USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume III > Part 70
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health unfitted him for a soldier's life; but he would have gone forward had his company and regiment been sent to the field before the convening of the House. Much of his time and all of his spare means were devoted towards equip- ping and caring for the soldiers, and in Washington he was conspicuous for his faithful attention to them and their wants. Of six nephews old enough to bear arms, all entered; one lost his life and four fought the war through. Mr. Riddle was largely instrumental in raising the Seventh and Forty-first Ohio Regiments, and in securing General Hazen to command the latter. He also procured an order for a battery, and aided in raising it, which went with the Forty first to the field. The first Union flag raised over the capitol at Nashville was that presented to the Forty-first Regiment by his eld- est daughter. Of Mr. Riddle's Congressional career, it may be said that he was most fortunate in winning the re- spect and confidence of his fellows. He made it a rule to be always in his seat, and there to do nothing but attend to the business of the House. His chair fell in the midst of the leaders, who, in the pressure of numerous calls, were wont to refer to him to know the state of the pending question. At the assembling of this Congress there was but one party in fact or name, and in the House there were not more than thirty members who may be said to have had decided con- victions. There was no caucus and no nomination for Speaker or other officers of the House. Mr. Riddle, with many of the radical Republicans, voted for Frank Blair for Speaker. Galusha A. Grow was elected, and rewarded Mr. Riddle with the tail-end of two unimportant committees, although they became fast friends. At the extra session Mr. Crittenden, who had been transferred to the House from the Senate, introduced his famous slavery-saving joint resolution, which became at once, and so long remained, a stumbling- block. It specifically declared the objects of the war, which were in no event to subvert slavery. On that proposition, will it now be believed that there were but two votes in the negative- John F. Potter, of Wisconsin, and A. G. Riddle, of Ohio? Their isolation upon this important matter led to a fast friendship between them. Afterwards, when it was intimated to Mr. Riddle from the State Department that he might be appointed Consul-general to Canada-an office which would then, in 1864, have been very acceptable to him-upon ascertaining that Mr. Potter very much desired the place, Mr. Riddle promptly withdrew, and urged the ap- pointment of his friend, to whom it was given. Mr. Riddle first attracted the attention of the House in the somewhat celebrated election case of Butler vs. Lehman. Both men were from Philadelphia. Lehman, a Democrat, was the sit- ting member. Butler, a leading Republican, contested his seat. The majority of the committee reported in Butler's favor, one Republican uniting with the Democrats in a mi- nority report. Mr. Riddle made a thorough study of the case, and became convinced that Butler's claim rested in pure, but ingenious fraud. The case was opened by Dawes, chairman of the committee, and but feebly replied to on the part of Lehman. The Democrats had no hope of his retain- ing his seat, and made but a slender effort for him. It was a case for an advocate, and Mr. Riddle came to Lehman's rescue. His first words took the ear of the House. Mem- bers gathered about him-among others, the venerable Crit- tenden, and Wickliffe, of Kentucky-and Lehman, who had never remarked his advocate save as one of a common herd, stood before and as near as possible to him, with tears
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running unheeded from his eyes. This speech of forty min- utes presented a totally new aspect of the case. Sedgwick, a noted Republican lawyer, of New York, followed in a speech on the same side. The debate ran three days, with another speech from Mr. Riddle, when the vote was taken, resulting in a majority of one for Leliman, who proved a sincere supporter of the Union cause. Mr. Riddle took a leading position in the contested election case of Upton, of Virginia. Mr. Upton was one of the few Republicans of the northern part of his State who, while their Democratic neigh- bors were seceding, cast about a dozen votes for him for Congress, no one else being a candidate and no other votes being cast. The Democrats opposed him on account of his known anti-slavery views, and the committee reported unan- imously against him on the ground of a paucity of votes. Mr. Upton requested Mr. Riddle to take charge of his side of the case. Mr. Riddle's argument was considered very original and ingenious, and on the vote, he was sustained by more' than fifty of the ablest Republicans of the House. His lead- ing idea put forth was that the voters were the agents of a district to put it in official relations with Congress. That all men, women, and children, and all possible interests, were the real constituency of a district. That no conspiracy of the voting agents, short of