USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Four > Part 20
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
On the other hand the Democrats were bold and defiant in declaring themselves on this subject. Their platform said, "That this Government was made by white men, and, so far as we have the power to pre- serve it, it shall continue to be a Government of white men." Again, "The effort now being made to confer the right of suffrage upon negroes is an insidious attempt to overthrow popular institutions by bringing the right to vote into disgrace. That the negroes are not competent to the exercise of that right, nor is it necessary to their safety or protection. On the con- trary, its exercise by them, if attempted, would be fraught with terrible calamities, both to them and the whites. We are therefore unequivocally opposed to negro suffrage."
So thus was the issue joined between the parties without the question being before them in any form of specific legislation, organic or otherwise. It was purely one of a public opinion, to be expressed in advance of National action on the subject. General Cox was called on early in the campaign for his views. On July 24th, a committee representing the sentiment of Oberlin College addressed a letter to him entitled, "Reconstruction and the Relation of the Races in the
-
295
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
United States." He was asked in this letter, "Ist. Are you in favor of modifying our Constitution so as to give the elective franchise to colored men? 2d. In the reorganization of the Southern States, should the elective franchise be secured to the colored people?" The answers of General Cox to this letter, while ingen- ious, were extremely unsatisfactory. The inquirers had the confident right to expect of him a positive declara- tion in favor of negro suffrage. All the traditions of Oberlin were epitomized in General Cox. He had drawn his sword for the slave; his young manhood had been spent in this college, an institution that stood for years in favor of the freedom and equality of the black man. For this its professors and students had been ostracized, persecuted and imprisoned.
The answer of General Cox to the Oberlin letter was scholarly and polished, and written in a spirit of sol- dierly independence; but it was extremely disap- pointing both to his correspondents and to his party. He did not answer categorically the questions proposed. His letter breathed opposition to negro suffrage principally for the reason that he believed that the white man and the black man could not live together usefully in the same community. His belief was that the war had developed "a rooted antagonism which makes their permanent fusion into our political community an absolute impossibility. The only real solution which I can see is the peaceable separation of the races. What encouragement have we that success will attend a forced political fusion of bitterly hostile races from the antipodes of the human family? It seems manifest to me that there could be no political unity, but rather
296
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
a strife for the mastery, in which one or the other would go to the wall." His solution of the race problem was to take certain contiguous territory in the South, in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and out of this construct what would practically be a Negro Territory under National sovereignty, as in the West. The proposition met with a storm of dissent in the Union party. It was repudiated by the leaders, and in some counties of the Western Reserve it was con- demned in the county conventions of the Union party. This diversity of opinion on an important subject had a bad effect at the polls, as we shall see when we read the returns.
The most vigorous protest to General Cox's letter came from Judge Dickson, of Cincinnati, one of the founders of the Republican party and a member of the Convention that nominated General Cox. Judge Dickson's expression ("Review of the Letter of General Cox of Ohio." By Hon. W. M. Dickson. Boston, 1865) was a logical answer to General Cox's letter and the weakness of the latter's position as demon- strated from a political and economical standpoint. The publication of these two expressions on the negro question developed a general clash in the newspapers of the radical and conservative factions of the Union party. But the papers that opposed the Cox letter were inclined to look over the matter as the personal opinion of the candidate and not in any way represent- ing the party. This painful dissension became em- phasized at the campaign opening of the Union party at Warren, Trumbull county, August 15th, when Gen- eral Cox defended his Oberlin letter and General
297
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Garfield condemned the plans therein advocated and strongly expressed himself as favoring negro suffrage both in Ohio and the South.
As may be surmised, the Democrats made the most of the divisions in the Union party. They attacked it bitterly for its attitude on negro suffrage; for it must be said that its whole tendency was in that direc- tion, although no party declaration had yet been made. General Morgan dwelt at great length in his speeches on the dangerous results that would flow from confer- ring the voting franchise on the negroes in Ohio. He argued with great effectiveness that such a movement would draw large numbers of black men from the South, and thereby glut the labor market, which would inevit- ably result in the reduction of wages. He was opposed to the plan of segregation proposed by General Cox, not only from principle, but on account of the enormous expense it would entail upon the people of this country. The land necessary for this scheme, he said, would cost at least six hundred million dollars. He wanted the negro to stay where he was, and he was opposed to enfranchising him at any time or anywhere.
