History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 16

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490

USA > Ohio > Washington County > Marietta > History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 16

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In another column appears the following :

Cantion.

Federal managers are desired to be cautious, while residing in Marietta, of speaking disrespectfully of Poor Madison and his Cabinet, as it is reported that the Governor of the State of Ohio, on the evening of the rejoicing for the war, gave out as his opinion that a coat of Tar and Feathers ought to be given to all those who sport an opinion derogatory to volunteering or who shall venture to repeat Jno. Randolph's asser- tion in Congress, that the present war was an evi- dence of French influence. No doubt the Governor's understrappers will profit by the hint, and we under- stand the price of Tar and live geese feathers is ad- vancing, in consequence of the prospect of a great con- sumption.

Again the editor says, "We detest the wrongs of Britain, but fear above all things an alliance with France."

A few weeks later the editor said: "A great number of groundless reports against the Federalists are circulated in this county. Ev- ery good man should repel them."

In August these lines were quoted with ev- ident approval :

Tom Jefferson next (a known servant of France) As American's Ruler did proudly advance ; With ambition and treachery seated the throne Where his base disposition was presently known. Your Navy was sold, Embargoes were laid, Your money by millions to Napoleon conveyed : No commerce allowed, your produce must rot, You must obey Bonaparte, let it suit you or not.

We give below some other extracts from the same paper showing the popular feeling at different dates :

July 25, 1812-

On Monday last the militia of the regiment in this county were assembled in Marietta, by request of Brigadier-General Tupper, for the purpose of obtaining volunteers to supply our quota of the 5,000 militia to be detached from this State. There is no doubt that a sufficient number were disposed to offer their services, but were prevented by the influence of certain (not Federalists, by the bye). It was industrionsly circu- lated that as more Democrats than others would go, it would be improper to encourage volunteering; proba- bly on account of the October elections. In this man- ner, for sheer party purposes, has the patriotism of our citizens, particularly of Grandview, been repressed, and the draft, which may call into the field those upon whom their families depend for daily subsistence, must be substituted in place of volunteering, by which more than a sufficient number could have been raised of persons whose circumstances do not render the leaving of their homes inconvenient. Times are changing. We have been told that the Governor, when attempting to raise volunteers in April, declared those who dis- couraged the good work to be no better than the Tories of the Revolution.

September 5, 1812.

Members of the Ohio Volunteers have passed this place on their way home. They are all inclined to stig- matize General Hull as a traitor. We will wait for his defense, if he has any.

September 8. 1812.

At a meeting of the citizens of Marietta and its vicinity spontaneously assembled at the Court House on Monday the 2nd of September, 1812, by reason of the recent arrival of intelligence that the Northwest- ern Army had surrendered-and for the purpose of considering of the course proper to be pursued in re- lation to that event.

Gen. Joseph Wilcox was chosen chairman and Levi Barber, clerk. A committee consisting of William Woodbridge, Robert Williamson, Samuel P. Hildredth, Caleb Anderson. Alexander Hill and Levi Barber, reported that in their opinion there was little danger that the enemy would invade the interior of our State. Yet urgel the formation of volunteer companies, even of those beyond the military age. They also deplored the lack of firearms and recommend a thorough in- spection of all that were to be found. They reported that there were not in or about Marietta one-half the number of muskets or other firearms requisite for the equipment of those citizens capable of using them.

In September, 1812, the candidates for the October election were thuis reported :

PRACE TICKET. WAR TICKET.

Representatives.

Sardine Stone

William R. Putnam Moses Hewitt Jehiel Gregory

Sheriff.

Joseph Barker

Coroner.

Timothy Buell

Nathaniel Dodge

Alexander Hill

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In April, 1813, the Western Spectator was discontinued and in its place appeared thie American Friend, an earnest advocate for a vigorous prosecution of the war against Eng- land. The first editor, David Everett, who had already won some reputation as an editor in Boston, intended to write a "History of the Present War," but before the end of that war death had closed his earthly labors.

The political history for the next few years can best be given in the form of extracts from the American Friend.

In May, 1813, there appears a poem signed by C -- on "The Times." The editor ex- plains that the lines on slavery have been omitted from this poem because "The Ameri- can Friend has subscribers in two neighboring States."

