USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 66
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The duke had traveled in this country. Though doubtless glad that an ocean three thousand miles in breadth rolled between republican America and his baronial halls, he was exceedingly interested in what he saw here, so totally dif- ferent from anything he had ever witnessed, or even conceived of, in his own land. He said that he called upon Governor Jeremiah Morrow, of Ohio. He found the governor, in the coarse garb of a common laborer, wearing a red flannel shirt, at work burning the brush in a clearing. His hands and his face were besmeared with charcoal.
The duke, from his ancestral halls, ever clothed in regal purple, surrounded with the splendors and almost idolatrous obsequiousness of feudal homage, must have gazed upon such a spectacle with the greatest astonishment. He expressed much admiration for Ohio's model governor ; but it is very certain that he had no wish to imitate his example.
From Dresden Mr. Anderson passed through Leipsic, Weimar, Frankfort, to Weisbaden, and thence down that beautiful river where
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" The castled crags of Drachenfels, From o'er the wide and winding Rhine."
Tarrying a short time at innumerable places of interest, he spent a week in Paris, and, crossing over to Liverpool, took passage in a Cunard steamer for his native land. As he returned to his home, from this instructive tour, with health greatly renovated, he removed to Cincinnati and entered into partnership, for the practice of his profession, with Rufus King, Esq. For eleven years he con- tinued in the busy offices of the bar. His health again failing, he decided to seek a milder climate.
His original farming propensities still clung to him. He went to Texas, there to imitate the lives of the patriarchs, amidst his herds, in raising horses and mules. He had ever been an earnest Henry Clay Whig, and was much opposed to the action of the Democratic party in its attempt to annex Texas as a measure of slavery propagandism. When he reached Texas he soon found that all the prominent men there, and the masses of the people, were fanatically excited in favor of a dissolution of the Union, and the establishment of a new government for the Southern States, with monarchical forms, and based on slavery. They would seek the protectorate of England ; send their cotton to England, and receive goods of English manufacture in return.
This was in 1859. His discerning mind soon perceived that there was a widely-organized and treasonable conspiracy to accomplish this end. Rapidly the treason made headway among the ignorant masses of the South. The plan adopted was very cunning. The South, while seemingly opposed to the election of any northern candidate opposed to slavery to the Presidency, was to lend its secret aid for such a result. There was no term which could be uttered to the southern mind more full of opprobium than that of Abolitionist. Having elected one not friendly to the extension of slavery, they could then declare it to have been a northern measure, and, appealing to southern fanaticism, would call loudly for a dissolution of the Union, on the ground that as an Abolitionist was in the Presidential chair, the safety of the South demanded the dissolution of the Union.
Mr. Anderson, with moral courage rarely surpassed, and with integrity worthy of all praise, opposed these suicidal measures, when he stood alone exposed to the fury of pro-slavery fanaticism. Revolutions bring the dregs of society to its surface. Mr. Anderson received anonymous letters threatening him with assassination and every conceivable indignity. There was a large gathering of the secessionists at San Antonio, Texas, on the 20th of November, 1860. Many inflammatory speeches were made. Mr. Anderson then addressed the excited multitude in a strain of patriotic eloquence rarely surpassed. We have room but for one short extract :
" We have truly fallen upon evil time's. A meeting of American citizens is here solemnly convened, seriously to discuss and decide the further existence of our blessed Union. And has it indeed come to this? Has the madness of faction, the virulence of fanaticism, at last reached this point ? Have sectional partisans finally dared to make or devise an assault upon this beloved and most glorious Union which our fathers of the South and the North shed their united blood to cement and establish ; which our mothers blessed in the earliest prayers
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of our infancy ; which nurtured and protected our first and best years, and which, under God's providence, is, I trust, destined to be to our children's children, to the latest generation of mankind, the very greatest boon and blessing which human minds and hands ever planned and executed, or which the Divine will has ever permitted.
"Oh, may it stand, my friends, as deep in the earth and as high in the air as the grandest mountain ; as wide and glorious as old ocean, and as enclosing and vitalizing to its generations as the circumambient air. Whilst ever these fair, blue and bended skies, with their kindling lights of day and night, shall surround our earth, may this dear Union of our native land continue to encompass us and ours forever."