Thus the campaign waged; the Democrats appealing with all their strength to the white man's prejudice against negro suffrage, and the Union party openly divided on the question of its advisability, and by no means in accord with the conservative views of their candidate on that subject.
The results of the election, although General Cox secured a plurality of 28,843 over his opponent, were not encouraging to the Union party. It was evident from the returns that it had lost ground in the estima-
298
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
tion of the people. While the Democratic party increased its vote over that of Vallandigham in 1863 by 6,000, the Union party did not poll by 65,000 its vote of that year. Of this decrease fully one-third was chargeable to apathy in the Western Reserve growing out of General Cox's attitude on negro suffrage.
In the midst of the campaign, Governor Brough died. He had been in ill health, caused by the harass- ing labors of his office, and this was aggravated by an accident from which blood poisoning ensued. He died on the afternoon of August 29th, at his residence in Cleveland. He was unquestionably the greatest his- toric character in the civil life of Ohio during the war. Whitelaw Reid ("Ohio in the War," Volume I, p. 1,025) thus portrays him :
"Brough was a statesman. His views of public policy were broad and catholic, and his course was governed by what seemed to be the best interests of the people, without regard to party expediency or personal advancement. He was honest and incorrupt- ible, rigidly just and plain, even to bluntness. He had not a particle of dissimulation. People thought him ill-natured, rude, and hard-hearted. He was not; he was simply a plain, honest, straight-forward man, devoted to business. He had not the suaviter in modo. This was, perhaps, unfortunate for himself, but the public interests suffered nothing thereby. He was, moreover, a kind-hearted man, easily affected by the suffering of others, and ready to relieve suffering when he found the genuine article. He, perhaps, mistrusted more than some men, but when he was convinced he did not measure his gifts. He was a good judge of
299
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
character. He looked a man through and through at first sight. Hence no one hated a rogue more than he; and, on the other hand, no one had a warmer apprecia- tion of a man of good principles. He was a devoted friend."
On the death of Governor Brough, Lieutenant Gov- ernor Charles Anderson succeeded him and served for the unexpired term. Governor Anderson was the brother of Major Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter. Before the war he resided in Texas, where he was imprisoned on account of his loyalty to the Union. He came North, enlisted in the army, and was com- missioned colonel of the Ninety-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was severely wounded at the battle of Stone River, and was compelled to resign. In 1863 he was nominated as Lieutenant Governor on the Union ticket with John Brough. The few months that he occupied the gubernatorial chair were uneventful, and the services performed were merely routine.
Governor Cox was inaugurated January 8, 1866. In the two years of his administration he accomplished much for the State and made important recommenda- tions that were definitely responded to by affirmative legislation. To him Ohio is indebted for the Reform School for Girls, for the Board of State Charities, for Boards of Health in cities and for a thorough revision of the laws relating to taxation of real and personal property.
The question of negro suffrage, which had been the chief irritant in Governor Cox's campaign, had assumed tangible form in the first year of his term. The Four- teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
300
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
States was proposed by the Thirty-Ninth Congress to the legislatures of the several states on June 16, 1866. By its first section it defines citizenship so as to clothe the negro with all the rights of the white man, and it also denies to any State the right to abridge the privi- leges of citizens of the United States, to deprive them of life, liberty, or property without due process of law or to deprive any citizen within its jurisdiction. The second section declares that if any State denies the right to vote to any portion of its male citizens over twenty-one years of age, its representation in the House of Representatives shall be reduced proportionately. The two other sections of the amendment relate to other subjects. Governor Cox, in his message to the General Assembly, January 2, 1867, recommended the ratification of this amendment, declaring that it was necessary to correct the evils remaining in the Southern States. The first section was, he said, a grant of power to the National Government to protect the citizens of the United States in their legal privileges in case any State should attempt to oppress any individual or class, or to deny equal protection to any one. The necessity for this section, he maintained, had been manifested long before the war, since the freedom of speech or discussion was not tolerated in the South prior to the war; but this power to limit representation would remain in abeyance so long as the states acted in good faith and gave equal protection.
