USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 34
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On it they placed Fremont and Dayton, adopted the name Republican, and the great contest of 1856 was fought. On the reassembling of congress, although Buchanan was elected, the result on the whole was disastrous to the south. In the desperation which had come upon it, slavery now resorted to the supreme court. It had never failed slavery but once. It now overbalanced the " Amistad" case. It decided that a slave woman could only give birth to slaves in free territory, and Dred Scott followed the condition of his mother. The chief justice did not say that negroes "had no rights that white men were bound to respect." He only attributed that sentiment to the authors of the old declaration. The decision only intensified the northern sentiment. The Lecompton constitution was defeated, but Kansas was still to bleed. California, New Mexico, and Kansas free, Walker was sent to revolutionize Central America. His expedition, openly fitted out, sailed with three ships. When it was supposed he was safe, Commodore Pauld- ing was sent in pursuit; Walker had landed. The literal old commodore landed, followed, captured, and brought him back. How amazed he was when Walker was liberated and himself reprimanded ! The African slave-trade was reopened, and a premium paid for African stock, freshly imported, at a South Carolina State fair. All these events quickened the northern mind and strengthened the Republican party. Conservatives and radical abolitionists stepped together on to Mr. Giddings' construction of the constitution, and found ample margin for war on the com- mon encmy. Then came the John Brown invasion of Virginia to sharpen the convictions of many, causing a recoil of some, and thrilling the hearts of all. Mason, of Virginia, and Vallandingham hastened to the wounded hero in prison, and pretended to draw from him statements implicating Mr. Giddings in his plot. They gave this libel to the world, and a shout of triumph went up from his ene- mies all over the scattered Union. He pronounced it mendaciously false. In reply, ten thousand dollars was offered for him alive in Richmond, and half that sum for his head, which he continued to wear. But the Thirty-fifth congress had lapsed. I drop the sketchy thread of history here. Mr. Giddings is no longer a part of it.
With the Thirty-fifth congress closed the public career of Joshua R. Giddings. Twenty-one successive years he represented the same people in the house. One of the longest known in our annals, and, save that of his friend, John Quincy Adams, the most useful for conspicuous service in the cause of freedom and justice known to our history. In the appreciation and applica- tion of the principles of our constitution to the exigencies of politics, arising out of the great conflict of freedom and slavery, through the years of chronic strife, he excelled Mr. Adams, and stands deservedly the first of American statesmen in measure of time, and second to none in ability, value, and extent of service. His period of labor exceeded that of Mr. Adams by four years. In culture and course of life they were widely dissimilar. In mental structure, firmness of will, grasp, and tenacity of purpose, courage that arose to heroism, they were alike. Both had the same ardent love of the principles of liberty and justice, and un- dying hatred of oppression and wrong. For seven years had the elder maintained the deadly strife alone, when the young, strong champion from the west, like the Red Cross knight, came to his side, gave him his heart, divided his labor, shared his hope, his counsel, and won his love. The heat of a score of fierce battles welded their friendship, and years of peril and commou obloquy endeared them to each other. In time the younger made the onsets, sustained by the veteran, who, falling by the wayside, left the junior to wage the war alone, till younger men, educated by their teachings, and moved by their examples, came to equalize, win the battle, and wear the crown of victory. His last conspicuous publie appearance was at the Chicago convention, which nominated Lincoln. There he represented his old district for the last time. While others were man- aging for candidates, he was anxious and spoke only for a recognition of the grand old truths. He sought a place on the committee of resolutions. That was refused him. The platform, as reported, ignored the principles, the throbbings of which produced the revolution. He moved them as an amendment. They were rejected. Hcart-sick, with a few old lovers of the ".self-evident" truths he withdrew. This aroused Mr. Curtiss, of New York, who moved them again. Under the charm of his speech they were accepted, and Mr. Giddings and his friends returned. The thunder-scars of the conflict which followed a ratification of the work of that convention still make the cyes of men wink.
