech in 1840, in reply to Crary, of Michigan, who had been so unwise as to attack the military reputation of Gen. Harrison, then the Whig candidate for the Presidency, immediately gave him a national reputation. Sometime before, at home, he had defended, in a case before a country magistrate, a militiaman who had been charged with an assault and battery, alleged to have been committed upon his captain at a general muster. Although the defendant was unquestionably guilty, Corwin gained his discharge mainly by his overwhelming ridicule of the unfortunate captain, who was the prosecuting witness, and had provoked the assault by the airs which he took upon himself while exercising the functions of his office. With a vivid recollection of the affair, he fell upon Crary

with the same weapons, in the same satirical vein, selecting his most successful images, and polishing his rhetoric, till the best part of the speech must stand as a model of that kind of eloquence. The next day after its delivery, John Quincy Adams referred to the vanquished militia general as "the late Mr. Crary, of Michigan." The speech caused a broad grin upon the face of the nation.

Ilis irony, in the use of Scriptural illustra- tions, was sometimes terrible. The novel distinction he gave, in his great anti-war speech, to Cain, will be recollected. "Sir," said he, "the world's annals show very many ferocious sieges and battles and onslaughts before San Jacinto, Palo Alto or Monterey. Generals of bloody renown have frightened the nations before the revolt of Texas or our invasion of Mexico ; and I suppose we Amer-

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icans might properly claim some share in this martial reputation, since it was won by our own kindred, men clearly descended from Noah, the great ' Propositus' of our family, with whom we all claim a very endearing re- lation. But I confess I have been somewhat surprised of late that men, read in the his- tory of man, who knew that war has been his trade for six thousand years (prompted, I imagine, by those noble 'instincts' spoken of by the Senator from Michigan), who knew that the first man born of woman was a hero of the first magnitude, that he met his shepherd brother in deadly conflict, and mnost heroically beat 'out his brains with a club ; I say," etc.

Comic Illustration from the Example of Noah .- Once, when speaking of the corrup- tion of the times to terrify wrong-doers, he took occasion to dwell long upon Noah-the one only man, amidst the general corruption of the race, who was found by the Almighty to be righteous. With great particularity and earnestness, he described the venerable patriarch as the only preacher of righteous- ness at the time of the Deluge; who inces- santly preached and declared to men, not only by his discourses but by his unblamable life, and by the building of the ark, in which he was employed one hundred and twenty years, that the cloud of Divine vengeance was about to burst upon them ; how his preaching produced no effect ; that when the Deluge came it found mankind practising

their usual enormities. During the wonder- ful narrative, you saw the loafing crowd of dissolute idlers that, every day and all the time, for the hundred and twenty years the ark was building, lounged over the timbers, and interrupted the workmen with their gibes and skeptical inquiries ; and you saw, as distinctly, the hoary priest, in his solemn loneliness, when "the waters were dried up; from off the earth," building the first "altar unto the Lord." There he stood, before the people in their very midst, in an Ohio forest, the one righteous man-the last preacher of righteousness before the destruction of man- kind-the first to set up an altar afterward- the saved, the trusted and blessed. The si- lence was oppressive ; the audience was trans- fixed ; something must occur to relieve it. Just then the orator, observing an unbeliev- ing auditor doubtingly blinking his eyes, turned upon him with a look of inimitable drollery and irony, arching liis eyebrows gro- tesquely, working, at the same time, in a most ludicrous manner, the laughing ma- chincry of his mouth, and said to him, in a familiar, inquiring tone, "But I think I hear you say, my unbelieving Democrat, that the old commodore did once get tight !"

That was sufficient. The tears that had gathered in hundreds of eyes during the de- livery of passage after passage of unsurpassed sublimity fell at once over faces convulsed with laughter. Again and again the multi- tude laughed-stragglingly and in chorus.

His observation and experience, too, had taught him the uncertainty of public life, and he was loth to encourage young men to aspire to it ; especially he discour- aged them from seeking or holding positions which are subordinate and only clerical, as sure to weaken their manhood and unfit them for independent, honor- able occupations. It was while he was Secretary of the Treasury that a young man presented himself to him for a clerkship. Thrice was he refused, and still he made a fourth effort. His perseverance and spirit of determination awakened a friendly interest in his welfare, and the secretary advised him, in the strongest possible terms, to abandon his purpose and go to the West, if he could do no bet- ter outside the departments.

Advice to a Young Office-Seeker .- " My young friend," said he, "go to the North- west ; buy 160 acres of government land, or, if you have not the money to purchase, squat on it; get you an axe and mattock ; put up a log-cabin for a habitation, and raise a little corn and potatoes; keep your conscience clear, and live like a freeman-your own mas- ter, with no one to give you orders, and with- out dependence upon anybody. Do that, and yon will be honored, respected, influential and rich. But accept a clerkship here, and you sink at once all independence ; your en-

ergies become relaxed, and you are unfitted in a few years for any other and more inde- pendent position. I may give you a place to- day, and I can kick you out to-morrow ; and there is another man over there at the White House who can kick me out, and the people, . by-and-by, can kick him out ; and so we go. But if you own an acre of land, it is your kingdom, and your cabin is your castle ; you are sovereign, and you will feel it in every throbbing of your pulse, and every day of your life will assure me of your thanks for having thus advised you."

