USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Four > Part 29
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General Anderson commanded the first expedition to the Philippine Islands, occupied Cavite June 30, 1898, directed the land attack on Manila, and was com- mander of the First Division of the Eighth Army Corps in the battles of Santana, San Pedro, and Passe Guadalupe in 1899, all of these engagements being with insurrectionists. General Garretson had command of a brigade in the operations of Santiago and in Porto Rico. General Ernst was a Brigade Commander in
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Porto Rico. Major General James Franklin Wade, a son of Benjamin F. Wade, was at the head of the Cuban Evacuation Commission in 1898, and was trans- ferred to the Philippines, where he was promoted to the chief military command. William Howard Taft, of Cincinnati, was made the first civil Governor of the Philippine Islands, and served in that capacity from July, 1901, to February, 1904.
The following Ohioans were appointed Brigadier Generals of Volunteers for efficient services in the Span- ish-American and Philippine wars: William Sinclair, Michael V. Sheridan (brother of General Philip H. Sheridan), Gilbert S. Carpenter, Jacob H. Smith, Charles C. Hood, Andrew S. Burt, Henry B. Freeman, George M. Randall, Edwin B. Atwood, Jesse C. Chance, Charles W. Miner and Frederick Funston, the captor of Aguinaldo. Of all the Ohio generals mentioned only three were West Point graduates.
The administrative direction of the Spanish-Ameri- can War was to a remarkable degree shared by Ohioans. First among all others were President William Mc- Kinley and his first Secretary of State, John Sherman. Secretary Sherman conducted the diplomatic corre- spondence and proceedings up to the beginning of hos- tilities, when he resigned and was succeeded on April 25, 1898, by William R. Day, formerly assistant Secre- tary of State-also an Ohio man. Mr. Day continued at the head of the State Department throughout the War, negotiated and was the signatory on the behalf of the United States of the peace protocol dated August 12th, and was the first of the five American Peace Commissioners who met in Paris and negotiated and
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signed the treaty-one of his colleagues in this his- torical transaction being Whitelaw Reid, a native and former citizen of Ohio. The place of Mr. Day at the head of the State Department was taken September 30th by John Hay, for some years a citizen of Ohio, who as Minister to England before and during the Spanish-American conflict had contributed greatly to promote our country's interests abroad. President McKinley's Secretary of War, General Russell A. Alger, was of Ohio birth. The man to whom, above all others, credit is to be given for perfecting, organizing and equipping the regular and volunteer forces for field service, was the Adjutant General of the Army, Henry C. Corbin, who was also a citizen of Ohio.
In the Senate the most conspicuous figure in the debates growing out of the war was Senator Joseph B. Foraker. His rank as the first constitutional lawyer of that body was undisputed, and his discussions of the questions and policies pertaining to our new posses- sions practically guided the party in power. His speech urging the recognition of Cuban independence did much to bring about that event. In his defense
of President McKinley's Philippine policy he was regarded as the spokesman of the administration. When the President by message urged Congress to abolish all customs tariff between the United States and Porto Rico, Senator Foraker in response introduced a bill for free trade with that island, and making its inhabitants citizens of the United States with a repre- sentative in Congress. The bill was bitterly opposed by parties interested in the sugar trade, but Senator Foraker's argument on its constitutionality convinced
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Congress that Porto Rico was neither a state nor a territory, but a dependency, and that Congress had a right to legislate concerning it. The force of Senator Foraker's constitutional argument was afterward recog- nized by the Supreme Court in the case of Dooley vs. the United States (183 U. S. Reports, p. 151). In this case it was decided that the Foraker Act was constitu- tional and that duties levied on goods from the United States to Porto Rico were illegal and should be refunded. The Court also held that Porto Rico is not an integral part, but a possession, of the United States.
