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 28
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The two congressmen, holding equal terms, and the longest terms ever conferred upon Ohio congressmen, were Joshua R. Giddings, of Ashtabula, and Samuel F. Vinton, of Gallia. These two gentlemen were honored by eleven terms or twenty- two years each in the House of Representatives. The ser- vice of Mr. Giddings was continuous during that period of time but Mr. Vinton, who began his congressional service in the Eighteenth Congress and ended with the Thirty-first, did not serve in the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congress. Garfield served nine terms, and the present repre- sentative from the Eleventh Congressional District has had an equal number of elections, but Garfield's service was continuous, while the congressman from the Eleventh District had a break of a single term. Joseph Vance served nine full terms. Elisha Whittlesey, Robert Schenck and John A. Bingham, each served eight terms. Thomas Corwin served seven terms of fourteen years. Otherwise, the highest in rank have been Lewis D. Campbell, Henry C. Van Voorhis, William McKinley and Ezra B. Taylor, each of whom has had six terms and Mr. Van Voorhis is ably filling his sixth term and it does not appear that his career in Congress is yet ended.
It will be seen by a careful study of the career of Ohio. congressmen in the House of Representatives, that continuous. elections and long service have made it possible for Ohio to
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achieve the results it has in the national body. At least the record can be fairly interpreted to support that theory. Few men can reach high rank in Congress and be of especial benefit to the state, the country or their people at home without the force and influence which time, study and experience in the House gives to a member possessed of average ability, education and wisdom. It requires time, observation and contact with the machinery of legislation to fit a man for a leading position in Congress. Hence the state, district or community which passes around its seat or seats in Congress by a system of rota- tion will generally be found to be unknown to the history being made in the greatest popular legislative body in the world.
GREAT EVENTS.
It will not be the purpose of this address to comment especially upon individual action hereafter so much as upon great national events, and the part taken by Ohio therein.
The slavery question divided the people of Ohio into more. than two political organizations. There was the Abolitionist pure and simple, and Joshua R. Giddings was the typical leader of the sentiment. An Abolitionist of the early period believed that it was the duty of Congress to abolish slavery by some process, some method, wherever slavery existed, whether in the District of Columbia, in the territories, or in the states. To them the institution was a cursed institution, a blight upon our civilization, an impediment to our progress, and they de- manded its extinction. The Democratic party in Ohio long before the Rebellion took strong ground in opposition to the extension of slavery, and to slavery itself. Its platform, pre- ceding the war, declared that the Democratic party looked upon "slavery as an evil, and opposed to the best interests of the Government, and so believing, we will use all power clearly given by the terms of the National Compact to mitigate and finally eradicate the evil." This is in substance the declaration oft repeated in the Ohio platform. The exact language it is not intended here to repeat.
The conservative element at that early time was in con- siderable measure found in the ranks of the Whig party. Thomas
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Corwin, himself a son of Kentucky, Samuel F. Vinton, and many others, were highly conservative and did not join with the Abolitionists. Notably Mr. V. B. Horton was firmly fixed in the ranks of the more moderate men of ante-bellum days.
The anti-slavery sentiment moved slowly in Ohio, although there was bitter opposition to slavery, and a great body of able men advocated the doctrines of Giddings, Chase and others. Yet not until John Sherman headed a convention at Columbus, was the Republican party fully organized upon the basis of free speech, free soil, free territory, and free men.