There was, perhaps, not another man in Texas who would have had the moral courage to make such a speech on this occasion. There were many noble Union men there, but they could not express their sentiments but at the peril of their lives. Such men were continually visited by a vigilance commit- tee, tarred and feathered, and hung. The most prominent man in these murders was one of the wealthiest citizens of San Antonio, and a prominent member of the Methodist Church.
Notwithstanding this bold denunciation of treason and traitors, Mr. Ander- son's dignity of character and high reputation for integrity and honor, were such that even the most fanatic secessionists did not venture immediately to assail him. But ere long the Confederate Congress, at Richmond, passed a law allowing forty days for any citizen of the United States, and who still adhered to the United States, to leave the Southern Confederacy, or else to be thereafter subject to the pains and penalties of treason.
Mr. Anderson was compelled to abandon his property, disposing of it at whatever sacrifice. He could not with any safety run the gauntlet of the Con- federate States. He therefore started for home by the way of Mexico. He was pursued by an armed force, captured and brought back to Antonio. Here he was imprisoned, and his life was in great peril. There was in San Antonio an aged and friendless widow, Mrs. Ann C. Ludlum, who loved " the dear old flag," and who revered the man who so nobly defended it. Her heart was moved with the most tender sympathy for the imperiled stranger.
This heroic woman enlisted the services of an equally heroic and noble Ger- man, Mr. T. Z. Houzeau, and actually accomplished Mr. Anderson's escape. And this they did while fully conscious that if they should be detected in this, their deed of heavenly mercy, they would surely die upon the gibbet. Ere long Mrs. Ludlum's undisguised love for the Union caused her to be driven from her home into Mexico. The names of Ludlum and Houzeau, Americans should ever remember and honor.
Mr. Anderson, through many perils, succeeded in reaching the Northern states. England, not unwilling to see our Union broken up, was in sympathy with the rebels. Mr. Anderson was urged to go to England, and by lectures there to endeavor to turn the tide of British public opinion and feeling in re- gard to the whole question. The special necessity for this service seemed to be the impending crisis caused by the seizing by Commodore Wilkes of Mason and Slidell. To this end he was furnished with the best possible testimonials to the
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Hon. Charles Francis Adams, then our very able Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James, as also to Messrs. Cobden and Hope, Miss Martineau, and many other influential personages of England. The result we give in the language of another. We give it without comment, simply as a very clear explanation of his failure in England.
" But he soon found that the American affairs had already been superabund- antly discussed by Mr. Train and others ; and moreover that the particular class who, in that stage of the question, were at all amenable to influence in favor of the Union party, was far more alive to the black philanthropy than to the white civilization of the case. Whereas, of course, with much sympathy for the slaves, and a decided opinion that slaveholders should lose, and would for- ever lose that property, he could not honestly put himself in accord with the current ideas of that class, that slavery could qualify its victims, the slaves, to equal rights of suffrage in the new and stupendous issues then imminent in the great trial of Republican institutions.
" For the rest, he frankly advised his friends over the water, that between. these sentiments, in so far as they were separable, patriotism was with him a very far stronger passion than philanthropy. As between the two classes, if forced to make an election, he was compelled to prefer his own color and race to the African or any other. For these reasons he gave up all ideas of deliver- ing his course of lectures upon the rebellion to the British people. Treating this loss of time and money, therefore, as another vain sacrifice to that cause of his country which had ever been his religion, he again returned to the United States."
It was not to have been expected that Mr. Anderson, born in Kentucky, and from infancy surrounded by slaves and breathing the atmosphere of slavery, could have regarded that subject as it was looked upon in the North by millions who had never seen a slave. Returning to America, Mr. Anderson was appointed colonel of the 93d Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, as gallant a band as patriot- ism ever sent to the battle-field.
But we have not space to enter into the details of his military service, of his chivalric courage, his wounds, and his almost miraculous escape from death at the battle of Stone River. Wounds, and the exhaustion of this terrible cam- paining, so impaired his health that he was compelled to resign his commission. But he now stood so high in the esteem of his fellow citizens that he was soon chosen Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. Governor Brough was the Chief Execu- tive. His sudden death transferred Colonel Anderson to the gubernatorial chair, and he became Governor of Ohio. Thus he took his position in the . ranks of that long line of noble men whose administrative ability has raised Ohio to the proud position which the imperial state now occupies.
