USA > Ohio > Ross County > Chillicothe > Ohio centennial anniversary celebration at Chillicothe, May 20-21, 1903 : under the auspices of the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society : complete proceedings > Part 24
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When President Lincoln was inaugurated, Mr. Chase be- came secretary of the treasury. To his deep religious feeling:
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is attributed the closing sentence of the Emancipation Proclama- tion, "and upon this act I invoke the favorable judg- ment of all mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." As secretary of the treasury, which was bankrupt when he took it, and which, under his wise and far-seeing management, supplied the funds for the Civil War, no eulogium is needed. The result speaks for itself. His record there will be his endur- ing monument. Resigning from the Treasury Department he was shortly after appointed to the Chief Justiceship, and filled that office until his death. The most celebrated act of his judicial career was presiding at the impeachment trial of President John- son. The extremists in the Republican party criticised his action in that case, but as was said by William M. Evarts, "The charge against him, if it had any shape or substance, came only to this: that he brought into the Senate, in his judicial robes, no concealed weapons of party warfare."
Although Mr. Chase had filled with ability, dignity and success the great offices of governor, United States senator, sec- retary of the treasury and chief justice of the Supreme Court, and although he will ever remain one of the foremost figures in one of the greatest history-making epochs of all time, yet it is generally believed that he died with his life-long ambition unsatisfied. Through all the warp and woof of his long and il- lustrious career there runs the thread of hope- hope of the presidency - fated only to fray out at last in disappointment and regret. Mr. Chase, under ordinary conditions, would have made an ideal president, but in 1860 another sort of leader was needed, and the Ohio Republicans who attended the presidential convention of that year builded better than they knew when they transferred their votes from the handsome, majestic and scholarly Chase to the ungraceful, homely, but God-anointed Lincoln.
WILLIAM DENNISON was born in Cincinnati, November 23, 1815, and died at Columbus, June 15, 1882. His parents were of New England stock, and had settled in Cincinnati about the vear 1808. After receiving such early education as conditions in Cincinnati then afforded, he entered Miami University, grad- uating in 1835 with honors; then studied law in the office of
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Nathaniel E. Pendleton, and was admitted to the bar about 1840, remaining in the practice until 1859. In December, 1840, he married Ann Eliza Neil and removed to Columbus, becom- ing largely interested in the development of that city. He was associated with the original constructors of the Cleveland and Columbus Railroad, and also the Columbus and Xenia Railroad, of which he was the president from 1854 to 1859. He was also president for three years of the Exchange branch of the State Bank of Ohio at Columbus.
From his earliest manhood Governor Dennison was deeply interested in public affairs, and identified himself with the Whig party. In 1848 he was elected to the State Senate. In 1856 he was a delegate-at-large to the first National Republican con- vention at Philadelphia, and in 1859 was elected governor, after holding a number of debates with his equally eloquent opponent,. Rufus D. Ranney.
When the Civil War broke out he was still in office as gov- ernor, and continued during the nine months remaining of his. term. The great work of his administration was equipping and forwarding troops. In addition to the magnificent way in which Ohio responded to the call for volunteers, the two events which gave the governor greatest satisfaction were the ability of the northwestern states to hold Kentucky in the Union, and the separation of the state of West Virginia from the old state,. thus removing the border line far to the south of the Ohio. River. Retiring from the governorship, he devoted his entire time and energy as a volunteer aide to the governor (his suc- cessor) and to the president.
In 1864 he was permanent chairman of the Republican Na- tional convention which re-nominated President Lincoln. In the tall of that year he was appointed postmaster-general to suc- ceed Montgomery Blair. He remained in the cabinet after President Lincoln's assassination, and until the summer of 1866, when, President Johnson's attitude having become determined, he· was the first to resign his portfolio.
He then became interested in the construction of railroads. until 1875 when Congress provided a new government for the. District of Columbia under the direction of three commissioners ..
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Governor Dennison was appointed chairman of the commission, which position he occupied until 1878. His last appearance in political life was at the Republican national convention in 1880, as a delegate-at-large.