In the spring of 1861, Mr. Lincoln offered the consul-generalship of Canada to Mr. Giddings, which he accepted, and held at the time of his sudden death at Montreal, May 27, 1864, of heart-disease, an attack of which was once nearly fatal in the house.
The volume of his specches, of which mention has been made, is a book of over five hundred pages, and contains twenty-four speeches delivered, the last in 1852, upon the various aspects of the great question to which he ded- icated his whole powers. They are the utterance of a full mental conviction, rcached through study and thought, made for the sole purpose of possess- ing others of his views. More unambitious, unrhetorical givings out cannot
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
be found in the parliamentary labors of any man. Compact and vigorous in statement, logical and conclusive in argument, fervid from the depths of an earnest, intensely sincere nature, sometimes softened with emotion, often elevated with religious sentiment, they truly interpret the history of which they are a valuable portion. After leaving congress, Mr. Giddings devoted his leisure to the preparation of his " History of the Rebellion, its Authors and Causes," which appeared in 1864. A work compiled with painstaking labor, following the track of congressional debate, legislation, executive utterance and action upon the various aspects of slavery, with occasional slight sketches of the more prominent men, references to popular opinion and action, and the course of political parties connected with it. Less a history than a most valuable aid to a history when the time comes for its production. It is full of the intense, unconscious personality of the author when he reaches the period of the subject with which he was con- nected, in which he fills so large a space, when it becomes for several years almost a memoir of himself, and loses none of its interest in consequence. His " Exiles of Florida," a touching and well-written historical sketch of the fortunes and fates of the escaped slaves who found refuge with the Indians in Florida, appeared in 1858. There is the charm of romance about these unfortunate beings as their history is written, appealing to the sympathy and imagination of the reader.
My estimate of the personal character and qualities of Mr. Giddings, the merit of his services, and the position he earned in the history of his times, is sufficiently apparent in the preceding pages. Nature cast his person in the old, heroic mould,-lofty of stature, fine limbed, broad shouldered, compact, weighing two hundred and twenty-five without a surplus ounce, with a grand, old-fashioned, New England cast of head and face, quite out of style. Genial and cordial of manner, social and politic, he early acquired the capacity to mould opinion and lead men. Undoubtedly the long, bitter partisan warfare which he conducted, surrounded and isolated by malignant detraction, which cut him off from wide sympathy, and walled him within a narrow circle, prevented the full development of his qualities as a leader, and rendered him less fit to govern than to assail. Liberally endowed as he certainly was, mentally, he lacked imagination, and the faculty to dress up and adorn a subject. Of quick sensibilities, a touch of pathos often imparted a human interest to his labor. Not by nature fluent, he required the pressure of a great occasion, the stir of the deepest emotion, the glow of fierce encounter, the badgering of cross-questioning, to work him up to his best. Always impressive at such moments, he often arose to the heights of real and well-sustained eloquence. In him the religious sentiment was strong and active, and whatever men may say of it as an investment for the future, it certainly is to many a source of strength and hope in the struggles of the present, and was an aid to Mr. Giddings. The history of slavery in the United States is yet to be written; all present efforts in that direction are but collections of facts or studies of parts. At the proper time, when men and events have dwindled to their real dimensions, and distance restores perspective, it will be written. Causes will be properly understood and their effects traced. Events will be justly estimated, and men marshaled to their final positions. I think it will then be found that few men of his day exercised a deeper influence, or performed in a larger degree the work of fashioning events and imparting the force whichi led to the great results of our time, than Joshua Reed Giddings.