Then it was that a readjustment of old party lines took place in Ohio, and the Republican party of that early day was made up of Democrats and Whigs, who were anti-slavery men and who believed in the platform of the new party. The Re- publican party proper in Ohio had such men as Giddings, Schenck, Vinton and others, but these three men represented three distinct elements, one the Abolitionist, another the con- servative Whigs, and the third, the fiery, able, indefatigable leader Robert C. Schenck. No man filled a place in Congress from Ohio with greater fame as a leader, debater and wise statesman than did Schenck. Columbus Delano came into the Twenty-ninth Congress and was a conspicuous figure in the great contests that preceded the war. He served three terms with great dis- tinction and joined with his associates in resisting the aggres- sions of slavery. But John Sherman, who served four terms in the House of Representatives, distinguished himself above all others by his determined opposition to the domination of slavery. It was John Sherman, at the head of a committee, that laid bare the wrongs and outrages in the elections in Kansas. It was John Sherman who, voicing the sentiment of a majority of the people of Ohio, hurled defiance in the face of the radical ag- gressive element of the South, and brought upon himself the criticism and opposition of the conservative Whig element of Ohio, and it was the votes of Ohio congressmen, elected as Whigs, that defeated his election as speaker, the keynote of the opposition being an endorsement of a certain anti-slavery publication known as the "Helper Book." But Ohio then stood
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conspicuous in the ranks of the leaders of thought and progress,. as she has done at all times.
Sherman entered Congress in the Thirty-fourth Congress, and left it at the close of the Thirty-seventh. In the Thirty- fourth Congress he had as colleagues, among others from Ohio, John A. Bingham, Lewis D. Campbell, Samuel Galloway, Joshua R. Giddings, Valentine B. Horton, Oscar F. Moore, Benjamin Stanton and others. Here was a galaxy of strong men, all new to Congress except Giddings, but all typical representatives of the great spirit that, emanating from the conditions to which reference has already been made, placed Ohio then, as now and always, in the front ranks of progress and patriotism. These men were our representatives prior to the war.
The Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses brought us to the culmination of organized rebellion. Samuel S. Cox, of Ohio, came in the Thirty-fifth Congress as did also George H. Pendleton. Mr. Cox was a young man of great promise and foreshadowed the brilliant career that he after- wards had as a representative from Ohio and from New York, He ably represented the central district of Ohio in four Con- gresses. George H. Pendleton served in the House of Rep- resentatives, four Congresses, one term in the Senate, and after- wards died abroad as minister to Germany. Charles D. Mar- tin with Vallandingham and Cary A. Trimble, were members of the Thirty-sixth Congress, all young men, full of life, vigor and great ability. Vallandingham made a career; Trimble served with ability, and it has always been regretted that Charles D. Martin, who gave assurance of great achievements, did not continue longer in the House of Representatives. He had the conspicuous ability which makes leadership possible and he had the education and ambition that would have early made him prominent had he remained longer. C. B. Tompkins, splendid orator, warm-hearted patriot, champion of the down-trodden, was a colleague of Sherman and Giddings in these great contests.
Wells A. Hutchins, clear-headed, able, brilliant, was a mem- ber of the Thirty-eighth Congress. This brilliant galaxy of statesmen were the representatives of Ohio in the Congresses. that preceded the war. Sherman was the true leader of Ohio.
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sentiment as it finally developed, but there was no delegation in these Congresses, the period of whose existence led up to the Civil War, that had superior ability to that from Ohio.
Passing the epoch that preceded the war and coming into the years and times that tried the foundations of the Govern- ment, we find Ohio strong, vigorous and potential. Some of those to which special reference has already been made came forward and served in the Congresses of reconstruction. There is no period of American history where real statesmanship, profound learning and undaunted loyalty were of higher worth than in the Congresses during and succeeding the war.
Garfield went to the Thirty-eighth Congress and found Hutchins, Long, Cox, Pendleton, Schenck, Spalding and others his colleagues. Garfield served for eighteen years, and during that period of time the country merged from the closing hours of the great war all through the travail of reconstruction, and the horrors of inflated currency, and he closed his career in Congress when resumption of specie payments had put the cap- stone upon the temple of a reunited, reinvigorated and prosperous nation.
Garfield had mighty influence in the House of Represen- tatives. He served as chairman of the committees on Military Affairs, Banking and Currency, Ways and Means, and other important committees, and was, in all respects, an acknowledged leader of thought and action. He had with him during his career in these positions of leadership able men. In the Thirty- ninth Congress there came from Ohio, Plants, a clear-headed, able man, and Martin Welker, and Rutherford B. Hayes, after- wards to become president of the United States.
