History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, Part 50

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1108

USA > Ohio > Clinton County > History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families > Part 50

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

""Yes,' I said. 'Once I stood so bear him while he addressed a multitude that every line of bis grand face was as visible to me as is yours. It was the last time that he spoke to a crowd as Abraham Lincoln, citizen, for in a few days he took the oath of office as President of the United States. Once again I stood near him, but it was to look upon his coffined face as it lay in state in the Senate chamber of Pennsylvania. Did you ever see him, sir?

"I asked the question mechanically, for, somehow, nothing seemed to me more unlikely.

""Ah, yes, yes; and a sadder face than bis was then no one ever looked upon.'

"I was alive with curiosity, and exclaimed, 'Why, Uncle Isaac ! where was be, and under what circumstances? Please tell me.'

" "Perhaps thou wilt not sympathize with me. I rarely speak of these things save among my own people. In what light dost thou view the colored race?'

"The freeing of the slaves and the education of the freedmen had long been among my 'enthusiasmis,' so. when called upon to 'rehearse the articles of my belief,' I did it 80 promptly that he could not doubt my sincerity. Folding his thin hands, his face wearing an expression of sweet gravity, and his words coming slowly as if-he was weighing the value of each. he said :

" .I will answer thy question. My quiet life has known few storms. I have loved God as my first, best and dearest friend, and He has ever dealt most tenderly with me.

""During the first years of the great rebellion, when I read and heard of the condi- tion of the poor crushed negroes. I tried to think it was a cunning device of bad men to create grenter enmity between the North and the South: but when I read Lincoln's speeches. I thought so good and wise a man could not be deceived, and then I resolved to go and see for yourself. At one of our first-day meetings I spoke of my intention, but although the brethren felt as I did upon the subject, they said it was rash for me to expose my life, for I could do no good. Nevertheless, I went, traveling on horseback through most of the Southland.

" 'Often my life was in danger from guerillas, but there was always an unseen arm between me and the actual foe, and in a few weeks I returned, saying the half had not been told of the sufferings of these poor, despised. yet God-fearing and God-trusting people.'

"Here his voice trembled with the overflow of pity of which his heart seemed the fountain.

" "That summer,' he continued, 'I plowed and reaped and gathered in my harvest as usual. Day by day I prayed, at home and in the field. that God would show his delivering power as He had to the children of Israel. Nothing seemed to come in answer. Occa- sionally, during the beginning of the war, news reached us that battles had been fought by the Northern nien and victories won, but still the poor colored people were not let go.

" 'One day, while plowing, I heard a voice, whether inside or outside of me I knew not, but I was awake. It anid: "Go thou and see the President." I answered : "Yea. Lord, Thy servant beareth." And, unhitching my plow, I went at once to the bouse and

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said to mother: "Wilt thou go with me to Washington to see the President?" "Who sends thee?' she asked. "The Lord," I answered. "Where thou goest I will go," said mother, and began to make ready.

" "My friends called me crazed ; some said that this trip would be more foolish than the first, and that I who had never been to Washington and knew no one in it, could not gain access to the great President. The Lord knew I did not want to be foolhardy, but I hand that on my mind which I must tell President Lincoln, and I had falth that He who feedeth the sparrows would direct me.

""We left here on the 17th of nluth month, 1862, the first time mother had been fifty miles from home in sixty years. It was a pleasant morning. Before we left the house we prayed that God would direct our wanderings, or, if He saw best, direct us to return. Part of our journey was by stage. Every one looked at and spoke to us kindly. Ob, God's world is beautiful when we see the invisible in it.

"*We got to Washington the next morning. It was about early candle light, and there was so much confusion at the depot and ou the street that mother clung to my arm, saying : "Oh, Isaac, we ought not to have come here! It looks like Babylon !" "But the Lord will help if we have faith that we are doing His will," I replied, and we walked away from the cars.

" 'I'nder a lamp-post there stood a noble-looking man reading a letter. I stepped before him and said: "Good friend, wilt thou tell us where to find President Lincoln ?"