absolute unanimity, should be permitted to prevent these dozen voters and their interests from representation in the House; that one vote, cast as near in accordance with the law as one man could do it, was competent to elect, inasmuch as the law was silent as to the number of votes requisite. No one attempted to re- ply to this position. Mr. Riddle's first set speech upon the great question of slavery was made in January, 1862. Its chief purpose was to urge the arming of the slaves as sol- diers, and, in point of time, was the first utterance of the kind on the subject. Incidentally he discussed their relation as subjects of the United States, under the Constitution; that, while under the State governments they might be treated as slaves, they were also subjects of the national government, owed it allegiance, and were entitled to its protection ; that the United States was lord paramount, and could permit no inferior power to come between it and its subjects. Judge Thomas, of Massachusetts, said the view was startling; that it would overturn slavery, and he. knew of no reply to it. Members at once subscribed for an immense edition of it, though some of them, when the glow of its delivery had passed, were doubtful of the propriety of circulating it. Mr. Riddle's argument on the bill to abolish slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia was made the subject of a hopeful and able article by Horace Greeley in the Independent. Who- ever reads his speech in favor of striking out the legal ten- der clause in the bill authorizing the issue of the first one hundred millions of national currency, will see how little ad- vance has since been made on that subject. The speech on the ship-canal bill gave great umbrage to the Pennsylvanians, and Moorhead was put forward with a terse little written speech prepared for him, to assail him. Mr. Riddle replied in a way that brought down the House, and congratulations from all parts of it. Isaac N. Arnold, of Chicago, and him- self were the only avowed, outspoken friends of President Lincoln in the House at the end of the Thirty-seventh Con- gress ; and Mr. Riddle's speech, delivered on the last night of the session, and devoted to the conduct of members towards the President, and in review of current events, was made a leading campaign document in Ohio and elsewhere
during the ensuing canvass. Among other of Mr. Riddle's Congressional speeches may be mentioned the eulogies on Senators Baker and Pearce-the last at the request of the Maryland delegation, radical though he was, and slavehold- ers as were they. The first battle of Bull Run must be re- garded as fatal to Mr. Riddle's Congressional career. It was known that when a battle was fought he intended to go into it with the " Cleveland Grays," then in one of the First Ohio three-months regiments. His party did not reach the neigh- borhood, though pushing on with all expedition, till the battle had begun. He made his way into the field, and was under fire, but did not reach his friends. In the stampede, com- mencing in the rear of the army and extending to the field, he was not carried back, but made his way to where his Washington party were halted. This was in the gorge at Cub's Run, in the rear of the field, where carriages, army- wagons, fleeing soldiers, and frightened citizens were at a stand-still. In this mêlée, Mr. Riddle rescued from under the horses' hoofs a little drummer boy, who, together with a hapless and hatless New York soldier, had places in his car- riage with his party, and where they were amply cared for by all. Just when they were under way, a man wearing a major's straps, swordless, and seemingly distraught with fear, but otherwise sound and unharmed, got upon the carriage, and insisted on entering it. The vehicle was overloaded already. The officer's abject condition excited disgust in the minds of all. Mr. Riddle denounced him as a coward, threatened to shoot him, and finally pushed him from the step where he was standing. At Centreville the herdsmen were observed gathering up the beef cattle and driving them toward the Potomac for safety, though about them lay the left wing of the army, which had not been engaged, and which was entirely fresh. From here the road was thick with abandoned muskets, provisions, ammunition, etc. Mr. Riddle gathered and carried along at least a half dozen bright, new muskets, many of which were loaded. His carriage was in company with another containing Sen- ators Wade and Chandler, Brown, the Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, and a Major Eaton. When two miles west of Fairfax Court-house, the whole party, well armed, halted, formed across the highway, stopped and held back the tide of runaways, to the number of several hundred, till a regi- ment, on its way to the field, came to their relief. In this melee one of Senator Wade's party-Major Eaton-was severely wounded by a shot from a revolver. At Fairfax Mr. Riddle delivered the arms he had picked up to an of- ficer, who promised that they should see service, and made his way leisurely back to Washington. On his return to the capital Mr. Riddle wrote a hurried but very graphic account of the affair to