EDWARD WADE .*
The Wades were a tough, hardy, brave, intellectual, strong-fibred folk. One would like to know something of the genesis of the family and the course of their history. A family of nine by the same parents, of which " Frank" (B. F.) and " Ned" were the youngest, must have been remarkable. The four clder died between ages of seventy-eight and eighty. The two survivors are eighty and seventy-eight. Of the others, one died at fifty-three, one at sixty-three, and one at sixty-nine .* Thoroughly English in breed, of the average rank, impregnate with the honesty, wholesome virtues, wisdoms, and experiences of the common toiling life, full of vigor and vitality, with a sense of the ludicrous, a germ of grim humor, and a touch of the heroic, combative and tender. The father, James, was some time a shoemaker, a stout soldier, a daring privateer, and fought as often and as bravely as the eight years' War of the Revolution permitted. The mother, Mary Upham, was the daughter of a Baptist clergyman, Edward Upham, inbred with the religious elements of the denomination, intensified by its persecutions in Massachusetts in colonial times. Edward, the youngest, was born at Feeding Hills, West Springfield, Massachusetts, November 22, 1802. He received his grandfather's name and religious nature. The family removed to
Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1821. He early manifested an ingenious mind, with a tendency for mathematics ; and when about twenty-one composed and wrote a new arithmetic, which was burned with a brother-in-law's house, where it was deposited. He studied law with Elisha Whittlesey, and after a three years' thorough course was admitted at Jefferson in 1827; was elected justice of the peace in 1831; married the first time in 1832 ; elected prosecuting attorney in 1833. He resided a few years at Unionville; removed to Toledo ; engaged in speculation ; went up in the explosion of 1837, though he after- wards paid every dollar. After the failure he removed to Cleveland, formed a partnership with Woolsey Wells, and later with H. A. Hurlbut. Subse- quently he was a member of the firms of Payne, Wilson & Wade, Hitchcock, Wilson & Wade, and Wilson & Wade. He was four times elected to con- gress from the Cleveland district, serving from 1853 to 1861. He died at East Cleveland, Ohio, 1866. Edward Wade had but the scanty opportunity for
Photo .. by M. A. Loomis, Jefferson, O.
EDWARD WADE.
education found by a boy of the people of his time. An eager thirst for knowl- edge, indomitable pluck, a strong, quick intellect, and hopeful spirit enabled him to outstrip the average boys of his neighborhood. More sanguine than his brother Frank, he induced him to enter upon the law. Few men ever more thoroughly mastered the common law. He was the best special pleader of his day. His success was slow,-might have discouraged a less determined spirit. His ventures in speculation were a grave hindrance. Dark and saturnine of face, which to strangers was a little forbidding, to which was added the austerities of religion, and the odium that attached to the name of Abolitionist, which he early acquired, an early lack of fluency, with his often change of residence, conspired to keep him for many years in the background. Nor was he fortunate in the associates of the two first firms of which he was a member. Persistent, indomi- table, aspiring,-such a man cannot always be repressed. He laid his foundation deep in thorough learning, and his time came. He overcame the counties around Cleveland first. Lawyers who knew him had him employed in difficult cases, and the other side sometimes found themselves beaten by his better law, and they could hardly tell why. And the shrewd, hard-headed New Englanders came to know that behind the repulsive, cast-iron mask of a face there lay a charm which they saw was potent. He became a leader in Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and visited other counties on important retainers, yet he had no place at the Cleveland bar, where he lived. Finally, Henry B. Payne, one of the ablest lawyers of the State, overworked and in failing health, wanted relief, and Payne & Wilson were sup- plemented with Wade, and the city was astonished by the revelation which the . firm made of him. With the failing health and gradual diminution of the head, the firm became a legal kangaroo. Upon the retirement of Mr. Payne, Reuben Hitchcock took his place, Mr. Wade content to stand nominally third. No man perhaps ever cared less where his name stood. Mr. Hitchcock was then at his best, and second to none as an able and laborious lawyer. Mr. Wilson did the dignity, suavity, and deportment of the firm. For several years the house ranked with any in the State. I have stated the thoroughness of Mr. Wade's legal training. On his early foundation he carefully built the ever-growing, ever-
# By Hon. A. G. Riddle.
+ Written before the death of B. F.