"'He looked us all over before he spoke. We were neat and clean, and soon his face got bright and smiling, and be asked us a few plain questions. I told him we were Friends from Oblo who had come all of these weary miles to say a few words with Presi- dent Lincoln. because the Lord had sent us. He nodded his head and said, "I understand." Then he took us to a large house, called Willard's hotel, and up to a little room away from all the noise.

"*"Stay bere," he said, "and I will see when the President can admit you." He was gone a long time, but meanwhile a young man brought us up a nice supper, which mother said was very hospitable in him, and when the gentleman returned he banded me a slip of paper upon which was written: "Admit the bearer to the chamber of the President at 9:30 o'clock tomorrow morning." My heart was so full of gratitude that I could not express my thanksgiving in words. That night was as peaceful as those at home in the meadows.

" "The next morning the kind gentleman came and conducted us to the house near by in which the President lived. Every one whom we met seemed to know our conductor and took off their hats to him. I was glad that he had so many friends. At the door of the big porch he left us, promising to return in an hour. "You must make your talk with him brief," he said. "A big battle has Just been fought at Antletam. The North is victorious, but at least twelve thousand men have been killed or wounded, and the President, like the rest of us, is in great trouble."

".I did not speak. I could not. The room Into which we were first shown was full of people, all waiting. we supposed, to see the President. "Ah, Isane, we shall not get near him today. See the anxious faces who come before us," whispered mother. "As God wills," I said.

" 'It was a sad place to be in, truly. There were soldiers' wives and wounded soldiers sitting around the large room, and not a soul but from whom joy and peace seemed to have fled. Some were weeping; soldiers with clinking spurs and short swords were rapidly walking through the halls; men with newspapers In their hands were reading the news from the seat of war, and the President's house seemed the center of the world. I felt what a solemn thing it must be to have so much power.'

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"Here U'ncle Isaac's voice got busky and tears fell from his eyes upon his wrinkled hands. I reverently brushed them off, and in a few minutes he continued :

" "When the summons came for us to enter-it was in advance of the others-my knees smote together, and for an instant I tottered. "Keep heart, Isaac," mother whis- pered, and we went forward. I fear thou wilt think me vain if I tell what followed.

"."No fear, l'ucle Isaac. Please proceed."

".It seemed so wonderful that for a moment, I could not realize it. To think that such humble people as we were should be there in the actual presence of the greatest and best man in the world, and to be received by him as kindly, as if he was our own son, made me feel very strange. He shook hands with us and put his chair between us. Oh, how I honored the good man! But I said: "Wilt thou pardon me that I do not remove my hat?" Then he smiled, and his grave face lit up as he said, "Certainly, I understand it all." The dear, dear man' -- and again I'nele Isaac stopped as though to revel, as a devout nun counts ber beads. In the memory of that Interview.

"But I was Impatient. "What, then, sir?' The answer came with a solemnity indescribable. My curiosity and his reminiscence were not in harmony.

".Of that half hour it does not become me to speak. I will think of it gratefully throughout eternity. At last we had to go. The President took a hand of each of us in his, saying. "I thank you for this visit. Muy God bless you." Was there ever greuter condescension than that? Just then I asked him if he would object to writing just a line or two, certifying that I had fulfilled my mission, so that I could show it to the council at home. He sat down to his table. Wilt thou open the drawer of that old secretary tu the corner behind thee, and hand me a little box from therein?'

"I'p to this moment I had not noticed my surroundings. The old-fashioned furniture was ofled and rubbed, and a large secretary which belonged to the colonial period was conspicuous. I obeyed Instructions, and soon placed in the old man's trembling fingers a small, square tin box which was as bright as silver. Between two layers of cotton was a folded paper. alrendy yellow. The words were verbatim those :

""I take pleasure in asserting that I have had profitable Intercourse with friend Isaac Harvey and his good wife, Sarah Harvey. May the Lord comfort them as they have sustained me. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

" .September 19, 1862.'

