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6. The National Road. CHANNING, E., and LANSING, M. F., Story of the Great Lakes, chs. XVIII-XIX ; FARIS, J. T., Real Stories from Our History, chs. XXI-XXII, XXV.
7. The Erie Canal. CHANNING, E., and LANSING, M. F., Story of the Great Lakes, ch. XX; HALSEY, F. W., Great Epochs in American History, VI, pp. 17-19 ; MOWRY, W. A., American Inventions and Inventors, pp. 215- 220; SPARKS, E. E., Expansion of the American People, ch. XXII.
8. Canal Construction in Ohio. RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, III, pp. 335-366.
9. Early Steamboats. BARSTOW, C. L., A New Nation, pp. 95-105; ELSON, H. W., Side Lights on American History, ch. V ; FARIS, J. T., Real Stories from Our History, chs. XXXII-XXXV; HALSEY, F. W., Great Epochs in American History, IV, pp. 186-196; MOWRY, W. A., American Inventions and Inventors, pp. 221-228; WRIGHT, H. C., American Progress, ch. V.
10. The Steam Railroad. FARIS, J. T., Real Stories from Our History, chs. XXXVI-XXXVIII, XL-XLI; HALSEY, F. W., Great Epochs in Ameri- can History, VII, pp. 12-16; MOWRY, W. A., American Inventions and Inventors, pp. 221-228; PAXSON, F. L., The Last American Frontier, ch. XIX; SPARKS, E. E., Expansion of the American People, ch. XXIII; WRIGHT, H. C., American Progress, ch. X.
II. The Log-Cabin Campaign. ELSON, H. W., Side Lights on American History, I, ch. XII ; HALSEY, F. W., Great Epochs in American History, VI, pp. 199-207 ; NICOLAY, HELEN, Our Nation in the Building, ch. XVI ; RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, IV, pp. 19-46; WILSON, J. G., The Presidents, II, chs. II-III.
12. The War with Mexico. HALSEY, F. W., Great Epochs in American History, VII, pp. 77-87; GRIFFIS, W. E., The Romance of Conquest, chs. XVIII-XX; NICOLAY, HELEN, Our Nation in the Building, ch. XVII ; RANDALL and RYAN, History of Ohio, IV, pp. 47-74; WRIGHT, H. C., American Progress, ch. XIV.
CHAPTER III SEVENTY YEARS OF PROGRESS (1851-1921)
Problem I. How public sentiment in Ohio was aroused against slavery
Ohio's second constitution. As Ohio grew in population and industry, experience showed some of the defects of her first constitution. Accordingly delegates were elected to a constitu- tional convention which met at Columbus in 1850. They drew up a constitution which reorganized the courts, limited some- what the power of the legislature, and slightly increased that of the governor. This constitution was adopted by a vote of the people in June, 1851, and, with important amendments added in 1912, is the one under which we live today.
The dispute over slavery. In the years following the Mexican War, the North and the South had many quarrels over the slavery question. The great staple of the South was cotton, and the southern people believed that cotton could not be produced without slave labor. Since the raising of cotton rapidly exhausted the soil, Southerners were eager to carry slavery into the western territories and cultivate the new lands by slave labor. Meantime thousands of men in the North had come to look upon slavery as a great moral evil. Some of these Northerners, like Lincoln of Illinois, had no thought of inter- fering with slavery in the southern states, but they declared that it must not spread into the western territories of New Mexico, Kansas, or Nebraska.
The abolition movement. There were other northern men who took a more radical view. These abolitionists, as they were called, denounced slavery as a sin and demanded that it should be abolished everywhere. At first the abolitionists were condemned by nearly everyone as dangerous mischief-makers,
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who were sowing the seeds of discord between the North and the South. Mobs broke up their meetings, destroyed their printing presses, and tried to silence their leaders. But perse- cution only increased the number of abolitionists, and gradually their influence began to tell. Eloquent speakers and gifted
FIG. 35. State Capitol, Columbus, Ohio
The present Capitol was built on the site of the old State House, which was destroyed by fire in 1852. The corner stone of this building was laid on July 4, 1839, by Jeremiah Morrow, pioneer and ex-governor. The annex was completed and occupied in 1900. The capacity of the Capitol is wholly inadequate to present-day needs, and many of the state departments are now housed in a separate building. The statue in the foreground is that of Ohio's martyred President, William McKinley
writers took up the cause of emancipation. Whittier, Emerson, and Lowell brought the pen of genius to its aid; orators like Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker denounced slavery in words of fire.