CHAPTER XVI. RISE OF MARCUS A. HANNA THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS NASH, HERRICK, PATTISON, HARRIS AND HARMON
T HE administration of Governor Bushnell ex- tended to January, 1900. During his four years of service as Governor the State was but little disturbed by events of an unusual or untoward character. The most serious occurrence of this period was the strike of the employes of the street railways in Cleveland, from June to December, 1899. In the history of the State there have been but few local labor troubles of so long duration or marked by so much bitterness, disorder and public inconvenience. After all the local militia had been called out, State troops were ordered to Cleveland until some twelve hundred soldiers were under arms, in addition to the police and special deputy sheriffs. This put a stop to the violent demonstrations, and the troops were gradually withdrawn. A rigorous boycott was then enforced by the union labor organizations against all who had business relations with the company or rode in its cars. The boycott was continued with great severity, to the hardship and distress of many, until the coming of winter made its enforcement im- practicable against the working people who were com- pelled to use the cars, and by general consent it was abandoned without being formally declared off.
In the political field the administration of Governor Bushnell is memorable for the rise of Marcus A. Hanna to a commanding position in public affairs. As the able and successful manager of McKinley's first cam- paign for the presidency, Mr. Hanna had powerfully impressed his personality upon the Republican party of the State, and his advance to a situation of substan- tial dignity in his own right depended, apparently,
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only upon his personal activity to that end and a com- mensurate opportunity. The personal activity was not wanting, and the opportunity soon arrived. In March, 1897, John Sherman resigned as United States Senator from Ohio to accept the office of Secretary of State in President Mckinley's cabinet. As the legis- lature was not at that time in session, the appointment of a successor to Mr. Sherman devolved upon the Gov- ernor, who, after some consideration, designated Mr. Hanna for the place. If Governor Bushnell had con- sulted his private preference or prejudice, or had con- fined his selection to that faction of his party which had always enjoyed the enmity of Mr. Hanna, he would have appointed as United States Senator some other person; but, recognizing the "logic of the situation"- that Mr. Hanna in a large degree had won the honor, and that his promotion was expected by the Republi- cans of the country at large,-he made the selection upon considerations entirely aside from his personal inclination and gave the office to one politically un- friendly to him and not personally his choice. In his prior and subsequent political relations the Governor was never regarded as a special supporter of Senator Hanna, and his whole preference as to leadership was given to Senator Foraker.
The entrance of Mr. Hanna into national politics was the climax of a very remarkable career. His lifetime was spent in business. He had paid little attention to public affairs until 1880. He was well known to State convention-goers in Ohio, but had no political reputation beyond his local surroundings, and was plain "Mark" Hanna of Cleveland. As a successful
GEORGE KILBON NASH
From a painting by T. C. Webber in the Capitol in Columbus.
Born in Medina county, Ohio, August 14, 1842; entered Oberlin College, but left to enlist in the army as a private, continuing till the end of the war; removed to Columbus, and was admitted to the bar, 1867; elected, 1870, Prosecut- ing Attorney of Franklin county, and served two terms; Attorney-General of Ohio, 1880-84; member of the Supreme Court commission, 1884-85; Governor, 1900-04; died October 28, 1904.
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If Governor Bushnell had con sulted his private preference or prejudice, or had com fined his selection to that faction of his party which had always enjoyed the enmity of Mr. Hanna, he wou have appointed as United States Senator some oth person; but, recognizing the "logic of the situation" that Mr. Hanna in a large degree had won the honor and that his promotion was expected by the Republi- cans of the country at large,-he made the selectio upon considerations entirely aside from his person inclination and gave the office to one politically u friendly to him and not personally his choice. his prior and subsequent political relations the Govern wax never regarded as a special supporter of Senat Hanna, and his whole preference as to leadership wi given to Senator Foraker.