".I'nele Isaac"' I exclaimed, 'I can scarcely realize that away off here in the back- woods I should read such words traced by Mr. Lincoln's own hands. How singular"

".Not more so that the whole event was to us, dear child. from the first to the last. The following second-day the preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation was Issued. Thank God! Thank God!

"It Is not possible to depict the devout fervor of the old patriarch's thanksgiving.

"""Our new friend was waiting at the outside door when we came out. I showed him the testimonial. He nodded his head affirmatively and said: "It is well."

"*We snon left Washington, for our work was done and I longed for the quiet of home. Our friend took us to the onmibus which conveyed 'us to the cars, having trented as with a gracious hospitallty which I can never forget. May the Lord care for him as he cared for us.'

""Did you not learn his name?' I inquired. wondering what official in those days would have bestowed so much time and courtesy upon these unpretending folk.

"'Yes: he is high in the esteem of men and they call him Salmon P. Chase.'

" "Truly,' I thought, 'God exalteth the lowly, and they who trust in Him shall never be confounded.'

"In the published diary of Mr. Chase he describes the eventful cabinet meeting prior to the announcement, Monday, September 22, 1882. The Sunday morning directly suc-

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ceeding I'ncle Isaac's visit, Mr. Lincoln worked upon the Proclamation. God alone knows to what extent the President's long desired step was influenced by that half-hour's visit with U'ncle Isane; but I cannot help feeling that I have read a page in his history which would have been sealed but for my unexpected meeting with that precious old Quaker.

"I have repeated our conversation, word for word, but I can no more express the timbre of Uncle Isaac's sympathetic tones than I can arrange In bars and botes the song of a soaring skylark."

We pass suddenly from the poetle diction of Nellie Blessing-Eyster, to the prosaic confirmatory facts underlying the story. There are two very reliable sources of informa- tion along this line, represented by the two surviving sons of Isaac and Sarah Harvey. The son, Jesse, lives on the old homestead, near Clarksville, Ohio. The son. William, resides at Americus, Kansas. Jesse has no doubt that the story as told by Nellie Blessing-Eyster is substantially as she received it from his father.

Henry W. Wilbur spent two days in the company of William Harvey, at Indiana yearly meeting in August. 1911. He has many of the evident characteristics of his father, although he strongly resembles his mother. From William it was learned, as might bave been expected, that his father was a pronounced antebellum abolitionist, and was con- nected with the "underground railroad." William was living at home when Isaac and Sarah made their visit to Washington, and remembers the details of his trip as it was told by his parents.

Isane Harvey does not seem to have told Nellie Blessing.Eyster the subject matter of the concern which took him to the capital and the White House. William says that his father suggested to President Lincoln the advisability of stopping hostilities on an agreement of the government to pay to the owners three hundred dollars for each man, woman and child held in bondage in the country. The President felt sure that such # proposition would not be accepted by the leaders or the rank and file of the Confederacy.

Compensated emancipation, however, was not a new idea for President Lincoln. In March, 1862. he suggested that Congress pass a joint resolution providing that the I'nited States co-operate with any state which may adopt gradual emancipation, to the extent of giving pecuniary aid to any commonwealth which should adopt this policy. This resolu- tion passed both houses of Congress, but no practical result followed. It is well to remember that the original or preliminary draft of the Proclamation provided for the compensation of all loyal people, on the close of the rebellion, for all losses incurred by them, Including the loss of slaves.

Whether the visit of Isaac and Sarah Harvey helped to hasten the initial draft of the Emancipation Proclamation is a question which must always remmin in the fleht of conjecture. But one thing is certain, there was a very sudden and rather remarkable change in the President's mind ou the subject. This followed several events which came in rapid order. On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley Issued his famous open letter to the President, entitled "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," It was answered by the President on the 22d. in one of Lincoln's most terse and epigrammatic utterances. At that time he did not see that a vigorous emancipation policy on the part of the President would be wise or helpful. On the 13th of September a delegation from Protestant churches in Chicago visited the president, and vigorously urged him to take a pronounced stand for the overthrow of slavery. Still he was not convinced.