It may be remarked in this connection that the men from ·Ohio who achieved distinction in the years that followed the war were almost without exception men who had served the country upon the battlefield. The country was appreciative of their services and responded gratefully to the suggestion of their promotions in civil life.
Among the men who, perhaps, more than others dis- tinguished themselves in the period of reconstruction, it is just to remember Samuel Shellabarger, who entered Congress in the
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"Thirty-seventh Congress. He served with great distinction, a colleague of Bingham. He was a member of the Thirty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-second Congresses, a period which carried him through the great reconstruction event. No men did more than Shellabarger and Bingham in shaping the reconstruction policy of the Government. They stood together upon nearly all the important questions, and without an ex- ception no men from Ohio ever did more for the good of the country than did Shellabarger and Bingham.
The Fourteenth amendment to the constitution was the handiwork, it is said, in its phraseology, of Mr. Bingham. Whether the proposition of Thad. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, would not have better met the exigencies of this time, is a subject that will bear argument and discussion on both sides.
Moving forward now to the period when the great ques- tion was one of finance, we find Ewing and Warner and others from Ohio, prominent and distinguished as advocates of a system of finance which was not agreed to, and was not adopted by Congress or by the people, but they were men of great ability and fearlessly stood by the positions which they assumed, but ·Garfield, Lawrence, Beatty, Bingham, Delano, Eggleston, Hayes, Schenck, Shellabarger and Wilson, formed a body of men that stood for the Ohio idea, for sound money, specie resumption and national credit. There came a time when a direct vote was had in the House of Representatives proposing the repeal of the resumption act, and so strong was the hold upon the minds of the people that resumption on January 1, 1879, was too early, that Republicans of strong faith faltered and fell. Three Republicans from Ohio in the Congress, when this issue was squarely made, voted to repeal the resumption act, but Lorenzo Danford, J. Warren Keifer, Charles Foster and the men of that class, true types of Republican doctrine, stood un- terrified and unstampeded. These men were entitled to great credit for they stood for a principle which was not popular with the masses, and their vindication has come in the results of their action and is written in the history of the country.
The tariff question has been always a political one. It was political in 1787 and it is political in 1903, and no shift
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or device can ever take the question of tariff out of the politics of the country until the constitution of the United States is materially amended. So long as it is provided in the organic law of the country that bills for the raising of revenue must originate in the House of Representatives, the questions of high duties, low duties, and no duties, will be questions of politics. There is involved in it principles and ideas, fundamental in their character, and necessarily proper subjects of political division. Ohio has led in the discussions upon this great question. In the House of Representatives, where tariff legislation must nec- essarily arise, the battle has been waged long and hard, and Ohio has been conspicuous on the firing line of every contest. Garfield, as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, was a champion of protective tariff, not possibly with the enthusiasm and certainty of the future that were involved in the charac- teristics of William McKinley, but Schenck, Lawrence, Delano and Foster were leaders upon this question, and then came the man who outstripped them all as the champion of protec- tion to American capital and American industry, and a leader that fought unceasingly. As a defender of all assaults no man in the House of Representatives has outranked William Mc- Kinley. I quite remember the successful leadership of Wil- liam D. Kelley, I quite remember Morrill, of Vermont, but no man ever achieved greater distinction and accomplished greater results in this field of politics than did William McKinley. As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, and finally its chairman, he led the battle in 1890, and placed upon the statute books the law that bore his name, and when a seeming rebuke was administered and it appeared that the country had turned against his policy, he never faltered in his faith, he never lowered his standard, he stood as a rock immovable with the utmost confidence that the verdict of 1892 would be reversed, and he lived to see at the end of four short years the labor of his own hands prosper. As a leader on the floor of the House Mckinley has had no superior in this generation. Around him stood the champions of protection, and the leaders of political action in that direction. They took their orders from Mckinley and fought the great battle of 1890 under his direction.
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Coming to the presidency, Mckinley brought with him a thorough knowledge of the House of Representatives; he brought with him a full knowledge of the history of the leg- islation of the country upon the great economic questions of the day, but this is not the time or place for personal eulogy; we are talking about the influence and power that has been exerted by Ohio in the House of Representatives.