DAVID TOD was born at Youngstown, Ohio, February 21, 1805, and died there November 13, 1868. His father was a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale, who emigrated early to Ohio, serving as a lieutenant-colonel in the War of 1812, and as a judge of the Supreme Court.
David Tod was well educated and bred to the law. In 1838 he was elected to the Senate, and in 1844 was the Demo- cratic candidate for governor. His defeat was slight, but it illustrates the influence of a senseless, yet popular, phrase in a political campaign. He was a "hard money" man, and was accredited with saying that, rather than resort to "soft money," he would do as the Spartans did - make money out of pot metal. The whigs had pot-metal medals struck, and raised the cry of "Pot Metal Tod," which stuck to him so effectually that he was de- feated, although the state was then naturally Democratic.
A similarly ridiculous episode occurred in 1875 when the foolish but effective cry of "The Pope's big toe" roused an anti- Catholic sentiment which defeated Governor Allen.
Governor Tod was minister to Brazil some years. In 1860 he was vice-president of the ever memorable "Charleston Con- vention" where the secession of the southern Democrats broke up the convention, and paved the way for rebellion. After the adjournment of that convention to Baltimore, Caleb Cushing, the chairman, went off with the southerners, and that left Mr. Tod as chairman.
When the war broke out Governor Tod became one of the most ardent advocates of its vigorous prosecution, giving freely of his time and money to the cause, and became so prominent that he was elected by the Union Party (as the combination of Republicans and War-Democrats was called from 1861 to 1866) to the office of governor the first year of the war, serv- ing one term. His tenure of office was during the very heat and passion of the war, and the duties were not only onerous,
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but they required tact, intelligence of the highest order, and quickness of decision. Governor Tod discharged these duties skillfully and zealously, and was especially mindful of the wel- fare of that great army which Ohio kept constantly "at the front." After retiring from office he occupied himself with those large business interests through which he had acquired wealth and influence.
Among his personal qualities was a pungent and ready wit. It is said that being asked why he spelled Tod with one "d" instead of two, as was usual, he humorously replied that if but one "d" was used in the word "God" he thought it fully suf- ficient for the word "Tod."
JOHN BROUGH was born at Marietta, Ohio, September 17, 18II, and died at Cleveland, August 29, 1865, being the only governor who died in office. His parents came to Ohio in pioneer days. At an early age he became a printer, and, be- fore he was twenty, started a paper called The Western Re- publican and Marietta Advertiser. President Jackson and John C. Calhoun were then in the midst of their quarrel over nul- lification, and Brough espoused the cause of Calhoun. This rendered his newspaper so unpopular that he removed to Lan- caster and purchased the Ohio Eagle.
He was elected to the Legislature from Fairfield County in 1838, and soon after became auditor of state, in which office he uncovered corrupt practices and inaugurated reforms that made him deservedly popular. He was also a very gifted speaker and during the great campaign between Thomas Corwin and Wilson Shannon he was put forward by the Democrats to con- front Corwin, confessedly the greatest orator Ohio has ever produced. While auditor of state Mr. Brough purchased a newspaper at Cincinnati, changed its name to the Enquirer, and was connected with it for a few years. In 1848, however, he practically withdrew from public life owing to his dissatisfac- tion with the pro-slavery tendencies of his party. He turned his attention to railroading afterward, and became prominent in that and other business interests, which occupied him until his election as governor in 1863.
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The political campaign of that year was the most virulent which ever took place in Ohio, or perhaps in any other state or country. It began in May by the spontaneous action of the people, and was intensified in bitterness by the nomination of Clement L. Vallandingham, who was then an exile by sentence of a military commission after a vain appeal to the United States Circuit Court. Mr. Vallandingham was a very able man and had the courage of his convictions, however erroneous some of them may have been. His arrest and sentence were by many good citizens deemed to be tyrannical and unconstitutional, and his friends made a bold and vigorous campaign. The result was Governor Brough's election by more than one hundred thousand majority. This result, John Sherman said, was in its effect upon the Union cause "equal to any battle of the war" - an opinion now concurred in by men of all political creeds.