A joint resolution for the ratification of the amend- ment was introduced and adopted in the Senate, January 3, 1867, by a vote of twenty-one yeas and twelve nays. It was adopted by the House of Repre-
301
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
sentatives the next day by a vote of fifty-four yeas to twenty-five nays. On January IIth, the joint resolu- tion was signed, and thus Ohio ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. New York was the first State in the Union to perform this act. Ohio's resolution had really preceded it in adoption, but the failure to sign it made her second to the Empire State. After this amendment had been ratified by the General Assembly, that body passed a joint resolution, March 27th, providing for the submission of an amendment to the Constitution of Ohio, to be voted on at the coming October election, striking out the word "white" from that instrument. This was really unnecessary, and there was never any reason for its submission after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Noth- ing could have prevented colored men voting after the adoption of that amendment. Therefore, these proceedings were useless and irregular. It afforded, however, an issue for the coming campaign, and one which the Democrats used to their great advantage.
The Democratic State Convention for this year, 1867, had already met, January 8th, at Columbus. It was entirely in the hands of the old Peace element, and their leaders, Vallandigham, Thurman, and Pendle- ton, exercised absolute control. George H. Pendleton presided, Clement L. Vallandigham was chairman of the committee on resolutions, and Allen G. Thurman was nominated for Governor. Then and there the compact was made by these three that Pendleton should be Ohio's candidate for the nomination for President in the National Democratic Convention of the next year, and that, in the event of the election of a Democratic
302
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Legislature, Vallandigham should be elected United States Senator. Judge Thurman, the candidate for Governor, had been trained from youth in politics and was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian school. He had studied law under his uncle, William Allen of Chilli- cothe, who was afterward United States Senator and Governor. Young Thurman commenced his political career as private secretary to Governor Robert Lucas. He entered Congress December 1, 1845, as its youngest member. In 1851 he was elected one of the five Supreme Court judges under the new Constitution. He ranked high in this position, and his opinions are quoted as of great weight to-day. His mind was instinctively judicial, of great breadth and impar- tiality of view, with a rugged adherence to right and a hatred of wrong. On the stump he was a cogent and logical speaker, appealing to men's judgments rather than to their feelings. He proved to be a potential and available candidate.
Governor Cox declined to be a candidate for renom- ination. He saw that he was not in harmony with his party. His views on the solving of the negro question and his support of President Johnson had alienated a powerful element in his party. It was necessary, therefore, that a new candidate should be found. Upon his retirement from the Governorship General Cox devoted himself to the practice of the law until March, 1869, when he became Secretary of the Interior in President Grant's Cabinet. On account of disagreement with certain administration measures he resigned in December, 1870. He returned to Cin- cinnati to resume his professional life. He was elected
ALLEN GRANBERY THURMAN 4
Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, November 13, 1813, and came with his parents to Chillicothe, Ohio, 1819; admitted to the bar, 1835; member of Congress, 1845-47; elected Judge of the Supreme Court, 1851, and was Chief Justice, December, 1854, to February, 1856; declined reelection to the bench and resumed practice of law; unsuccessful candidate for Governor, 1867; United States Senator, 1869-81; Democratic candidate for Vice-President, 1888; lived in Columbus; died there December 12, 1895.
502
THE RISE AND PROGRI
Legislature, ИАМЯИНТ ЈУ ЯНАМАЯ? ИЛИJA elected Um States bettimbs : 0181 ,oido , ontooillid of ateisq and w ms Candidate
and writeul leid? asw bref. 128i tuion omerqua odt lo sobul He
studie
cothe , rots092 veststa betinUa;xd8i tomevotoit oishibrisa.to.