Especially important were the services of Butterworth, Outhwaite and Foster, the latter one of the ablest of the busi- ness representatives we ever had in the House, and there are others, which time will not permit me to refer to. All of them achieved reputations, did good work for their country, and placed Ohio in the front rank of legislative power.
Ohio has been honored by the speakership of the National House of Representatives only once during her hundred years of statehood-indeed her representatives have seldom been can- didates. The most notable candidacy, aside from the success- ful one, was that of Mckinley, who sought the speakership of the Fifty-first Congress. His defeat made him chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and gave him the great promi- nence that he attained in the politics of the country and doubt- less did more to make him president than any one event ; but Gen- eral Joseph Warren Keifer was elected speaker of the House of Representatives of the Forty-eighth Congress. He had served with great distinction in the War of the Rebellion and has served in the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Con- gresses, and having been re-elected to the Forty-eighth, became at once a candidate for speaker and was successful. He at- tained prominence and distinction in the chair of the presiding officer. He was a lawyer of great ability and mastered the complications of parliamentary law, so that his decisions upon points of order have been notable and recognized as satisfactory precedents. He retired at the end of the Forty-eighth Con- gress, but he served again as major-general during the Spanish War and is still alive and we are all delighted to see him here present, hale, hearty and vigorous.
O. C .- 20
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It will be seen that I have not referred by name to any of the members of the House of Representatives now representing our state. In the aggregate and as a body they are sober, honest, upright, able men. They stand with repute and credit among their fellows. Comparisons would be odious and in- vidious distinctions improper. In closing it may be well said, and I say it with great pride, that so far as I can recall Ohio has never been called upon to hide her face in shame because of the official conduct of her members of the House of Repre- sentatives. They have stood in the blaze of light of the Nation's observation, and have stood a reputable, earnest, patriotic, and distinguished body of men. For a hundred years the people of Ohio have been earnestly, strongly, efficiently represented, and to-day looking forward as far as it is possible for human insight to look, there is nothing to discourage our people, but everything to make them proud of their standing in this great branch of the people's government. And so we stand to-day here in this famous city, the first capital of the great state, with profound gratitude to Almighty God who has given us homes and locations and roof-trees under Ohio's constitution, proud of our state government, grateful for the heroism of our soldiers and enthusiastically looking to the future.
Here is appended a list of the representatives from Ohio from the organization of the state down to and including the current Congress, the Fifty-eighth. It was compiled by Colonel Taylor, and I have, with his consent, copied it from his inter- esting book on "Ohio in Congress."
REPRESENTATIVES
In their alphabetical order. The numbers following the name indicate the Congress or Congresses in which the representative served, or to which he was elected, with the county of his residence. The changes of membership resulting from deaths, resignations and contests are noted at the foot of the preceding division :
Albright, Charles J. - Thirty-fourth, Guernsey County. Allen, John W. - Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Cuyahoga.
Allen, William. - Twenty-third, Ross.
Allen, William. - Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, Darke. Alexander, James, Jr. - Twenty-fifth, Belmont.
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Alexander, John. - Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Greene.
Ambler, Jacob A. - Forty-first, Forty-second, Columbiana.
Anderson, Charles M. - Forty-ninth, Darke.
Andrews, Sherlock J. - Twenty-seventh, Cuyahoga.
Ashley, James M. - Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Lucas.
Atherton, Gibson. - Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Licking.
Badger, DeWitt C. - Fifty-eighth, Franklin.
Ball, Edward. - Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth, Muskingum. -
Banning, Henry B. - Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Ham- ilton.
Barber, Levi. - Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Washington.
Barrere, Nelson. - Thirty-second, Adams.
Bartley, Mordecai. - Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty- first, Richland.
Beach, Clifton B. - Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Cuyahoga.
Beall, Rezin. - Thirteenth, Wayne.
Beatty, John. - Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-second, Morrow.
Beecher, Philemon. - Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Fairfield.
Beideer, Jacob A. - Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Cuyahoga.
Bell, Hiram. - Thirty-second, Darke.
Bell, James M .- Twenty-third, Guernsey.