Mrs. Riddle. Written as it was after so fa- tiguing and exciting an experience, and to his family, the letter was one of much freedom of word and description. From the family it was sent to a friend to read. It fell into the hands of a sub-editor of the Leader, who, without consulting his chief, selected the most striking passages and printed them. It is proper to say here that the editors of the Leader and Herald, were rival candidates for the Cleveland post-office. The Leader had never received any party patronage, and Mr. Riddle, though under no obligations to the Leader, recom- mended its editor for the place, which course, it is perhaps unnecessary to say, did not commend itself, nor him, to the Herald. The portions of Mr. Riddle's letter which appeared in the Leader were seized upon by the Herald, and a ma-
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lignant ingenuity tortured and twisted them into a most effective instrument with which to assail the absent man. Naturally enough, the public mind at the time was in a most feverish condition. Those who were not then in the district can never be made to comprehend the success of these as- saults. Mr. Riddle's friends even seemed to have been struck dumb, and never did recover the power of effective speech. From one of the most popular of men he became the most odious; and that, too, without an act or word of his own further than those outlined in the letter to which al- lusion has been made. It was never pretended that he mis- stated a fact; no part of his letter was questioned; but he was charged with various atrocities and cruelties, among thiem, of throwing a wounded soldier from his carriage, and leaving him to be trampled upon and die in the road. He was burned, hanged, and drowned in effigy, in various parts of the district. Friends wrote him not to return to Cleve- land; or, if he did, to keep aloof from public places. This, of course, was not in accord with his own temper. On his return, he was at pains to present himself at the most fre- quented points, especially in the neighborhood of the Herald office, but no word or whisper of disrespect fell upon his ears. It was well known that he was not a man to be as- sailed in that manner. Mr. Riddle made a calm and tem- perate statement of the occurrences of the 21st of July, 1862, and his connection with them, which was published both in the Ohio and in many of the Eastern papers, the New York Times pronouncing it the best account of the battle then given. The Herald continued its war upon him, how- ever, during the remainder of his Congressional term-vari- ous persons even assailing his wife when they had not the courage to attack him. Meantime, he busied himself in raising and caring for volunteers, and in attention to his duties in Washington, making no further reply to the attacks of his enemies. Mr. Greeley, his warm personal friend, * urged him, in 1862, to announce himself as an independent candidate for re-election, and promised him the aid of the Tribune in the canvass. This course would have been in accord with Mr. Riddle's own wishes, but other counsels pre- vailed. At this time, also, the Herald clique had influence enough to induce the Ohio Legislature to make an important change in the district-detaching Geauga and annexing Sum- mit County. His opponents for the seat made constant and ingenious use of the Herald libels, and he was defeated in the convention by the defection, as was said, of his Cleve- land supporters; he led in the ballotings, but they were the first to give him up. His mistake was in not following Mr. Greeley's advice ; that, and the failure to go to the defense of John Brown, when applied to for that purpose, may be regarded as two patent blunders of his life. In the latter matter, Mr. Riddle was absent from Cleveland when the message reached there, or he would have gone at once. Late as it was when he reached Cleveland, he was anxious to start, though it was then thought impossible to reach the scene of the trial in time. It was found that he might have done so, and it has been the keenest regret of his life that he did not go. "You can not save him," said his friend, D. K. Cartter, " but you can embalm his memory for history as no other man can." Something of this Mr. Riddle may have also felt. After the close of his brief Congressional career, he devoted himself again to the law. He was also largely instrumental in bringing forward John Brough for Governor, in 1863. He attended the State Convention, and