A "Back Woods Man" vents his spite on the people of Boston on account of their oppo- sition to the war with England. He is es- pecially bitter against the clergy. His article begins with what he calls a "Russian" adage, but it makes plain English to one who reads it backwards: "Snoiton ollufera; sklofn O Tsob!"

At a meeting of "Republican delegates from the different townships" held at Marietta September 20, 1813, it was resolved that "at the present crisis, when our country is beset by the savages of the forest and by the civil- ized savages of Great Britain, it becomes the imperious duty of every good citizen to exert himself." William Woodbridge was nomin- ated for State Senator; Sardine Stone and Elijah Hatch for Representatives. John Sharp was president of the convention and S. P. Hildreth, secretary. The candidates nom- inated were all elected.

February 24, 1815 -- GENERAL POSTOFFICE. February 14. 1815. .A treaty of peace was signed at Ghent on the 24til of December. Signed by the Prince Regent on the 30th and arrived here this day.

In haste, R. J. MEIGS.

In 1815 the "Republican citizens of Mari- etta" were invited to meet and make arrange- I

ments for celebrating the Fourth of July. Jos- epl Holden, Levi Barber, J. B. Regnier, S. P. Hildreth and R. C. Barton were the committee of arrangements. Oration by D. H. Buell. Dinner was served at the house of John Brough, where Joseph Wood presided. The toasts were distinctly "Republican" in the par- tisan sense. but number fifteen in the list re- vealed the new condition which was soon to cause a new alignment of parties :

Domestic Manufactures .- Let not the strong arm of ingenuity and industry relax at the sound of Peace, but let us rather strive to double our resources against a future day of adversity.

At a meeting of Republican delegates con- vened at the Court House. September 9, 1815, the following gentlemen were nominated :

Commissioner, William Skinner. Senator, John Sharp. Representatives, Henry Jolly. Robert Linzee.

The Federal candidates were :

Commissioner. Caleb Emerson. Senator, William R. Putnam. Representatives, Joseph Barker, Alvin Bingham.

The Republican ticket was elected by a large majority.

The American Friend of 1815 has much to say about the "genius, generosity and renown" of Napoleon and seemed to lament his down- fall.

.American Friend, 1816,-

The Fourth of July will be celebrated in this town. Republican citizens. generally, are requested to attend in front of the Court House on said day, at ten o'clock, when a procession will be formed. and conducted to the Methodist Meeting House, where the ceremonies will be performed; from thence they will proceed to a Bower on the plain, where a dinner will be prepared.

There was a toast to "James Monroe, our next president"-not then elected-and the following to General Jackson: "While the God of Rivers continues to roll its floods to the Atlantic, the gallant Jackson and the 8th of January, 1815, will be remembered and cher- ished by the Democratic citizens of the United States."

In August, 1817, many columns of the

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HISTORY OF MARIETTA AND WASHINGTON COUNTY,

American Friend are taken up in charges of | appeal has a very modern sound. The "dis- exclusively cruel actions committed by one Oliver H. Perry, of whom we have all heard something in our school histories. These charges sound very much like the report of a senatorial committee on the Philippines.

THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING.

In 1817 the "Era of Good Feeling" seems to have reached Marietta in advance of the date usually assigned by historians, for the invitation to celebrate the Fourth of July is ex- tended to the "citizens of Marietta" and there is no restriction of party lines.

In the American Friend for July 11, 1817, it is announced that President Monroe had ar- rived in Springfield, Massachusetts, and that "great preparations have been made for his reception at the patriotic town of Boston, " that "the Blue Lights have been extinguished and party spirit laid aside." and that "more ammunition will be expended in this quarter of this occasion than there was during the whole war."

"Seneca" in the same paper calls attention to the change which had taken place in public sentiment as shown in the toasts on the last Fourth of July. It is no longer "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights" but "Domestic Improve- ments and Manufactures." He complains that the short war of 1812-14 had so demoralized the county that more robberies and murders had been committed in the three years past than in 20 years before.

"Seneca," by the way, was a resident of Virginia, and a few weeks later he paid his re- spects to his own State in this fashion: "It is a fact no less strange than true, that nearly two-thirds of her white male population have no share, either in the administration of her government, or in the election of officers." Strangely enough he dates his letter from Wl'est Virginia.