At the close of the war Governor Anderson advocated immediate and general amnesty. He was strongly opposed to that impartial ballot which disclaimed all tests of color. This led him to pass into the ranks of the Democratic party. Upon retiring from the office of governor, with fortune much diminished by the war, he removed to Kentucky, and settled upon a large iron estate upon the Cumberland River, in Lyon County. Here he now lives, in 1874, in the seclu- sion of private life, revered and beloved by all who know him.
CHAPTER XLIII.
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LIVES OF THE GOVERNORS - CONTINUED. 1
JACOB D. Cox, RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, EDWARD F. NOYES, WILLIAM ALLEN.
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HON. JACOB D. COX. [See page 679.]
In January, 1866, Jacob D. Cox was inaugurated Governor of Ohio. He was born in Montreal, Canada, on the 27th of October, 1828. His parents were residents of New York, but his father had been called temporarily to Montreal, to superintend the carpenter work upon the magnificent Cathedral of Notre Dame, in that city.
In 1829 the family returned to New York, where the son passed his childhood and youth. Here he received the rudiments of a good education. In 1846, when but eighteen years of age, he entered the renowned college at Oberlin, Ohio, whose fame had then begun to extend through all the states. Here he remained for about three years, prosecuting his studies with great diligence and great success.
Graduating, he married in 1849 a daughter of President Finney, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar in Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio. As was to have been expected of a young man who had distinguished himself at Oberlin, Mr. Cox early espoused and earnestly and untiringly advocated the cause of universal freedom. 'He believed, and under all circumstances announced his belief, in the brotherhood of man, and that all men should be equally protected by the law.
In 1859 he was elected by those who held similar views wi'h himself to rep- resent the Trumbull and Mahoning District in the State Senate. He had then a high reputation for integrity, native talent, and accomplished scholarship. He was especially distinguished for the thoroughness with which he pursued any studies or prosecuted any enterprise in which he might engage. He was alike capable of forming the most comprehensive plans, and of attending to the minutest details essential for the accomplishment of those plans. This combi- nation of powers is one of the highest attributes of successful genius.
Mr. Cox was a fine classical scholar, and also a proficient in both the French and German languages. Some one made the very true remark that a person
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might have a special aptitude for the acquisition of languages, and yet might be very deficient in other mental operations.
" For instance," said he, " I doubt very much whether Mr. Cox could master the difficulties of short-hand writing, or phonography." But it afterwards appeared that Mr. Cox, as one of the amusements of his leisure hours, had become such a proficient in that difficult art that he could rival the most skillful reporters.
From an impartial and admirable sketch of the life of Governor Cox, by William H. Busbey, Esq., who was apparently personally acquainted with his. career, I make the following valuable extract :
" This same quality of mind carried him forward in scientific investigation, in political discussion and inquiry, in the walks of literature, and in the work of his profession. He possessed the rare quality of comprehending great measures without losing sight of necessary details. He had his mental powers so well in. hand that they accomplished results always without loss of time.
" Mr. Cox took his seat in the Ohio Senate on the first Monday in January, 1860. This session of the Legislature was a notable one. One of the most noteworthy of the legislative struggles was over the effort to repeal the kidnap- ping law, so-called.
" Senator Cox was on the judiciary committee. The other Republicans on the committee were conservatives, and united with the Democrats in a report favoring repeal. Mr. Cox made a minority report, defending the law, and carried the Republicans of the Senate with him against the majority report of the committee.
" This law provided for penalties against those who should attempt to carry free blacks out of the state without legal proceedings. It was, like personal liberty bills, a counterbalance to the fugitive slave act. In many other important struggles of the session the personal influence of Senator Cox was felt, and he was extremely popular with the radical wing of his party.
"The tremendous questions sprung upon the people by the threatening indi- cations of civil war, found Senator Cox ready to grapple with them. Convinced that the country was in imminent danger, he held that while no unnecessary provocation should be given, there should be no further yielding to slavery ; and that if the advocates of slavery made war we should fight it out. He compre- hended the necessity for preparation, and assisted in the organization of the state militia. His knowledge of military systems and duties was already very great, and he was made brigadier general."