did effective service in the Vallandigham campaign, from the first predicting that Vallandigham would be defeated by fifty thousand on the popular vote, for which declaration he was thought to be wildly visionary. The following autumn Mr. Riddle was asked to accept a consulate in Cuba, for the purpose of making an examination into the plans and work- ings of the blockade-runners-a consulate being a con- venient pretext. In December, 1864, he took passage to Nassau, and from thence to Havana, in a British steamer, which carried a large company of rebels and blockade-run- ners. Ere his departure from Cleveland, the bar unani- mously tendered him a public dinner, the only honor of the kind, it is said, ever at that time, rendered by the mem- bers of that body. Mr. Riddle went by way of Nassau; was absent until the following May, performing his mis- sion to the entire satisfaction of the State Department, and remained in its - service some time after his return. He was the means of the capture and detention of two block- ade-runners, and of breaking up a well-arranged and ex- tensive scheme, having its headquarters in New York. He studied Spanish rule in Cuba, and became greatly inter- ested in the island. . He was now in a position to consider his own future, and leaving the Canada Consul-generalship to Mr. Potter, he determined to establish himself in Wash- ington in the practice of law. A very promising opening proffered itself in a firm, the leading lawyer of which had recently died. On consultation with Judge Black, whose offer of partnership was pending, this was thought to be the most immediately eligible, and it was accepted. His family fol- lowed him late the succeeding autumn. Those who knew the strength of Mr. Riddle's attachments to his life-long asso- ciations of persons and places can imagine something of the effort this change cost him. The new firm, for various reasons, was not a success. The prosecution of claims was so utterly distasteful that Mr. Riddle refused to enter upon it, and would never attempt to "lobby" cases in Congress. He had the confidence of Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, and was retained in many important military cases, where he achieved both reputation and fees. Among these were his defense of General Baker at' Washington, and again at Trenton, and of General Schofield at Richmond, all of these being memorable cases. At Trenton Mr. Riddle was associated with Mr. James T. Brady, of New York, who sur- rendered to him the closing argument, with which, and also his management, Mr. Brady was so well pleased that he in- vited Mr. Riddle to remove to New York -- a solicitation sub- sequently renewed with flattering assurances. Mr. Brady's death soon after prevented further consideration of the mat- ter. On his entrance to the Washington bar, Mr. Riddle was, and continued to be for some time, the only Republican law- yer in the courts of the District, and his success with juries soon brought him a very large practice. For a time he was the sole adviser and advocate of the colored race in the Dis- trict; seldom, however, receiving the smallest fee for his services. He has always retained their confidence. A word should be said of the celebrated "Safe Burglary" case, in some respects the most remarkable that has ever occurred in this country. A strong combination of the citizens of the District of Columbia were prosecuting its government before a joint committee of both houses of Congress. A conspiracy, originating with persons near the President of the nation, was formed to charge the crime of burglary and larceny on the leader of these citizens in such a way as to cause belief that
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it was done to aid the prosecution. The safe in the office of the United States District Attorney was prepared, the office broken open, the safe blown with gunpowder, the contents carried for delivery to the leader's house, as prearranged, and only failed of being received there from sheer inability to awaken his household. Though the plot was most ingen- ious, through its failure at the last its managers were com- pelled to prosecute their own tools. The assistant District Attorney fell under suspicion for his dilatory proceedings and other causes. Congress investigated the affair, abolished the District government, and sent its evidence as to this crime to the Attorney-general. He was thus compelled to notice the case, and the office of the District Attorney, the head- quarters of the plotters and scene of their workings, was set aside. Mr. Riddle at this time was absent among the White Mountains. There was not, nor could there be, any suspicion of his ever having been connected with any ring, and the Attorney-general knew and trusted him. It was also said that the person most suspected desired Mr. Riddle's appoint- ment in charge of the case. This person and Mr. Riddle were warm friends, and no doubt there was an impression that, influenced by this friendship, Mr. Riddle would save the other from any penalty attached to his complicity in the mat- ter. In any event, whatever the influence that placed the case in Mr. Riddle's hands, or whatever the expectations formed of his treatment of it, certain it is that he refused to convict the poor tools in jail. The whole case was taken up anew, and investigated before the grand jury in all its bear- ings. Mr. Riddle soon found that he was without support from any quarter, the "ring " having influence in every direc- tion. The Washington detectives were spies upon him, and he could secure no aid from the United States officers in New York or New Jersey. When the indictments were found, the Washington Republican press opened upon him person- ally, and pursued him throughout the trial. It was notorious that the jury was "packed" to acquit; yet the force and vigor of the