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HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
widening and rising structure, a profound and accomplished lawyer. Master of the common law, thoroughly versed in chancery, and at home in the narrow range of the laws of crimes, there was not at the bar a more versatile man. He was also widely read in history, biography, and politics; kept up with the progress of the natural sciences. He excelled as nisi prius lawyer in the management and trial of cases before a jury. A master of pleading, with the rules of evidence at his command, knowing and sympathizing with the average mind, the habits of life, and mode of thought of the people of whom he came, he became one of the most formidable opponents to be met with in northern Ohio, whose bar was in no way behind that of any section of the State. With practice and perseverance he became one of the best and most successful advocates of his region. The defects and hesitancies that marred his utterance disappeared forever. He had a copious command of language, a flowing delivery, free, bold action, warmed readily, was intensely earnest, ingenious, and logical. Nature had given him a fine, strong voice of great power, with the tone of a trumpet in its higher notes. He was not without fancy, and an abundant, homely humor. He never overshot the jury. His illustrations were all drawn from common things,-the kitchen door-yard and barn-yard,-were always apt, often irresistible. He said a good many things which were repeated. With his strong, deep, intense nature, kindled to a height which he often attained, his declamation was most impressive, some- times splendid, and justly called eloquent. He had much of that magnetic power which seizes the blood and sympathy of an audience, adding effectiveness to an assault which shatters a position found proof against logic and argument. Com- bative was he, as lawyers must be, and a masterpiece of will, which is a great force. Men often earry cases because they will. Though a man of the quiekest and tenderest feelings, he had no pathos and little imagination. A most unam- bitious speaker, he never labored for fine effects. The good things were struck out by the collision of thought, his fire a natural product, and his humor unstudied.
Edward Wade was originally a Whig,-made the canvass of 1840 for Har- rison. The anti-slavery seed had quick, vigorous, and hardy growth in his deep, rich nature. He became, soon after the eanvass, an avowed, unwavering political Abolitionist. Thought with him became immediate action. He was at once the leader and the spokesman of the few despised and persecuted who had the conviction and courage to organize in political opposition to slavery. At the county-seats where he attended court, at secluded school-houses, whether the audience was few or many, a master of the subject, with labored earnestness he planted with unstinting hand the seed that was so soon to spring up and ripen. He was the Liberty party candidate for congress, against Mr. Giddings, as long as Cleveland was in the same district. He canvassed with more labor and eare than after the multitude came to act with him. In 1849, in the triangular contest between the Whigs, Free-Soilers, and Democrats, he was a candidate for the Ohio senate, and defeated by a small plurality. In 1853, in a similar contest, he was elected to congress against Judge Wilson, his former partner, and William Case. His more famous brother had been four years in the senate when he took his seat in the house.
Though the odium which attended the name " Abolitionist" had in a way died out in Mr. Wade's district, it had not in Washington, and was remembered against him. The time was past for partisan warfare. He was one of many, all able and all older men in the house. He was not favored with any conspicuous place on any important committees, although he served with great credit for four congresses, and retained the undiminished love and confidence of his people to the last. His early unselfish devotion to truth bore him this endcaring fruit. He made several able and telling speeches, but can hardly be said to have gained the ear of the house. On the committee of commerce he made a masterly and exhaustive report on the commerce of the lakes,-the first upon that subject. The results which it exhibited were a revelation even to men whose lives, labors, and capital were embarked in it, and gave the author a reputation through the country which should have secured him a better recognition in the house. Those were the evil days, the breaking up of old political organization, and of the government as well. Another, and personally to Mr. Wade and his friends a most melancholy factor, is to be taken into the account in estimating the reason why he never reached the position in the house which those who knew him best expected. He certainly did not fall below his brother in ability. He had a wider reading at that time of their lives, and much more general culture ; in manner and address more polished. He died of a softening of the brain. How early the shadow of the awfulest of fates, heralding its oncoming, had darkened the high, pure soul, and weakened the faculties of his strong, elear, practical, fervid intellect, no mortal knows. From things learned at the capital, it must have been some years before his retirement from the house. His career there, compared with the average, was not only most useful but highly honorable. It saddens me to remember that it fell short of the promise of his powers and abilities as exhibited at the bar and as a