On the 19th, six days Inter. the Harveys were at the White House, and on the 22d the country was electrified by the preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation being flashed over the wires.

Such was the order of events leading up to one of the epoch-making acts in human history. Remembering how responsive Lincoln was to the finer and deeper motives and emotions of the human heart, it is not hard to believe that the visit of Isaac and Sarah

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Harvey came to the great President as a sort of spiritual revelation, confirming the external events and juternal leadings which caused President Lincoln to make the final decision in the case as he did and when he did.

In any event, the story as told by Nellie Blessing-Eyster Is worth preserving for Its portrayal of the light and leadings of a Friend who represented the spirit of an older time, and also for its connection with Abraham Lincoln, now being considered the typical. if not the first American.

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BIOGRAPHICAL

GEN. JAMES WILLIAM DENVER.

"Through events God makes all society plastic, and then raises up some great man to stamp his image and superscription upon the nation's hot and glowing heart." Few citizens of this great state of Ohio have ever served humanity or held the public esteeem in such generous measure as bas the late Gen. James W. Denver. Certainly, few have achieved the distinction accorded him during a long and illustrious career. At the zenith of his powers, he became a national figure, and in this phase of bis life, as well as in those of lesser public importance, he acquitted himself with signal bouor and ability. This man seems to have lenped with a bound into places of distinction achieved by others only after slow and arduous labor. Through the successive stages of soldier. military official, lawyer, and statesman, he arose to the place of legislator in the national halls of Congress, governor of a Western territory, now a state, and general in the United States army. And in all of these, so great was his public service, that he reflected honor and glory upon the place that could claim him as citizen.

James W. Denver, son of Capt. Patrick and Jane (Campbell) Denver, was born at Winchester, Virginia, on October 23, 1817. descendant of a family whose history carries us back to the days of Willlam the Conqueror. On the day that this nation laid to rest the "Father of his country" there landed on these shores a man whose part In the Irish rebellion had caused him to flee the mother country to avoid the penalty which the British government demanded for his patriotism, for a price had been put upon his head. This was Patrick Denver, grandfather of Gen. James W. Denver.

With his family, Patrick Denver went to the beautiful valley of Virginia to make bls home. One of his sons, Arthur, was in the naval service, and was one of the men taken in Chesapeake bay and confined at Hallfax by British authority to be sent to England on trial for treason, on the ground that his allegiance was due England, though he was an adopted citizen of the United States. Another son, Patrick, Jr., father of the subject of this biography, served first as a lieutenant, and then as a captain in the American army in the War of 1812. This young soldier married Jane Campbell, whose family was also distinguished for military service. In 1830 Capt. Patrick Denver removed with his family to this county, locating first at Wilmington and eventually settling on a farm near that town.

James, afterward General Denver. wns the eldest of eleven children. His youth and early manhood were spent on the paternal farm, which he left in order to study law, graduating from the Cincinnati law school in the spring of 1844. For a short time thereafter he practiced law and edited the Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic newspaper at Xenia. Ohlo. He then went westward, locating at Plattsburg, Missouri, and Inter, at Platte City. in the same state, where he remained until the outbreak of the war with Mexico. Fired with patriotic zeal, he recruited Company H of the Twelfth United States Volunteer Infantry, of which he was commissioned captain on April 9. 1847. serving in General Scott's army until the termination of hostilities. He then returned to Platte county, Missouri, and edited the Platte Argus until suddenly word came from beyond the Rocky mountains that there was found at last the fabled land of gold. In 1550 Jamey Denver's adventurous nature sought new fields of conquest, and with a little band of

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followers, he started bravely across the Western plains and trackless ranges of the giant mountains. Only stout hearts could have defied the dangers and hardships that were before them. and although the ranks of the little group of travelers were decimated by disense, the survivors pushed onward until their hazardous journey was accomplished.