Early Ohio abolitionists. The people of Ohio were divided in their opinion on the slavery question. Many Virginians had settled in the state; their descendants, and indeed the great majority of Ohio people, were opposed to any interference with slavery in the South. There was, however, a strong sentiment against permitting slavery to spread into the western territory.
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Ohio also had its share of radical abolitionists, many of whom were Quakers living in the central and southeastern section of the state. In fact Ohio may be called the home of abolition, for the first newspaper in the United States which advocated emancipation was published at Mount Pleasant in 1817. This was the Philanthropist, whose editor was a Quaker named Charles Osborn. An- other Ohio man living at St. Clairsville was one of the earliest, as well as one of the greatest, of the abolition leaders. This was Benjamin Lundy who in 1815 organ- ized the Union Humane So- ciety, the object of which was to arouse anti-slavery sentiment. William Cooper Howells, the father of Ohio's foremost novelist, was a prominent member of this society. Lundy afterwards FIG. 36. John Sherman moved to Mount Pleasant, John Sherman, a famous American states- man, was one of the organizers of the Re- publican party in Ohio. He was born at Lancaster, Ohio, studied law, engaged in practice at Mansfield, and soon became the most famous citizen of Richland County. He represented Ohio in the United States Senate for thirty-two years. Sherman showed great ability as Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes, and later served as Secretary of State under President McKinley where he published a famous abolition newspaper, The Genius of Universal Eman- cipation. It was the influence and example of Lundy which enlisted William Lloyd Gar- rison, then a mere youth in the cause of abolition.
Agitation against slavery. The society founded by Lundy grew and multiplied until in 1835 there were two hundred and thirteen anti-slavery societies in Ohio, with 17,000 members. About this time James G. Birney, a noted Kentucky abolitionist, moved to Cincinnati and began to publish the Philanthropist. 0
.
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HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF OHIO
The people of Cincinnati were determined to suppress anti- slavery agitation, and one night a mob attacked Birney's newspaper office, seized his press, and threw it into the river. The same mob then invaded the office of the Gazette, published by Charles Hammond, another vigorous opponent of slavery.
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FIG. 37. Chief routes of the Underground Railroad
But persecution of the abolitionists only made converts to their cause, just as persecution of the ancient martyrs aided the cause of Christianity.
Problem II. How the anti-slavery men in Ohio showed their opposition to slavery
The Underground Railroad. The influence of religion was now helping the cause of emancipation. From thousands of north- ern pulpits, slavery was denounced as a crime against God and man. Many devout men thought it no crime to aid the fleeing slave to escape from bondage. They had a good opportunity to do this, since the Ohio River formed the boundary for nearly four hundred miles between Ohio and the slave states of Ken- tucky and Virginia. So the homes of abolitionists living in southern Ohio became places of refuge for fugitive slaves. This "Underground Railroad," as it was called, was not really
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SEVENTY YEARS OF PROGRESS
a railroad, nor was it underground. It was a chain of the homes of abolitionists, where fleeing slaves might find refuge. Each house was called a station, and the route stretched from the border slave states to Canada, or to some large city in a free state (Fig. 37). On reaching the first station the fugitive was clothed, fed, and hidden until he could be taken to the next station, perhaps twenty miles north. Even in distant Louisiana the slaves knew that freedom lay in the direction of the north star; but they knew, too, that the journey was long and filled with peril. In fifty years nearly 50,000 slaves made good their escape, but 3,000,000 of their brothers remained in bondage.
Ohio men who aided fugitive slaves. The Underground Rail- road was operated more extensively in Ohio than in any other state. Two of its chief operators lived in Ohio. One was a Cincinnati man, Levi Coffin, whose leadership gave him the title of "President of the Underground Railroad." Coffin estimated that during a period of thirty years he had helped 3000 slaves to reach Canada. One of his best assistants was John Rankin, a fighting Presbyterian minister of Ripley, Ohio. This aggres- sive abolitionist was mobbed for his views on twenty different occasions. "The aspect of a fierce mob is terrible," said Rankin; but neither threats nor violence could turn him aside from what he considered the plain path of duty.