Governor Brough's eloquence and his fiery war speeches did much to endear him to the people and to procure his nomi- nation, but in 1865 he failed of renomination and was deeply chagrined. In this connection it may be mentioned as a curious. fact that none of the three war governors secured a renomination, although all were of fine abilities and high character. Both Governors Tod and Dennison accepted the situation cheerfully. Governor Dennison was probably the victim of a feeling that a War-Democrat should be nominated, being the same reason why Hannibal Hamlin was not renominated for vice-president in 1864. It is not clear why Governor Tod was not renominated, as he was especially popular with the soldiers as well as the people, and both himself and his successor were War-Democrats. Governor Brough's defeat was brought about by the delegation from the army (one hundred and forty-three votes) with Gen- eral Charles H. Grosvenor at their head. This delegation felt (not without cause) that Governor Brough had been arbitrary and dictatorial in his dealings with army officers; and that, be- sides, the time had come to nominate a war veteran. For these reasons they supported General Cox.
CHARLES ANDERSON was born at Soldier's Retreat, or Fort Nelson, Kentucky, near the Falls of the Ohio River, June I,
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1814, and died at Kuttawa, Kentucky, September 2, 1895. His father, Colonel Richard Clough Anderson, was an aide-de-camp of Lafayette's who went to Kentucky in 1783 as surveyor-gen -. eral of the Military Land Grant. His mother was a relative of Chief Justice Marshall. One of Charles Anderson's brothers was Major Anderson, who commanded at Fort Sumpter on that fateful day in April, 1861, when South Carolina fired upon the flag of the Union, "sprinkled blood in the faces of her southern sisters" and awakened the Lion of the North. Another brother was a member of Congress and the first United States minister to the Republic of Colombia.
Graduating from Miami University in 1833, Charles An- derson studied law in Louisville, was admitted to the bar in 1835 and removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he subsequently be- came prosecuting attorney and state senator. His chief object in the Legislature was to procure for the Negro the right to testify in court and of his efforts in that behalf he was justly proud. Soon after retiring from the Senate he removed to Cincinnati, where he practiced law until 1859, when he emi- grated to Texas; but he had a stormy life in that state where an anti-slavery man was held in almost universal detestation.
After the presidential election of 1860 he boldly addressed a great meeting at San Antonio advocating, with patriotic elo- quence, the preservation of the Union. He continued to reside there even after the forty-day residence act had passed the Con- federate Congress, and was arrested as a political prisoner. While confined in the guard tent of Maclin's battery he escaped to Mexico, and thence to Ohio. Thereupon, at the request of the leading men of the country, he was sent to England with letters to Minister Adams, members of Parliament and leading philan- thropists ; but he soon ascertained that the woes of the blacks or the rights of whites in this country, were of far less im- portance than "King Cotton" to our British cousins, and he came home in disgust.
In the summer of 1862 he was appointed colonel of the 93d Ohio Infantry, and served gallantly until desperately wounded at the Battle of Stone River. In 1863 he was nom-
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inated for lieutenant-governor, shared in the great victory of Governor Brough and served out his unexpired term. After that he removed to Lyon County, Kentucky, and passed the re- mainder of his days in retirement.
The state of Ohio owes a debt of gratitude to Governor Anderson for his great labor in early life on behalf of the public school system, and the disabled veterans of the country are indebted to him for the original suggestion of a National Military Home at Dayton.
JACOB DOLSON Cox was born in Montreal, Canada (where his parents were temporarily domiciled) on the twenty-seventh day of October, 1828, and died at Magnolia, Massachusetts, on the fourth day of August, 1900. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1851, then taught school and studied law until 1854. In 1859 he was elected to the State Senate, where he took a con- spicuous position as a man of culture and ability.
At the outbreak of the war he was commissioned brigadier- general, and assisted in the organization of the Ohio troops until July of that year, when he entered on active and gallant service until the close of the war. He rose to be a major- general and a division and corps commander, and developed great military ability.
In 1865 he was elected governor, but declined a renomi- nation in 1867, assigning truthfully as the reason that he could not live upon the small salary then paid, and must return to his law practice. It is known, however, that he could not support the amendment that year submitted to the people of the state providing for negro suffrage, and doubtless that, to some extent, took him out of the race.