In the fall of 1817 a "Friend to Order" warns the Republicans against the "disorganiz- ing Jacobins" who are seeking to run an in- dependent ticket and divide the party. The

organizers" seem to have had their own way, for there were four tickets in the field with former Jeffersonian Republicans and Hamil- tonian Federalists mixed up. One ticket, hav- ing William Skinner for Senator, Col. Joseph Barker for Representative and Daniel Goodno for Commissioner, is preceded by this an- nouncement, probably written by Nahum Ward: "Be it known to all Jacobins and Blue-lights whether of Federal origin or Dem- ocratic origin, that their day is past and gone -the sword of party is sheathed." This ticket was not elected but a selection from the other three. Mr. Skinner announced before the election that his name had been published with- out his permission and that he was not a candi- date. Colonel Barker also made a similar an- nouncement.

February 21, 1818, a meeting was held in the Court House to express an opinion about the recent increase of compensation of Con- gressmen, which had been fixed at $8 a day and $8 for every 20 miles of travel. A vote of thanks was given to William Henry Harrison and Samuel Herrick for having opposed the measure.

In August of that year all legal voters were requested to meet in their respective townships and select delegates to a nominating conven- tion and in the ensuing nominations Federal and Republican lines seemed to be broken up.

NEW QUESTIONS.

On the fifth of July ( since the fourth came on Sunday), 1819, resolutions were passed expressing the hope that party might soon die and be forgotten, that domestic manufactures might be encouraged, and that there might be no more Slave States. New questions were coming fast.

In 1819, when there was some discussion about holding a convention to make a new Con- stitution, some people in this county were afraid such a convention would adopt slav- ery. One who was opposed to calling a con- vention said: "If the Constitution should be

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changed, there will be a strenuous effort to prevent a prohibition of slavery. Those who have lived near the Slave States must be both deaf and blind, if they have not heard and seen, that this is confidently expected. We know that our legislative body is composed of at least one-fourth Virginians. It would be next to madness to believe, at such a time. there is no danger of trusting the Constitution out of our own hands."

In the ensuing election 20 votes in this county were cast in favor of a constitutional convention, and 880 against it. Although there were many objections to the proposed revision of the State Constitution, the fear that slav- ery might be permitted in Ohio caused the vote in this county to be almost unanimous against the calling of a constitutional conven- tion. From this time the discussion against slavery is bold and aggressive, especially on the part of those who had formerly been Fed- eralists. In 1820, when threats of disunion had been made by a few men in the South, a writer in the American Friend gives them this warning :

"If you intend to beguile the good people of Ohio, and the other Western States, to join in your unhallowed attempt to dissolve the Union, and establish slavery on a still broader basis, you will be woefully mistaken! For rest assured that the Western States un- derstand the value of liberty too well to aid or assist in depriving others of that invaluable inheritance. If a dissolution of the Union ( which we deprecate ) is to take place, let it be on the principles of the Friends of Liberty or the Friends of Slavery-we belong to the former: wherever her standard floats there ours shall weare."

On the Fourth of July this toast was of- fered at the celebration in Marietta :

Missour .- ller adiaission into the Union without restricting lavery is irreconcilable with the first "Self- evident truth" expressed in our Declaration of Inde pendence, "that all men ar . created equal."

In 18to the Legislature of Ohio passed what has since been known as the "Crow Bar Law." levying a tax of $50.000 on each branch : tells rd.

of the United States Bank doing business in Ohio, and authorizing the Auditor of State to go into each room or vault of such banking house and seize the money necessary to pay the tax. Acting on this law, the collectors for the Auditor entered the branch of the United States Bank at Chillicothe and seized $100,000 in specie and bank notes. This act of nullitica- tion was greatly resented in some other States but the American Friend thus justifies it :

"It is with the deepest regret that we ob- serve a rancorous and persecuting spirit evinced in the Eastern prints against our State for having presumed to carry into effect the law of the last Legislature, levying a tax on the branches of the United States Bank at Chillicothe and Cincinnati. Ohio presumes she knows her rights. An aristocracy has been in- troduced among her Republican institutions- she has required a tribute from it-and the Eastern editors have raised the hue and cry against her, because she has resisted the rapid strides and destructive effects of this mam- moth institution. The people are the proper and only tribunal to decide whether an insti- tution leading to oppression and tyranny is agreeable to our Constitution or not."