The entrance of Mr. Hanna into national polit was the climax of a very remarkable career. H lifetime was spent in business. He had paid littl attention to public affairs until 1880. He was we known to State convention-goers in Ohio, but had political reputation beyond his local surroundings, was plain "Mark" Hanna of Cleveland. As a succes ful
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business man he indulged in politics from a sense of duty and to help his friends. It may be remarked that he liked the game. His first appearance on the political scene, in which he acquired any prominence, was in the Garfield campaign of 1880. Always recog- nized as one of the substantial and generous supporters of the Republican party in Cleveland and the Western Reserve, and an intimate friend of Garfield, he orig- inated the idea of a Business Men's Republican club, and in this manner organized the business men of Cleve- land into an effective supporting agency for General Garfield in his candidacy. In 1884 he was selected as one of the four delegates-at-large to the national con- vention, his associates being William McKinley, Joseph B. Foraker and William H. West, all then prominent in Ohio politics. The Ohio delegation was strenuously divided between James G. Blaine and John Sherman. Mr. Sherman's forces were led by Judge Foraker and Mr. Hanna, while Major Mckinley and Judge West were as earnestly for Mr. Blaine. From that time for- ward he was an active leader of the Ohio Republicans, and was chosen as a delegate to the national Republican conventions in 1888 and 1896. In the latter year, after giving his greatest endeavors toward securing the presidential nomination of Major Mckinley, he was chosen chairman of the National Republican commit- tee, and for that position he was again selected in 1900.
He had always cherished an ambition, and expressed it privately to some of his intimate friends, to serve as United States Senator from Ohio; and his advance- ment to the office, although temporary and entered upon in the unstable character of an ad interim ap-
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pointee, afforded him great pleasure. But he was determined that his tenure should be more secure, and he became the acknowledged candidate for a full term. The State convention of 1895 created a precedent in Ohio politics by designating former Governor Joseph B. Foraker as the choice of the Republicans for United States Senator. The State convention of 1897 simi- larly endorsed Mr. Hanna as the Republican candidate, both for Mr. Sherman's unexpired term and for the term commencing March 4, 1899. When the General Assembly met in January, 1898, the senatorial question engrossed public discussion in the State and also attracted the attention of the country. Notwithstand- ing that Governor Bushnell and the Republican State ticket had been elected by a substantial majority, the General Assembly was but narrowly Republican on joint ballot, the Senate being controlled by the Demo- crats. A determined minority of the Republican members of the legislature opposed Mr. Hanna, and, combining with the Democrats, almost compassed his defeat. The support of the allied forces was given to Robert E. McKisson, Mayor of Cleveland, an anti- Hanna Republican. The struggle resulted in the choice of Mr. Hanna by just the number of votes required, he receiving seventy-three, McKisson seventy and one Democrat being absent. And thus Mr. Hanna was elected for the full term commencing March 4, 1899.
Mr. Hanna served nearly seven years in the United States Senate. He was one of its most active and influential members, and, while he never created an idea in legislation or left upon the statute books any law embodying a distinctive programme, he was
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extremely powerful in supporting policies, both of national and international character. He was not a constructive statesman, nor did he undertake to mold into law ideas either of himself or his party. Senator Foraker, in an address before the Senate after Mr. Hanna's death, said of him in this regard:
"His powers were of a different nature. They were of the organizing and executive character. While he had sound judgment and quick perception to enable him to perceive the right of public questions and the policies that should be pursued with respect to them, he also had sound judgment as to how to reach the understandings of men and how to impress upon them the necessities of cooperation and the character of machinery and procedure by which to bring about effective results. Plainly stated, he had common sense and an almost unnatural knowledge of human nature. He was above all men of his time fitted for the work that fell to him in connection with the nomination and election of William McKinley to the presidency.
"He grew not alone with the years, but even with the days. Soon the whole country came to understand that he was one of the really great men of his day and generation. Then the pendulum of public opinion swung quickly in the opposite direction. Misconcep- tions faded and misrepresentations ceased. Praise succeeded to criticism, and favor followed, until he enjoyed at the hands of the American people a most rare and exceptional esteem and admiration."