After practicing law until 1869, he went into President Grant's cabinet as secretary of the interior. He established civil service reform in his department, and waged relentless war against the abuses in the Land Office, and the office of Indian Affairs, but, not receiving the support he deemed proper from the President, he resigned.
From 1873 to 1879 he was president and receiver of the To- ledo and Wabash Railroad Company. In 1876 he was elected to
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Congress from the Toledo district, returning in 1879 to Cincin- nati. He was elected dean of the Law School in 1880, and pres- ident of the University of Cincinnati in 1883. In 1897 he retired from active life, and devoted himself to literary and historical writing. His books and magazine articles on topics of the war were numerous, carefully prepared, exact and valuable - the last of his works, "Military Reminiscences of the Civil War", was published just after his death.
While Governor Cox was always a Republican, he distinctly differed from his party on many questions. He advocated a tariff for revenue, with protection as an incident only. He was in favor of international bi-metalism and believed that the demonetiza- tion of silver wrought great injustice to the debtor class ; but he felt that the United States alone could not undertake to maintain the parity of the metals. He was opposed to grafting alien and inferior stocks on our national and political system.
Although Governor Cox was actually born in Canada, his family was one of the oldest in the country - one of his ances- tors having been a veritable member of the "Mayflower Colony."
RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES was born at Delaware, Ohio, on the fourth day of October, 1822, and died at Fremont, Ohio, on the seventeenth day of January, 1893. He was a graduate of Kenyon College, and of the Harvard Law School. Thus equipped, he was admitted to the bar in 1845, moved to Cincin- nati in 1849, and entered upon a successful law practice, remain- ing a resident of that city until 1872, when he removed to Fremont.
At the outbreak of the war he became a captain in the 23rd Ohio Infantry. His war service was conspicuously severe, and his conduct especially meritorious. He rose to the command of his regiment, was promoted to brigadier-general, and later bre- vetted major-general for bravery at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. He was elected to Congress in 1864, while in the field, and re-elected in 1866, resigning his second term to take the gov- ernorship. He was thrice elected governor - being the only man who has achieved that distinction.
His last victory (in 1875) largely contributed to his nomina- tion to the presidency, upon which office he entered on March
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4, 1877, having a second time resigned one high office to accept another yet higher.
The perilous contest over the result of the presidential elec- tion of 1876, and its unsatisfactory settlement by that extraor- dinary tribunal, the "eight to seven commission," has passed into history. It is now neither necessary nor profitable to conjecture what may be the cold verdict of posterity. It is sufficient to say that, as president, Mr. Hayes was patriotic, conservative, faith- ful and honest. The future historian may possibly criticize his. title, but cannot assail his character.
After leaving the presidency Mr. Hayes lived in dignified and useful retirement, and was of great benefit to the people of Ohio by his active and intelligent supervision of the penal and char- itable institutions of the state, to whose welfare and improvement. he was thoroughly devoted.
Governor Hayes, a close observer and a deep thinker, read the future more clearly than almost any man of his day. One of his predictions, made nearly thirteen years ago, but which even. now would by many thoughtful and sincere men be deemed chi- merical, was that the amount and value of property held by any one person would ultimately be limited by law, and that the be- ginning of such limitation would be by legislation restricting the amount which could descend to any single heir or legatee.
It is but just and proper to say for Rutherford B. Hayes that such animosity as may have been engendered by his disputed title to the presidency had wholly disappeared in Ohio before his. death. It seemed as if the loss of his popular and devoted wife, Lucy Webb Hayes, in 1889 marked the beginning of a sympathy for the bereaved husband which effaced all baser sentiments. This public feeling, which has never died out, was alike creditable to the people, and grateful to its recipient.
EDWARD FOLLENSBEE NOYES was born at Haverhill, Massa- chusetts, on October 3, 1832, and died at Cincinnati, September 4, 1890. He was descended from Rev. James Noyes who came to this country from England in 1638 and whose ancestors had been driven from France by the edict of Nantes.
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His parents died in his infancy, and, at the age of thirteen, he was apprenticed to the Morning Star, a religious newspaper at Dover, New Hampshire. In 1853 he entered Dartmouth Col- lege, and graduated with high honors, delivering a brilliant ora- tion upon "Eloquence" at the close of his course. Having been born an anti-slavery Whig, he naturally became a Republican, and began his political career at college in 1856 as president of the Fremont College Club.