At the Fourth of July celebration held in Marietta in 1821. among the toasts were the following :

Nome.he Manufactures. Instead of talking about patriotism, fet it practice it, by consuming our own, und by discouraging the consum ption of foreign fabrics. Koeds und Canals. The cement of the Union .- May Congress and the undivided States persevere in the promo m of improvements so desirable.

About this time the word "Dough Face" appears as a nickname of those Northern men who were supposed to be subservient to the slaveholders.

At the banquet on the Fourth of July 1821, "only domestic productions" were offered the guests, and among the toasts were these :

Foreign Importations. - The great cause of present distress We have seen our fully, may our future Steps be guided by wisdom

The State of ('-Gond markets for her now maria - will to find m her manufactories, when es-

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On the same day, at the house of S. D. Buell, in Adams township, more than a hun- dred guests were served at tables "loaded with a magnificent profusion and extensive variety of articles of domestic origin." After an ad- dress by Cyrus Spooner many toasts were drunk, one of which was prophetic :

Slavery .- Its origin is in barbarism. In its effects on the United States, pernicious as "the pestilence that walketh at noonday." Let the lovers of "equal and exact justice" to all men be active in abolishing the degrading practice.

Sentiments of similar import, but milder in form, were also expressed on that day at a celebration held in District No. 5 of Fearing township where Joel Tuttle was the orator.

In January, 1822, Representative Buell

and eight others voted for an examination into the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio, but there were 59 votes in the Ohio House of Representatives against the motion.

These extracts show that the memories of a war that had ended ten years before both in America and Europe could no longer serve as a dividing line for parties. Those who hated Napoleon and those who worshipped might heartily agree on questions of currency, tariff, internal improvements and slavery. From 1824 onward the political thought of Washing- ton County blended with the stream of national interests. Only a few incidents more demand special mention on account of local interests and they will be discussed in the following chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

POLITICS FROM 1820 TO 1860.

DEMOCRATS AND WHIGS-SLAVERY-UNDERGROUND RAILROAD-CAMPAIGN OF 1840-NEWS- PAPER EXTRACTS PERTAINING TO THE POLITICS OF THE PERIOD-CELEBRATION IN MARIETTA-ROTATION IN OFFICE-CONTESTS OF 1836 AND 1840-CAMPAIGN SONGS OF 1840-WASHINGTON COUNTY COLONIZATION SOCIETY-ANTI-ABOLITION AND ANTI- SLAVERY MEETINGS-PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN 1837 -- THE OHIO KIDNAPING CASE --- LATER VIEWS OF THE OHIO KIDNAPING CASE.

DEMOCRATS AND WHIGS.

As we have said in the last chapter on poli- tics, in the period of which 1820 may well be considered the central point, following the "Era of Good Feeling," and the obliteration of old party lines, there was a new parting of the ways. After this time, we see men who had worked together since the early years of the century grouped in two rival camps. The pol- icy of a national bank and a protective tariff was now dividing former political friends ; but, as the discussion of these questions had little or no local color, they need in a county history only brief mention. The question of internal improvements also attracted the attention of the people in this region, at that time so far from the markets of the world. Our citizens were especially interested in the improvement of the Ohio River by the national government. At times we find that public-spirited citizens of Washington County have undertaken at their own expense to improve the facilities for navigation in the Ohio, and especially to re- move obstructions from the channel between Kerr's Island and the Ohio shore. But it was felt that this highway of the nation, which

Howed by so many different States, should properly be cared for by the central authorities, which had the control of the commercial rela- tions.

In State politics, the question of the im- provement of navigation in the Muskingum was long a very important one, and it was only through an agitation continued for about 20 years that anything important was accom- plished. In the discussion of this question there was frequent evidence that the embers of the old strife between the citizens on the Mus- kingum and the Scioto was not entirely dead, and that a little breath of sectional partisan- ship could fan them into a blaze.

In the new division of parties new names appeared. The Jeffersonian or Democratic Republicans, as they were called for the first two or three decades of the century, began in the time of President Jackson to be known as the Democratic party, or as the "friends of Jackson." Those, who in 1825-56, had been known as the "Friends of the Administration," that is, of John Quincy Adams, began under the leadership of Henry Clay to be known as National Republicans, and after 1834 they I called themselves Whigs as a protest against

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what they considered the arbitrary acts of Pres- ident Jackson.