The Fugitive-Slave Law. Indignant at the operations of the Underground Railroad, the slave-owners demanded that Con- gress should pass a strict law for the punishment of persons who aided fugitive slaves to escape. The result was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which made it the duty of all citizens to assist in the return of fugitive slaves. This act was denounced by the anti-slavery men of Ohio. One of their leaders, Joshua R. Giddings, declared in Congress, "The freemen of Ohio will never turn out to chase the panting fugitive." A few years later a former slave living near Oberlin, Ohio, was arrested by United States officers, but was taken from their custody by an Oberlin professor aided by a number of college students. The rescuers were in turn arrested for violation of the Fugitive Slave Law, and two of their number were convicted by the United
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HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF OHIO
States court at Cleveland. This conviction, and similar occur- rences in other parts of the North, made thousands of converts to the new anti-slavery party which was being formed.
FIG. 38. Salmon P. Chase
Soon after graduating from Dartmouth Col- lege, Chase began the practice of law in Cincinnati. From 1849 to 1855 he repre- sented Ohio in the United States Senate, and won national recognition as a great anti-slavery leader. Chase served two terms as governor of Ohio, was chosen by Presi- dent Lincoln for the difficult position of Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War, and afterwards served as Chief Justice
The new Republican party. This new party-the Re- publican-was formed in 1854 by men opposed to the extension of slavery. It waged its first presidential campaign two years later, and although defeated, its candidate received 1,300,000 votes. In Ohio the Repub- licans elected Salmon P. Chase for governor in 1855, and reëlected him in 1857 (Fig. 38). At his suggestion the Ohio legislature passed a law reorganizing the militia system. A review of the military forces of the state was held in 1858, just as the nation was approaching the greatest crisis in our history.
After John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, Governor Wise of Virginia served notice on Governor Chase of the United States Supreme Court that Virginia would pursue abolition bands even into northern states, if necessary to effect their capture. Governor Chase replied that Ohio would obey the Constitution and laws of the United States, but that under no circumstances could the military forces of Virginia or any other state invade Ohio soil.
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Problem III. How Ohio helped win the war for the Union
Ohio in the Civil War. When the telegraph brought the startling news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon (April 12, 1861), the whole state rallied to the defense of the Union. Three days later President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 troops; the quota for Ohio was 13,000, but 30,000 responded to the call. After the disaster at Bull Run, President Lin- coln issued a second call, this time for 500,000 men. Ohio's quota was 67,000, but nearly 78,000 of her sons enlisted.
Throughout the war, Ohio showed this same spirit of loyalty in defend- ing the sacred cause of the Union. In all, the state furnished 340,000 soldiers for the Union armies, or one eighth of all who fought for the old flag. Her soldiers formed part of every northern army, they marched in every campaign, and fought in every great battle from Bull Run to Appomattox.
FIG. 39. William Dennison
Dennison was born in Cincinnati, and gradu- ated at Miami University. While governor of Ohio at the outbreak of the Civil War, he ap- pointed George B. McClellan to command Ohio's troops, and ordered him into western Virginia as the best means of protecting Ohio from in- vasion. This campaign, planned by an Ohio governor and executed by Ohio's militia, saved for the Union the thirty-four counties after- wards erected into the state of West Virginia
Twenty-nine regiments of Ohio infantry and ten batteries of artillery were at the siege of Vicksburg; twenty-eight Ohio regiments saved the day at the bloody battle of Shiloh; thirty-five regiments of infantry, three of cavalry, and seven batteries were with the Army of the Cumberland as it fought its way from Stone River to
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Atlanta; forty-three Ohio regiments stormed the heights of Missionary Ridge; nine infantry regiments and two of cav- alry followed gallant "Phil" Sheridan in the Shenandoah Val- ley; twelve regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, and four batteries formed part of the gallant host which stemmed re- bellion's high tide at Get- tysburg; forty-five Ohio regiments marched with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea. More than 12,000 Ohio soldiers found their graves on the field of battle; 13,000 more died of disease, and 40,000 others were wounded in action.