political speaker. Mr. Wade's first wife was Sarah Louise Atkins, one of the several daughters of Judge Q. F. Atkins, of whom it was said that his face, if set on Mason and Dixon's line, turned to the south, would of itself abolish slavery. The daughters were all superior women, and it was understood that it was the earnest, personal solicitation of the young lady, preceding marriage, that first effectively called the attention of her lover to the subject of religion. Mrs. Wade was quite the equal of any of her sisters, and save that the marriage was unblessed with offspring, it was one of rare felicity. Gifted and cultivated, of rich and varied charities, harmonious in life, united in effort for the various causes of human advancement, especially of the slave and temperance, their house became the asylum of the flying fugitive, as their hands were eager to relieve suffering in all forms. The cause they knew not they scarched out. They adopted two children, offsprings of different parents, a son and daughter, whom they reared with the utmost care. The son was an carly victim of the late war. The daughter is the accomplished wife of Henry P. Wade, son of B. F. Wade, a gallant young officer late of the regular army. The first Mrs. Wade died in 1852. During the early years of Mr. Wade's congressional services he contracted a second marriage with Miss Mary P. Hall, the accomplished niece of the late Dr. J. P. Kirtland, who survives him. This marriage was also childless. The religious element in the nature of this well-endowed man was large and constantly active. The tone of his mind, although he wrote an arithmetic in youth, had a tendency to the visionary, and for a time he was a believer in the Second Advent. It was remarked by his opponents, however, that during this period his cases were prepared with the same care and tried with the same consummate skill that marked his entire career at the bar. In person he was compact, well-made, with an erect carriage, and the same manly and lofty pose of head that characterized his brother Frank. These men, though the least conscious of mortals, could not help carrying themselves as full men. In repose Edward was grave and thought- ful, with an earnest, almost sad outlook from black cyes, the rather austere, dark face, framed in night-black curly hair, of silky gloss and fineness, and late in life adorned with a full whisker, was ever ready to break into smiles, which lit it up with great winningness. Of frank and pleasing manner, modest and retiring deportment, no man could be more genial and cordial, no man was ever better loved by those who came to know him,-a not difficult acquisition,-and no man had a wider and stronger hold on the popular heart than he finally won. A more open spirit, a tenderer, braver, purer soul, never found lodging in the frame of man. A more unselfish, devoted heart never sent warmth through the human form. A man was he in every fibre of his person, every instinct of his nature, every impulse of his heart. Brave and blameless, trusted, loved, deplored, compelled to linger above the horizon after his night had set in, the mere body breathing and feeding when the masterful spirit had departed. The sadness of this fate throws its shadow back over his life, and invests his memory with a regretful tenderness.
HON. RUFUS PERCIVAL RANNEY.
This gentleman was born at Blanford, Massachusetts, October 30, 1813. In 1822 he removed with his parents to Ohio. They located first at Fairport, and afterwards at Freedom, Portage county.
Judge Ranney's early education was limited. He worked on his father's farm in summer and attended village school in winter. At a later day, by his own industry, he managed to attend college at Hudson for a short period. In 1836 he entered the law-office of Wade & Giddings, at Jefferson, this county, and after two years' study was admitted to practice. In 1839 he became the partner of Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, and by diligent and faithful attention to his duties rose rapidly in his profession. In 1846 and 1848 he was a candidate for congress against General John Crowell, but failed of an election, though he ran largely ahead of the Democratic State and county tickets. In 1850 he was chosen to represent the counties of Trumbull and Geauga in the constitutional convention. In the debates of that body he took a prominent part. On the 17th of March, 1851, he was chosen by the legislature a judge of the supreme court in place of Edward Avery, resigned.
This was the last election of supreme judge under the old constitution. In October, 1857, Judge Ranney was re-elected by the people. He resigned in 1856, and in 1857 was appointed by President Buchanan United States district attor- ney for northern Ohio. This position he held two months and resigned. The same year he removed from Warren to Cleveland. In 1859, Governor Chase appointed him one of the commissioners to examine into the condition of the State treasury ; but the appointment was deelined. In the fall of 1859 he was the Democratic candidate for governor against William Dennison, but failed of an election. In 1862 he was again elected judge of the supreme court, which position he resigned in 1864. From 1864 to 1868 he served upon
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