The State campaign of 1899 was of singular interest. For the first time in the history of Ohio a third candi-
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date, unattached to any of the established parties and without even the advantage of a formal convention nomination, entered the contest for the governorship, and, on the strength of his personality altogether, made a most respectable showing at the polls. Samuel M. Jones-"Golden Rule" Jones-was the man who achieved this unique distinction. The same canvass witnessed the futile candidacy of that conspicuous citizen of Washington and Cincinnati, John R. McLean, so long and so potentially concerned in the Democratic politics of the State.
The Republican convention met at Columbus on the 2d of June, adopted a platform lauding the national and State administrations and endorsing Senators Foraker and Hanna, and nominated George K. Nash for Governor. At the Democratic convention, held in Zanesville August 30, the political creed of William J. Bryan, in its various articles, was reaffirmed, the initiative and referendum were advocated, party bosses and rings were severely condemned-with spe- cific application to the Republican organization as at that period alleged to be constituted,-and the exer- cise of lynch law, "especially against our colored citi- zens," was denounced even more strenuously than in the Republican platform.
John R. McLean was nominated for Governor. This gentleman was (and is) distinguished principally as the proprietor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the most powerful and extensively read newspaper of Ohio and one of the very foremost in the United States. In addition, by his individual capacity and executive force, he had accumulated a vast fortune through the
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development and success of public utilities devoted to the furnishing of transportation and gas in the city of Washington, all of which were under his personal management and control. With the most powerful public influence of any individual Democrat in Ohio, he had been conspicuously inconspicuous, few voters of the State outside of his native city having personal knowledge of, or acquaintance with him. His career was one so mysteriously, yet so honestly successful, that it won the admiration of a great portion of his party. Born in Cincinnati in 1848, he succeeded his father, Washington McLean, in the ownership of the Enquirer. Under his conduct the influence and pros- perity of that journal constantly increased, despite the competition of its two able Republican rivals, the Commercial and the Gazette, edited respectively by Murat Halstead and Richard Smith. A consolidation of these papers, under the style of the Commercial Gazette (now the Commercial Tribune) narrowed the competitive field but never the power or the profits of the Enquirer. The rivalry was not political alone; it is remembered by Cincinnatians that there was an acute lack of personal comity between Mr. Halstead and Mr. McLean. This culminated in a stern chal- lenge from Mr. Halstead to the field of honor, which Mr. McLean mildly but firmly declined. Mildness and firmness may be justly noted as principal tempera- mental traits of John R. McLean. His career has at all times been marked by unobtrusiveness, but great and thorough capability and consistency of will. Many and peculiar have been the results and influences of his activ- ities upon the fortunes of men in the Democratic party,
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and the course of events in that organization, as exer- cised quietly yet positively through his remarkable paper. Though his personal endeavors for public office-including his campaign for the governorship in 1899 and several senatorial campaigns before and since-have uniformly failed, the political history of Ohio during the past thirty-five years, especially in its more subtle aspects, could not be written without extensive recognition of the influence of Mr. McLean, who is the Enquirer, and the Enquirer, which is Mr. McLean. Although his legal residence is in Cincin- nati, where his name is as familiar as though he walked its streets daily, he has for many years maintained a stately home, "Friendship," near the city of Washing- ton, and there he spends his time and dispenses an abounding hospitality.
In addition to the Republican and Democratic nominations, there were the usual Prohibition and Socialist tickets, and the Union Reform party, sole survivor of an aggregation of new parties born in 1896 and 1897, held a convention and put up candidates. It was expected that the Union Reformers would abstain from naming a man for Governor and follow the leadership of Samuel M. Jones, the "Golden Rule" mayor of Toledo, who had already announced that he would run as an independent; but they preferred one of their own fold, and Mr. Jones was left partyless. He immediately issued a manifesto, declaring himself a candidate for Governor on the following platform:
"Equality of opportunity for all. All men have an equal right to a place on the earth. It is the duty of
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every patriot to see that this right is guaranteed to every man. The steps necessary to attain this right, for which I stand, are:
"I. The right of self-government through the aboli- tion of political parties :- A. Direct nomination of candidates by the people; B. Direct making of laws by the people.