Famous Civil Warleaders. The achievements of her private soldiers form only a part of Ohio's contribu- tion to the cause. The greatest generals in the Union armies were Ohio men by birth or training- FIG. 40. David Tod Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, David Tod was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He was a successful lawyer and prominent Democratic leader. From 1847 to 1852 he was minister to Brazil. In 1862 he was elected governor of Ohio by the Union party, a com- bination of Republicans and War Democrats McClellan, Buell, Mc- Pherson, Rosecrans, and McDowell. The three war governors of Ohio-Wil- liam Dennison, David Tod, and John Brough (Figs. 39, 40, 41 ) -were tried men and true, stanch supporters of President Lincoln and his policies. Sal- mon P. Chase of Ohio was Secretary of the Treasury in Lin- coln's war cabinet ; while John Sherman and Benjamin F. Wade upheld the Union cause in the United States Senate. Well may Ohio point to her sons in the Civil War and say, like Cornelia of old, "These are my jewels."
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Problem IV. How Ohio's common-school system was established
The ideal of free public education. Free public education has always been one of the most cherished ideals of the American people. In the history of our national life there is no nobler monument than the little red schoolhouse planted in so many districts through- out the land. The sturdy pioneer who pierced the unbroken western wilder- ness gave up all the ad- vantages of New England life save one ; he took with him the public-school sys- tem. Into the great Ordi- nance of 1787 he wrote those immortal lines : "Re- ligion, morality,andknowl- edge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be FIG. 41. John Brough encouraged."
Brough was a noted journalist, and founded the Cincinnati Enquirer. Later he became a suc- cessful railroad manager. In 1863 he was nomi- nated for governor of Ohio by the Union party, defeating the disloyal Vallandigham by an over- whelming majority
Ohio's land grant for education. When Ohio be- came a state, Congress do- nated section 16 in every township for the support of her public schools. This made a land grant of 704,000 acres, or one thirty-sixth of the entire area of the state. A large part of this splendid gift was wasted through mismanagement. At first the school lands were leased, but in 1827 the General Assembly authorized their sale. The state borrowed the proceeds, paying 6 per cent interest for their use. Today the income from this source forms only a small part of the funds necessary to support our schools.
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Early schools of Ohio. The first school in Ohio was taught in a little cabin at Belpré during the summer of 1789. At Mari- etta the first school was held in the blockhouse, which served as a fort and church as well as a schoolhouse. In time each frontier settlement had its primitive schoolhouse, usually built of logs, with greased-paper windows, a latchstring door, and floor of clay (Fig. 42 ). The seats for pu- pils were benches of hewn timber resting upon up- right posts. The instruction was given by a man who would "get up" a school by contracting with neighboringfam- FIG. 42. Type of pioneer one-room schoolhouse ilies to instruct their children for The great drawback of the district school is that pupils of all ages and grades are taught by a single teacher, who can only give a small amount of time to each class. To overcome this handicap, all the district schools of a township are sometimes consolidated in one centrally located building (see Fig. 45). A stage or wagon is provided for the trans- portation of pupils a small sum, to be paid partly in money and partly in prod- uce. During the
school term, which usually lasted from ten to fifteen weeks, he "boarded round" in the homes of his patrons, this forming part of his salary. These early schools were not free schools, but were supported by voluntary contributions from parents who wished their children to master the "three R's"-reading, writing, and arithmetic. The great ideal of free schools, open to all children and supported by public taxation, was yet to be realized.
Champions of free public schools. The men from New Eng- land who settled the Western Reserve were strongly in favor of free public schools. So, too, was Ephraim Cutler of Marietta, who introduced a bill in the General Assembly to establish a
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public-school system. Cutler's plan was to divide the counties into school districts and to raise money by local taxes for school- houses and teachers. Another early friend of education in Ohio was Nathan Guilford of Cincinnati. Under the pen name of "Solomon Thrifty," Guilford published an almanac which urged the establishment of free schools. Caleb Atwater, a rep- resentative from Pickaway County in the General Assembly,
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FIG. 43. Avondale School, Cincinnati, Ohio
was another great champion in the cause of popular education. To these three men-Ephraim Cutler, Nathan Guilford, and Caleb Atwater-Ohio owes her common-school system, first established by the General Assembly in 1825.