Removing to Cincinnati in 1857 he studied law, and prac- ticed until the outbreak of the war, when he was commissioned major of the 39th Ohio Infantry. The regiment at once entered active service, and Major Noyes became colonel immediately after the battle of Corinth. During the Atlanta campaign he took part in the battles at Resaca, Dallas, Big Shanty and Kenesaw Mountain. On the fourth day of July, 1864, at Ruffs Mills he was struck in the ankle by a minnie ball, and his leg was ampu- tated there - a second amputation being made a few weeks later at Cincinnati.
As indicating the fibre of this gallant soldier, some brother officers, among whom were Generals Sherman, Dodge, and Ful- ler, passed soon after he received this wound, and asked him anx- iously if he were badly hurt, to which, holding fast to his disabled leg, he replied, "I was ordered to take those works, and I have taken them, and I shouldn't wonder if they had taken one of mine, but its the fourth day of July and I don't care a copper."
Later Colonel Noyes was promoted to brigadier-general, and remained on duty suitable to his condition until April 22, 1865. In that year he was elected city solicitor of Cincinnati, and the next year probate judge of Hamilton County. In 1871 he was elected governor, serving one term; and in 1877 was appointed minister to France, where he was received with especial cordial- ity as a brother soldier by Marshal McMahon. After four years' service in France he returned to the practice in Cincinnati, and in 1889 he was elected a judge of the Supreme Court, remaining on the bench until his death.
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WILLIAM ALLEN was born at Edenton, North Carolina, in December, 1803, died at Chillicothe, Ohio, July 11, 1879. As
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the year of his birth has been variously stated to be 1805, 1806 and 1807, it is proper to say that the date above given is upon the authority of his daughter, Mrs. Scott. His parents died in his infancy, and he was reared at Lynchburg, Virginia, by his sister, the mother of the late eminent jurist and statesman, Allen G. Thurman. Mrs. Thurman removed to Chillicothe in 1819, and the next January Mr. Allen followed her. In order to accompany a friend he made the perilous winter journey over the Alleghanies on foot.
At Chillicothe he pursued his studies, and took up the law. Early acquiring a reputation for sound learning, and convincing oratory, he was chosen, in 1832, as Democratic candidate for Congress in a strong Whig district. Ex-Governor Duncan Mc- Arthur ran against him, but, after one of the most memorable campaigns in the state, Mr. Allen was elected by the bare majority of one vote. In 1836 he left the House of Representatives for the United States Senate, and remained there twelve years, holding a place with Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton, and their like, in the greatest days which that illustrious body has ever known. During his senatorial career he was a vigorous oppo- nent of the Bank of the United States, and an aggressive advo- cate of the American claims under the Oregon boundary dispute. From one of his speeches on the latter proposition was extracted the inspiring slogan of "fifty-four forty or fight," which became the Democratic rallying cry in 1844.
In 1848 the rivalry between Van Buren and Cass for the presidential nomination endangered the success of the party, and the friends of both sent a committee to Mr. Allen to tender him the nomination ; but he, with that highmindedness which was his predominating trait, refused to desert his friend General Cass, who thereupon received the nomination.
Governor Allen was a typical "Gentleman of the Old School." He looked like one, he acted like one, and he was one. His ideas of public and private integrity were all on a lofty plane. After his retirement from the Senate, the congressman from his dis- trict offered to procure and forward to him $6,000 due him on constructive mileage, which he refused to receive. William Allen
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and John A. Dix alone declined to receive it - such was their nice sense of honor.
While a senator he married Mrs. Effie McArthur Coons, his early love, and the daughter of his first political antag- onist, General McArthur. She inherited from her father the estate of "Fruit Hill," where Governor Allen spent his long re- tirement. His wife died when their only child was an infant, and he, with a tenderness and grief that are beyond words to depict, rode from Washington to Chillicothe, carrying her re- mains with him on his horse, and resting at night on a buffalo robe by her side. It is needless to add that he never married again.
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