"2. Public ownership of all public utilities.
"3. Union wages, hours, and conditions, or better, for skilled labor, and an eight-hour day with a living wage for unskilled labor on all public work done.
"4. Abolition of the contract system, that glaring evil of the competitive system, on all public work, and the substitution of direct employment.
"5. It is the imperative duty of the State legislature to deal with the question of unemployment, to the end that provision may immediately be made that no citizen of Ohio who is willing to work shall be driven into pauperism, crime, or insanity for want of work."
The Jones candidacy was regarded by both the old parties as a joke and his platform as sheer sophistry. But this was not the view, evidently, of the voters, who to a very noticeable extent considered Mr. Jones a champion of desirable reforms. He profited much from serious disaffection in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Thousands of Republicans re- sented the domination of the Columbus convention by Senator Hanna, and a large section of the Demo- cratic party cherished miscellaneous objections to Mr. McLean, some of which were of long and careful accumulation and others of more recent origin- especially the objection to his residence in Washington.
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Mr. Jones carried the two large counties of Cuyahoga and Lucas-the former by a decided majority over all competitors and the latter by a substantial plurality over Nash. The total vote on Governor stood: Nash, 417,199; McLean, 368, 176; Jones, 106,721; Ellis (Union Reform), 7,799; Hammell (Prohibition), 5,825 ;; Bandlow (Socialist), 2,439.
George Kilbon Nash, elected Governor by a plurality of 49,023 over John R. McLean, was born on a farm in Medina county, Ohio, August 14, 1842. His early educational opportunities were limited, but he improved them assiduously and at the age of twenty entered Oberlin College. In his sophomore year he left that institution to enlist as a private in the One Hundred and Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and he con- tinued in the service of the United States until the end of the Civil War. Establishing himself in Columbus after his discharge, he taught school while pursuing legal studies, and in 1867 was admitted to the bar. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Franklin county in 1870 and 1872 and Attorney-General of the State in 1879 and 1881. Governor Foster appointed him a member of the Supreme Court Commission in 1883. After his retirement from that office in 1885 he practiced his profession in Columbus with ability and success, also participating with considerable activ- ity and prominence in political affairs. He was the leading competitor of Mr. Bushnell for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1895, managed Governor Bushnell's campaign for reelection in 1897, and in 1899 was elected to the governorship. He died in Columbus, October 28, 1904.
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In 1900 the census of the United States gave Ohio a population of 4,157,545. The State maintained its previous rank of fourth. At this census Cleveland, with a population of 381,768, for the first time out- stripped Cincinnati, becoming the leading city of Ohio and the seventh of the country. Other principal Ohio cities had populations as follows: Cincinnati (tenth city of the country), 325,902; Toledo, 131,822; Columbus, 125,560; Dayton, 85,333; Youngstown, 44,885; Akron, 42,728; Springfield, 38,253; Canton, 30,667; Hamilton, 23,914; Zanesville, 23,538; Lima, 21,723; Newark, 18,157; and Lorain, 16,028.
The annex to the Statehouse was completed and occupied in 1900. The building was constructed under an act passed April 19, 1898, which appropriated $400,000 for the purpose; a building commission, consisting of the Governor, Attorney-General and three members appointed by the Governor, had full charge of the enterprise. On February 16, 1899, the corner- stone of the new State building was laid. Suitable ceremonies and speeches were the order of the day. Governor Bushnell, Judge J. A. Shauck of the Supreme Court, F. S. Monnett, Attorney-General, and William G. Deshler, of Columbus, delivered addresses. Mr. Deshler, who was present at the laying of the corner- stone of the capitol nearly sixty years before, gave interesting reminiscences and historical references con- cerning that period. This structure, known as the "Judiciary Building," grew out of the need of accom- modations for the judiciary, the Attorney-General's office, the Supreme Court and the law library. The development of the State's business has, ever since the
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