The temperance question first appeared as a moral movement to persuade men to avoid drunkenness, next as a plea for total abstinence, and later as an effort to restrain or prohibit entirely the traffic in intoxicating liquors. Op- position to freemasonry resulted in the forma- tion, in 1832, of the Anti-Masonic Society of Waterford, which endeavored to wield a politi- cal influence.

SLAVERY.

The friends of each of the questions strug- gled to make their favorite the paramount is- site. But in 1840 another question appeared. not as a little cloud, but sounded as a peal of thunder in a clear sky, with a crash so sharp and discordant that it frightened the venerable Jefferson in his retirement. Long before the tempest burst upon us in its fury, the sky con- tinued to flash, and the earth rumbled and trembled, with the approach of the impending storm. In vain the optimist in his love for the Union strove to convince the people that the slavery question could not lead to disunion or civil war; the great question would come up for a settlement.

There were two reasons why the majority of the people in Washington County for many years deprecated strife or even discussion about slavery. The pioneers were nearly all soldiers of the Revolution who had fought side by side with their brethren from the South, and under their beloved commander, Washington, who was himself a slave-owner. Again, ere the ma- jority of these pioneers had passed away, a sec- ond war with England brought the enemy within the borders of our own State and many of the soldiers who drove the invaders back to Canada, were volunteers from Virginia, Ken- tucky and Tennessee.

especially shown that they would not permit its extension into Ohio; yet they looked upon the question as settled by constitutional com- promise which they were in honor bound to respect. But at all times there was a minority, small but steadily increasing as the years went on, conscientiously opposed to slavery in any part of our Union. They were earnestly in favor of free soil, free men and in the advocacy of their opinions they demanded free speech. They showed their opposition to the peculiar institution, which after 1820 was practically restricted to the Southern States, by speak- ing and writing to arouse public sentiment. This agitation caused on the southern side of the Ohio a nervousness which finally changed to a feeling of resentment. Good men in Vir- ginia felt that this agitation was imperiling not only their property but even the lives of their families. Believing themselves threatened with such serious evils, through what they con- sidered as the unjustifiable interference of peo- ple from other States, they sometimes resorted to means of repression which would hardly bear the test of a legal examination. Perhaps, they believed that self-protection was the high- est law. They determined to keep all incendi- ary publications and speakers outside of their borders.

Within 40 miles of Marietta there lives an elderly gentleman in a respectable community of what is now West Virginia, who saw a party of his neighbors, a few years before the Civil War, take his copy of the New York Tribune from the post office and with noisy demonstration put it in a bonfire, which they had kindled before his house. A club of young inen of Wheeling, Virginia. about the same time. were receiving their Tribunes from the Bridgeport post office because they could not get them from their own office in Wheeling. For more than 20 years before the war John Stone, of Belpre, dared not go far beyond the south bank of the Ohio, lest he be arrested on account of his anti-slavery agitation, and at one time in those ante-bellum days, Mr. Burgess, a passenger on an Ohio River packet, a short

It seems to be evident that until about 1854 a large majority of the people in this county was opposed to slavery agitation, not because they were in favor of slavery, for by their votes and acts they had shown the contrary and had | distance below Marietta, was threatened with

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lynching by his fellow passengers for the crime of expressing anti-slavery sentiments. John Brown's raid to Harper's Ferry intensified this bitterness of feeling.

Unfortunately at that time there was at the head of affairs in Virginia one, of whom George D. Prentiss, of Louisville, has said, "The tallest man Hever knew was called Short, and the largest one was Small, and the Gov- ernor of Virginia is called Wise." This Gov- ernor, who was "called Wise" (Henry A. Wise), had a section of artillery planted on the bank at Parkersburg to threaten any in- vaders from Ohio. The good people of Belpre, not to be outdone by this wise Governor, in a display of patriotic fervor, prepared to defend their own shores from the fire-eating forces and confronted the artillery with a huge churn mounted upon a cart.

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History of Marietta and Washington County, Ohio, and representative citizens, Part 16

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1490

Author: Andrews, Martin Register, 1842-; Hathaway, Seymour J
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1490