Advantages of the common-school system. The plan adopted was drawn up by Nathan Guilford as chairman of the com- mittee on public schools. It provided for a fund "for the in- struction of youth of every class and grade without distinction, in reading, writing, arithmetic, and other necessary branches of a common education." This fund was to be raised in each county by an annual tax of one half of a mill upon its taxable property. Each county was to be divided into school dis- tricts, in which officers were to be elected charged with the duty
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of providing public schools. Later acts increased this school tax to three fourths of a mill, and authorized a special tax for building and repairing schoolhouses.
Ohio's common-school system was patterned after that of New England, where Massachusetts had led the way in estab- lishing free schools. The argument for this democratic system was well stated by Nathan Guilford in his report to the General Assembly :- "The system of free schools places the children of the rich and poor more upon a level, and counteracts that inequality which birth or fortune would otherwise produce. When the children of the rich and poor have equal opportuni- ties, the only superiority which can exist will arise from mental competition.
"The system of free schools extends the means of common education to the door of every man, and among all ranks and conditions. It is particularly favorable to the education of youth in the country, where the population is scattered and difficult to be united without some general system for the pur- pose. This system scatters schools in every neighborhood, within the reach of every farmer, and freely offers to the poor tenants of every cabin the means of instruction."
Influence of Horace Mann. On the campus of Antioch Col- lege at Yellow Springs, Ohio, there is a statue of Horace Mann, one of the world's great educators, and president of this college during the last seven years of his life. Horace Mann formerly lived in Massachusetts, where his splendid work brought about an educational awakening all over the Union. He urged the people to build better schoolhouses, to employ well-trained teachers, and to spend more money upon the public schools. The influence of Horace Mann spread to Ohio, where the Western College of Teachers was organized at Cincinnati in 1831.
Ohio's first state superintendent. A few years later, Samuel Lewis was appointed the first state superintendent of Ohio schools, at an annual salary of $500 (Fig. 44). The new super- intendent worked with tireless energy to improve the common schools. He traveled over the state on horseback, addressing
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educational meetings, visiting schools, and encouraging the teachers. He made many excellent suggestions to the General Assembly for the improvement of school facilities. Cincinnati was the first city to adopt a system of graded schools, and her example was soon followed by Cleveland, Dayton, and Colum- bus. In 1849 the General Assembly passed an important law which authorized each city or township to elect a board of education for the general management of its schools. This law required the schools to be kept open not less than thirty-six nor more than forty weeks in each year.
Progress of Ohio's schools. From this time on, the public schools of Ohio made rapid progress. Shortly after the Civil War, General James A. Garfield introduced a bill in Congress for the establishment FIG. 44. Samuel Lewis of a national department of Samuel Lewis was the first superintendent of schools in Ohio. He was an ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery, and was the anti-slavery candidate for governor in 1846 and 1848 education. In his speech on this measure he said: "Mr. Speaker, if I were called upon today to point to that in my own state of which I am most proud, I would not point to any of the flaming lines of her military record, to the heroic men and the brilliant officers she gave to this contest. I would not point to any of her leading men of the past or present, but I would point to her common schools. I would point to the 13,000 schoolhouses and the 700,000 pupils in the schools of Ohio. I would point to the $3,000,000 she has paid for schools during the past year alone. This, in my judgment, is the proper gauge by which to measure the progress and glory of states."
The development of Ohio schools since Garfield's speech shows that her people are more devoted than ever to the cause
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HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF OHIO
of popular education. The latest report of the state superin- tendent shows that Ohio's annual expenditures on her common schools now exceed $60,000,000. To secure greater efficiency, 722 consolidated or centralized rural districts have been formed (Fig. 45). More than 35,000 teachers are employed to instruct Ohio's army of nearly 1,000,000 pupils. Of this total number of
FIG. 45. Lanier township centralized school, Preble County
Preble County has revolutionized its rural school system by building twelve of these beautiful centralized schools to replace ninety-four one-room schoolhouses. In many cases the grounds have been landscaped through the cooperation of the College of Agriculture of the Ohio State University. The school shown above, for example, has a beautiful lawn with sunken-garden effect. County Superintendent Fogarty says : " Beautiful surroundings have a silent but powerful influence in shaping character, and money so spent is well spent"
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