Finally, the mountains were climbed and the streams forded, and the forests traversed. and Sacramento was reached. It offered an attractive stopping-place, and there General Denver remained until the spring of 1851. when he engaged in trading between Humboldt bay and the mines, Temperamentally unable to keep out of politics. it was not long until his personal qualities had endeared bim to the people, and in 1:52 we find him a state senator.

It was during this time that he was placed in command by Governor Bigler of a rellef train to rescue a large party of emigrants snow-bound in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Here, as in all of the experiences of his varied carrer. his physical bravery and moral courage enabled bim to accomplish what he set out to do.

Easily becoming a conspicuous figure in California state politics, this born leader, in 1×53, was elected secretary of state, which office he held until the autumn of INS. The preceding fall he had been elected by the . Pemueratie party to the thirty-fourth Congress of the United States from California, which state then had only two representa- tives. This session convened in December, IN5, and in this Congress the Hon. James Denver became a useful and prominent member. being made chairman of the select committee on the Pacific railroad, which reported a bill for the construction of three trans-continental lines. This seemed a wild scheme to the majority of the Congress. and later the bill, as reported, was limited to the construction of the Union Pacific. which bill was favorably received. Mr. Denver did not week a re-nomination, and, at the expiration of his congressional term. President Buchanan appointed him commissioner of Indian affairs, the duties of which office he was faithfully discharging when he was urged to succeed Hon. Robert J. Walker. In the difficult management of affairs in Kansas territory. Reluctantly be consented to accept the governorship of that strife- torn territory, and entered upon his duties in December, 155. Previously to his accept- ance of this office, four territorial governors, even though backed by federal troops, had resigned their office, driven off by threats of assassination by outlaws, and it was gen- erally held to be as much as a man's life was worth to accept the office of governor and rule those lawless lands. But Governor Denver, with characteristic bravery, determined to hold aloof from all factions, and to do bis duty conscientiously. To this end, he dismissed the military, and adopted a course so firm, yet so just to all parties, that order was restored, and "bleeding Kansas" was no longer a reproach to the government or a terror to her neighbors, Colorado was then a portion of Kansas, and her beautiful capital city at Denver bears the name of the courageous man who thus brought about peace, order and prosperity within the borders of the territory.

Taking a peculiar and almost paternal Interest in the welfare of the Indians. Governor Denver resigned from office on October 10, 1555, and returned to the duties of commissioner of Indian affairs, in which capacity he served until March 11. 1859, returning then to California, He Inter entered the race for I'nited States senator from that state, but was defeated by two votes.

With such a record. It Is not surprising that. at the outbreak of the Civil War. Governor Denver warmly esponsed the cause of the Union, and, withont solleltation on his part. received from President Lincoln. on Angust 14. 1581, the commission of briga- dier-general of volunteers. General Denver was first placed in command of all the troops in Kansas, but soon afterward was sent to Pittsburg Landing, on General Rose- erans' staff, and from there was transferred to a more active feld, being in command of the Third Brigade of Sherman's Division, In the Army of the Tennessee, until April, 1863. Then It was that personal affairs called him from the life of an army officer.

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General Denver later engaged In the practice of law at Washington, D. C., baving previously established his home in Wilmington, Ohio. In 1876, and again in 1880, he had become so conspicuous in national affairs that bis unme was prominently mentioned as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.

In 1873 General Denver took an active part in organizing the veterans of the Mexican War, and he was the president of this national society not the time of bis death. Among his last publle services, was an effort to have Congress pass an act giving a twelve-dollar-a-month pension to the old Mexican War veterans.

On November 26, 1856, James W. Denver was married to Miss Louise C. Rombach, of Wilmington. Ohio, and to this union four children were born, Mrs. Katharine Den- ver Williams, of Wilmington; J. W. Denver, Jr .: Mrs. Mary Louise Lindley, of New York City. and Matthew R. Denver, president of the Clinton County National Bank, of Wilmington, mentioned elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Williams is a woman of rare Intellectual attainments, a social lender of distinction and president of the Civic League of Wilmington.

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History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, Part 50

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1108

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1108