Governor, Ouns .2081 I 19dm99 stoff beib ; andmulo ai bevil
career ale private secretary to Governor Robert L. He entered Congress December 1, 1845, as its youn member. In 1851 he was elected one of the Supreme Court judges under the new Constitu He ranked high in this position, and his opinions quoted as of great weight to-day. His mind instinctively judicial, of great breadth and im tiality of view, with a rugged adherence to right a hatred of wrong. On the stump he was a cogent logical speaker, appealing to men's judgments ra than to their feelings. He proved to be a poter and available candidate.
Governor Cox declined to be a candidate for rer mation. He saw that he was not in harmony his party. His views on the solving of the n question and his support of President Johnson alienated a powerful element in his party. It necessary, therefore, that a new candidate should found. Upon his retirement from the Governon General Cox devoted himself to the practice of th until March, 1869, when he became Secretary al Interior in President Grant's Cabinet. On aco of disagreement with certain administration men he resigned in December, 1870. He returned to cinnati to resume his professional life. He was ele
303
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
president of the Wabash Railroad in October, 1873, and removed to Toledo to take charge of it. In 1876 he was elected to Congress from the Toledo district serving from October 15, 1877, to March 3, 1879. He afterwards became president of the Cincinnati Univer- sity and dean of the Cincinnati Law School. He con- tributed much to the literature of the Civil War, and ranks high as a military scholar and author. He died at Magnolia, Massachusetts, August 4, 1900.
When the State Convention met at Columbus on June 19th, there were three candidates for Governor most talked of; these were Samuel Galloway, Adjutant General Benjamin R. Cowen, and General Rutherford B. Hayes, then representing the Second district in Congress. Galloway had served in Congress, was one of the most influential members of the Union party and was popular because of his abilities as an orator. The general opinion, however, seemed to favor a mili- tary man for Governor, and in the Convention General Hayes was nominated, receiving two hundred and eighty-six votes to Galloway's two hundred and eight. The platform was aggressively favorable to negro suffrage "on the broad platform of impartial manhood suffrage as embodied in the proposed amendments to the State Constitution."
Concerning the Convention which nominated General Hayes, an important historical fact should be noted. It was called and assembled as the Republican Union Convention, using the word "Republican" for the first time since 1860. This was due to the fact that in the course of events the object of the Union party was accomplished, that is, the uniting of all parties
304
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
favorable to the war for its preservation, and it was the desire of many of the old Republican leaders to get back to the original name.
General Hayes, having resigned his seat in Congress, entered with vigor into the campaign. For two months the contest was waged with an enthusiasm recalling the Brough-Vallandigham campaign. Judge Thurman assaulted the weakest point in the Union platform -- negro suffrage. It was apparent that the proposition was unpopular. If he had stopped at this, and not undertaken to justify the Peace Democracy during the war and had not criticised Lincoln's Administration, he would have been elected. As it was, General Hayes was elected by the small majority of 2,983, notwith- standing that the total vote for Governor was increased over that of 1865 nearly 67,000-from 417,720 to 484,603. As it was, Thurman carried the Legislature; both branches were Democratic-the Senate by eight- een to seventeen, and the House by fifty-six to forty- nine, or eight majority on joint ballot.
The proposed amendment to strike the word "white" from the Constitution was defeated. Only thirty-two of the eighty-eight counties were carried for the proposition, and but three Congressional districts gave it a majority. The total vote was as follows: Yes, 216,987; No, 255,340-a majority against it of the votes cast, 38,353. Considering, however, that the total vote cast at the election was 484,603, and that 11,700 ballots were cast with no expression on the proposition and that under the Constitution to be amended these were regarded as negative votes, it will be seen that the actual majority against the amend-
305
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
ment was 50,253. A comparison of the Democratic vote with the total negative vote actually cast on the question shows that only 14,718 Republicans voted against the amendment. One of the chief factors entering into its defeat was that it also pro- vided for disfranchising a number of white citizens. This applied to those who bore arms against the Government, or fled to avoid the draft, or deserted from the army. It was believed by many that the amendment would, if adopted, disfranchise more whites than it would grant suffrage to colored citizens. And yet it received nearly forty-five per cent of all the votes cast in this State.