prosecution made the certainty of the guilt of the accused so clear, that three or four of them stood steadily for conviction. After the trial, Mr. Riddle made an arrange- ment with the chief executor of the conspiracy, by which a confession of the whole affair was to be made to him. At this time, when he had no doubt of the surety that the really guilty ones would be brought to justice, he was suddenly dis- missed out of the cases, which for a time were ended. Within eighteen months this same chief executor and a subordi- nate made full statements of all the facts of the case. This confession proved the accuracy of Mr. Riddle's theory from circumstantial evidence to the minutest detail. This case had to be reviewed on the trial of Babcock, who was now indicted with another for the crime. This chief and subordi- nate were the principal witnesses, but as they had severally sworn to the opposite facts three separate times, hirelings as they were, thoughtful men, who had no doubt of Babcock's guilt, acquiesced in his acquittal. At the latest moment Mr. Riddle was appointed to try this case also, and was leading counsel. The prosecution of the "Safe Burglary" case was fatal to every man towards whom the carefully prepared and justly used evidence directed suspicion; they were marked and ruined men. It was, to some degree, an unfortunate af- fair also for the man who conducted the prosecution. The secret and wide ramifications of the "ring" conspiracy em- braced a large number of influential men, who dared not openly confess to cause of enmity towards him, but who were
enabled seriously to interefere with his private practice. The mind of the President was poisoned against him, of which fact an evidence may be cited. The Postmaster-general, Mr. Jewell, wished Mr. Riddle to prosecute certain parties for fraud in the Post-office Department, but was not permitted to retain him in the cases; and in various ways has he been made to feel the persistent influence of secret, and be- cause secret, powerful enemies .* As will be seen in.the re- ports of the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Riddle is often before that tribunal, and few are accorded a more at- tentive hearing. Mr. Riddle is the authority for the state- ment that he never volunteered a speech, and never but once volunteered as counsel. It is his idea that "a lawyer, like a woman, should wait to be asked." He has tried a hundred cases without a fee, but never offered himself in but one. This was the case of a poor black girl for the murder of her white lover-Minnie Gains. She was reared a slave; and the circumstances of her betrayal, and desertion when but two or three months advanced in pregnancy were heartless and cruel. She was a woman, and colored. The murdered man was well connected, and a clerk in the Treasury De- partment. It was in the early years of emancipation, and there was an intense feeling against the prisoner. She killed a white man whose conduct, in the popular opinion of the capital, had honored her. She had not a friend; was almost unknown among those of her color; no money, and of course no counsel or witnesses in her behalf. Mr. Riddle volunteered his services, and sent messengers into the inte- rior of Virginia, where, at much expense, he secured the at- tendance of witnesses. One of his daughters, with other ladies of Washington society, visited the poor woman in prison, and sat with her during her awful trial for her life. It was one of the first cases in which colored jurors sat-the jury being about equally divided, black and white. The trial lasted many days; excitement ran high; but the jury returned a verdict of acquittal. The girl Minnie and her child obtained a good home in a family in Boston, where, at last accounts, she was "proving herself worthy of her good fortune." This was one of about forty cases of homi- cide in which Mr. Riddle has appeared, on one side or the other, in his professional life. Only one of his numerous de- fenses entirely failed. This last was the case of Barney Wood, a Union soldier, who shot a man in a drunken fury. In spite of every effort of his counsel in his behalf, to the jury and the Executive, he was convicted and hanged. Mr. Riddle has never since appeared in a homicide trial. In the case of Bolster, for murder-an earlier case-Mr. Riddle was retained when the prisoner was under sentence of death. When the retainer was forthcoming, it was found to be from the earnings of Bolster's mistress. It is needless to say that the fee was declined, though Mr. Riddle went on with the case. Another case-Darden, for the murder of McCarty- grew out of a feud between the two classes of Washington gamblers. It, of course, created much excitement among this peculiar class of " gentlemen," and Mr. Riddle was the object of much effusive attention from them. The liberal fee he re- ceived was paid by John Morrissey, though no other evi- dence that he was otherwise connected with the affair ever came to Mr. Riddle's notice. Though much in the criminal courts, Mr. Riddle has always had a large civil practice, and stands quite as well as a commercial lawyer. Of his re-
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