Bell, John. - Thirty-first, Sandusky.
Berry, John. - Forty-third, Wyandot.
Bingham, John A. - Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty- seventh, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-second, Harrison.
Blake, Harrison G. - Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, Medina.
Bliss, George. - Thirty-third, Portage; Thirty-eighth, Wayne.
Bliss, Philomen. - Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth, Lorain.
Bond, William Key. - Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Ross.
Boothman, M. M. - Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Williams.
Brenner, John L. - Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Montgomery.
Brinkerhoff, Henry R. - Twenty-eighth, Huron.
Brinkerhoff, Jacob. - Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, Richland.
Bromwell, Jacob H. - Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty- sixth, Fifty-seventh, Hamilton.
Brown, Charles E. - Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Hamilton.
Brown, Seth W. - Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Warren.
Brush, Henry. - Sixteenth, Ross.
Buckland, Ralph E. - Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Sandusky.
Bundy, Hezekiah H. - Thirty-ninth, Forty-third, Fifty-third, Jackson. Burns, Joseph. - Thirty-fifth, Coshocton.
Burton, Theodore E. - Fifty-first, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty- sixth, Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Cuyahoga.
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Busby, George H. - Thirty-second, Marion.
Butterworth, Benjamin. - Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Hamilton.
Cable, Joseph. - Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Carroll.
Caldwell, James. - Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Belmont.
Caldwell, John A. - Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Hamilton.
Campbell, James E. - Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Butler.
Campbell, John W. - Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Adams.
Campbell, Lewis D. - Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth, Forty-second, Butler.
Canby, Richard S. - Thirtieth, Logan.
Carey, John. - Thirty-sixth, Wyandot.
Cary, Samuel F. - Fortieth, Hamilton.
Cartter, David K. - Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Stark.
Cassingham, John W., Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Coshocton.
Chambers, David. - Seventeenth, Muskingum.
Chaney, John. - Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Fairfield. Clark, Reader W. - Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Clermont.
Clendenen, David. - Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Trumbull.
Cockerill, Joseph R. - Thirty-fifth, Adams.
Coffin, Charles D. - Twenty-fifth, Columbiana.
Converse, George L .- Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Franklin.
Cook, Eleutheros. - Twenty-second, Huron.
Cooper, William C. - Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Knox.
Corwin, Moses B. - Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Champaign.
Corwin, Thomas. - Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, Warren.
Cowen, Benjamin S. - Twenty-seventh, Belmont.
Cowen, Jacob P. - Forty-fourth, Ashland.
Cox, Jacob Dolson. - Forty-fifth, Lucas.
Cox, Samuel Sullivan. - Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth, Franklin.
Crane, Joseph H .- Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Montgomery.
Creighton, William, Jr. - Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Twentieth, Twenty- first, Twenty-second, Ross.
Crouse, George W. - Fiftieth, Summit.
Crowell, John. - Thirtieth, Thirty-first, Trumbull.
Cummins, John D. - Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, Tuscarawas.
Cunningham, Francis A .- Twenty-ninth, Preble.
Cutler, William P. - Thirty-seventh, Washington.
Danford, Lorenzo. - Forty-third, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Fifty- fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Belmont.
Davenport, John. - Twentieth, Belmont.
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Dawes, Rufus R. - Forty-seventh, Washington.
Day, Timothy C. - Thirty-fourth, Hamilton.
Dean, Ezra. - Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth, Wayne.
Delano, Columbus. - Twenty-ninth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Knox.
DeWitt, Francis B. - Fifty-fourth, Paulding.
Dick, Charles. - Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, Fifty-eighth, Summit.
Dickey, Henry L. - Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Highland.
Dickinson, Edward F. - Forty-first, Sandusky.
Dickinson, Rudolphus. - Thirtieth, Sandusky.
Disney, David T. - Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Thirty-third, Ham- ilton.
Doan, Robert E. - Fifty-second, Clinton.
Doane, William. - Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, Cuyahoga.
Dodds, Ozro, J. - Forty-second, Hamilton.
Donovan, Dennis D. - Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Henry.
Duncan, Alexander. - Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-eighth, Hamilton.
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