General Hayes was inaugurated January 13, 1868; the General Assembly had convened on January 6th. On the first day of the session a joint resolution to rescind Ohio's ratification of the Fourteenth Amend- ment was introduced. Governor Hayes devoted a portion of his inaugural address to a consideration of this situation. Of this he said: "Without now raising the grave question as to the right of a State to withdraw its assent, which has been constitutionally given to a proposed amendment of the Federal Consti- tution, I respectfully suggest that the attempt which is now making to withdraw the assent of Ohio to the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution be postponed until the people shall again have an oppor- tunity to give expression to their will. In my judg- ment, Ohio will never consent that the whites of the South, a large majority of whom were lately in rebel- lion, shall exercise in the government of the Nation as much political power, man for man, as the same num-
306
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
ber of white citizens of Ohio and be allowed in addition thereto thirty members of Congress and of the electoral college, for colored people deprived of every political privilege."
The rescinding resolution was adopted by a strict party vote in both branches of the Legislature, and was signed January 15, 1868. The Democrats justified their action on two grounds: First, they cited the rescinding, in 1864, of the resolution ratifying an amend- ment preventing Congress from interfering with slavery, which had been adopted by the General Assembly May 13, 1861; Second, they claimed that the people of Ohio had rejected negro suffrage at the polls. They therefore requested Governor Hayes to forward their joint resolution evidencing their action on this subject to the Secretary of State at Washington, and requested the return of the resolution of ratification formerly passed. Secretary Seward declined to withdraw any papers from the files of the Department of State, alleging lack of authority. Congress evidently dis- regarded the rescinding resolutions, for on July 21, 1868, it adopted a concurrent resolution and transmit- ted it to the Department of State, declaring that three-fourths and more of the states had ratified the amendment, and, in reciting a list of those, Ohio was included.
The election of a United States Senator to succeed Benjamin F. Wade was one of the duties of this Legis- lature, and by adherence to the tripartite agreement between Thurman, Pendleton, and Vallandigham the honor belonged to the last named. But as the session approached it was evident that the leaders of the party
307
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
preferred Judge Thurman. To his strong canvass for the Governorship and his sledge hammer blows against negro suffrage his friends claimed was due a Democratic Legislature. The objections urged against Vallandigham were his radical Democracy, his alleged rashness, and his conspicuous opposition to the war. When the caucus assembled, Judge Thurman was the choice by a large majority, and on January 15, 1870, the two houses met jointly and duly elected Allen G. Thurman United States Senator. Vallandigham was deeply disappointed and mortified at the result. It was the only defeat, and he had many, that ever grieved and depressed him. In his "Life," by his brother, it is said: "He did not waste his breath or degrade his character by unmanly repining, but when he returned from Columbus upon this occasion he appeared for days as if a dark shadow had fallen upon his soul."
The last of the war amendments-the Fifteenth-to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several states by the Fortieth Congress, February 27, 1869. This amendment denied to Congress or any State the power to disfranchise a citizen on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It was rejected by the General Assembly of Ohio, May 4, 1869. When the next Legislature, which was Republican, assembled on January 3, 1870, Governor Hayes sent a special message recommending the ratification of the amendment. He said: "The great body of that part of the people of Ohio who sustain the laws for the reconstruction of the states lately in rebellion believe that the amendment is just and wise. Many other citizens who would not support
308
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
the amendment if it was presented as the inauguration of a new policy, in view of the fact that impartial suffrage is already established in the states most largely interested in the question, now regard the amendment as the best mode of getting rid of a controversy which ought no longer to remain unsettled. Believing in the measure, and that the people of Ohio approve it, I earnestly recommend its ratification." The Legisla- ture, on January 27, 1870, ratified the amendment by the closest vote given by any State, there being but a majority of one vote in the Senate, and of two in the House. Thus after years of bitter struggling, the colored man was given all the rights of citizenship. The word "white," however, still remains in the Ohio Constitution as a dead relic of other days. An amend- ment to eliminate it from Article V, Section I, is now (1912) pending before the people of the State.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.