His great speech in opposition to the war with Mexico produced a profound sensation throughout the country. The war proved to be popular, as all wars will, in an aggressive popular government. They make tests for patriotism that are apprehensible to everybody, besides opening a way for violences of every sort. The moral tone of the speech was too high, too radical, for politics-even for the

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party to which it was especially addressed. The virus of slavery had tainted the whole body politie. Twenty years must elapse before it could be attacked by con- stitutional remedies.

The speech and the author of it were violently assailed. Mr. Corwin was denounced as a traitor by the seurvy politicians and press of the country. The distinguished men of his party who promised to stand by him deserted him. Not so with the anti-slavery Whigs of the Miami valley ; they applauded his senti- ments, and asked him to speak to them at Lebanon on the subject of the war.

Wonderful Eloquence of Corwin .- We dare say, no orator ever had such an audience of friends. The meeting was not very large- not so great but that it could be held in the court-house-but it was composed in great part of the leading anti-slavery Whigs in that part of the country. The good Gov. Morrow, we believe, presided. Mr. Corwin's speech on that occasion was regarded by his friends, familiar with his oratorical achievements, as the greatest of his life. There was no re- porter present, and no attempt was ever made to recover any part of the incomparable ef- fort. There was not a humorous word in it ; it was grave, sober, serious, tragic. The struggles of the orator, at times, to express himself were painful to witness. The great veins and muscles in his neck enlarged ; his face was distorted ; his arms wildly reached, and his hands desperately clutched, clutched, in paroxysms of unutterable emotion. Men . left their seats and gathered elose around

him, standing through most of the speech ; and many of them unconsciously repeated . with their lips, ahnost audibly, every word that he uttered, the tears streaming over their faces. Every man in the audience was his personal friend. The speech was a long one, lasting two or three hours. He reviewed with much particularity and candor his senti- ments and acts in relation to the war, and concluded by alluding with great feeling to old friendships-to his growing attachment to his old home and to old home-friends-how they had assisted him in every effort and for- tified him in every trial-but, grateful as he felt to them, loving them as he did, if they were all to implore him, upon their bended knees, to change his sentiments, and were to remain in that posture till their bones bored the oaken floor, still he would not retract one syllable of truth he had uttered as he should answer to God !

The audience dissolved of itself, swarming over the streets and sidewalks, nearly every auditor going his own way alone. Schenck and Stevenson walked down the street together, but did not speak a word for a block or two. All at once Schenck ejaculated, " What a speech !" "Yes !" responded Stevenson, with Kentucky emphasis, " what a speech ! I was born and bred in a land of orators ; have been accustomed all my life to hear such giants as Clay and Menifee, Crit- tenden and Marshall ; but, blessed be God ! 'I never heard a speech like that !"

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE AT THE DEATH OF THOMAS CORWIN. .

The following letter, descriptive of Mr. Corwin's death, appeared anonymously in the Ohio State Journal :

WASHINGTON, D. C., Dee. 19, 1865. Dear Sir :- It has never been deemed an invasion of the sanctuary of private life to preserve for the world and history the last utterances and aets of the men of history. That license which admits the treasuring up of the "last things" of great and historic lives induces me to write down what I do here.

It was never my lot before to be thrilled, by seeing brought together in startling prox- imity life and death, mirth and mourning, fame and frailty, as I saw them brought to- gether in the circumstances attending the last conscions moments of Thomas Corwin. How strange it seems to me now ! At a collection of men of Ohio, in which were Chase and Wade and Sherman, and Schenck and Bing- ham and Swayne, and fifty others of the

public men of the State, Gov. Corwin was present. Upon his entering the room, he, of course, became, what he for forty years had been everywhere, where his presence was, the centre of interest and of admiration. In ten minutes after he had entered the room I saw from some distance (for I did not soon go to him) men collected and compacted around him in eager, excited and, in some cases, ridiculous attitudes ; chief justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, members of the Cabinet, major-generals of the armies of the United States, senators in Congress, and members of the House of Representatives were in a circle. Some were seated by him ; some stood creet about his chair ; some leaned and pressed eagerly forward between the more inner circles of listeners, and pushed their

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ears forward to hear the words and whispers which came from the centre figure of the cirele. Some sat, some stood, some kneeled, and all leaned forward to listen.

I watched occasionally the effect upon this little company of men, of what was drawing them to that centre. The strange magician had taken up once more, and the last time, his wand, to try its spell upon a little com- pany of its subjects. It was the same one with which so often before, in the mere wan- tonness and sport of his powers, he had toyed and played with the storms of human pas- sions which it conjured up, controlled and allayed at will.

His youth, with its inimitable charms and graces, seemed for a moment to have come to him again. There were once more the flow of humor, the sparkle of merriment, the glow of enthusiasm, the flash of wit, and the charms of anecdote and illustration ; and there the wondrous. play of features which made him Corwin. Men came repeatedly out from his presence at that seat, that night, exclaiming, "There is but one Corwin !" For a moment men, who a thousand times before had bowed before the spell of his genins, or had been swept off by its ir- resistible force, and then, when the spell was gone, wondered at their frailties, here again became its victims.

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Historical collections of Ohio in three volumes ; an encyclopedia of the state : with notes of a tour over it in 1886 contrasting the Ohio of 1846 with 1886-90, Vol. III, Part 63

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Henry Howe & Son Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Columbus, Ohio : Henry Howe & Son
Number of Pages: 1200