When treason opened its fire upon our national flag at Sumter, and sought the demolition of this Republic, founded upon equal rights for all men, that there might be reared upon its ruins another government whose corner-stone should be slavery, Mr. Cox espoused, with all the inflexible enthusiasm of his; nature, the cause of human rights and of the integrity of the Union. Imme- mediately, relinquishing all other engagements, he consecrated his tireless energies day and night to patriotic labors. Very efficiently he aided Governor Dennison and General George B. McClellan in organizing troops.
So entire was his consecration to this work that he found time to enter the Senate chamber only to vote upon the most important questions. At this early
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period he was associated with all the military measures adopted by the state to rescue our country from impending perils.
A large number of troops in the service of the general government were ren- dezvoused at Columbus, Ohio. General Cox was placed in command of them, at what was called Camp Jackson, on the 23d of April, 1861. Immediately after this he was commissioned by President Lincoln Brigadier General of United States Volunteers. With the assistance of General Rosecrans, as engineer, he laid out Camp Dennison, and remained in command of the gathering forces there until the 6th of July, when, by orders of General Mcclellan, he took position with his troops at the mouth of the Grand Kanawha, in Virginia.
The upper portion of this valley was held by the rebels, under General Henry A. Wise. With prompt and vigorous movements, the details of which we have not space here to give, General Cox drove his opponents from the valley. He sounded no trumpet to proclaim his achievements, but those best qualified to judge declare that much military ability was displayed in his strategy and his tactics.
Marching triumphantly into the interior, he took possession of the city of Charleston, from which the rebels had fled, and ascended the valley some forty miles farther, established a fortified camp at the mouth of the Gauley River. From this point he successfully carried on operations against the foe during the whole Summer. Though the rebel troops outnumbered the patriots three or four to one, and though General Cox was in the very heart of the enemy's country, they were unable to obtain any foothold in the valley, or to cut off his communications with the Ohio.
We must glide over many adventures in which he took part, while participat- ing in movements against Wise, Floyd and Lee. When General Reno fell at the battle of South Mountain, General Cox succeeded him in command of the Ninth Corps. In this battle and in the subsequent bloody conflict at Antietam, . the troops he led so distinguished themselves that he was promoted to the rank of Major General, to date from October 7, 1862.
The District of West Virginia, and soon after the District of Ohio, were entrusted to his protection. In December, 1863, he was placed in command of the Twenty-third Corps, with his headquarters at Knoxville, Tennessee.
In the Atlanta campaign General Cox led the third division of that corps. But he commanded the entire corps in the engagement at Columbia, and in the sanguinary battle of Franklin, on the 30th of November, 1864. In this engage- ment he signalized himself for coolness and courage. In the desperate engagement at Nashville, General Cox took a prominent part.
In 1865 there was an important movement of the patriot army against the rebels at Wilmington. General Cox took part in this movement. His entire force was engaged in the battle of Kingston, on the 5th of March of that year. Being placed permanently in command of the Twenty-third Army Corps, he advanced with his well-trained band upon Raleigh. Then he was entrusted with the protection of the western half of North Carolina, and superintended the parole of Johnston's troops at Greensboro.
In July, 1865, he was again placed in command of the District of Ohio, and superintended the mustering out and discharge of the Ohio soldiers. Mr. Bus- bey writes, in his interesting biographical sketch :
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" While still in active service, he was brought forward as the soldiers' candi- date for governor of the state. In June, 1865, he was nominated by acclamation as the candidate of the Union Republican party. The political campaign which succeeded was peculiar on account of the after-war issues involved, and the sensitiveness of the different factions of the Republican party. Conscious that he was entering the political field at a critical period, General Cox defined himself, both in letters and speeches, with great distinctness. He did not hesi- tate to express his views on any subject presented by the people. Having carried the state by a handsome majority, he was inaugurated in January, 1866.
" In his first message, and in subsequent ones he discussed the state financial system, the common school system, and questions bearing on reform in charita- ble and reformatory institutions. In all departments he made recommenda- tions which formed the basis of subsequent legislative action. His discussion of the proposed constitutional amendments attracted very general attention, and had much influence. His culture, his dignified bearing, his strong indi- viduality, his freedom from any feeling of petty partisanship, his ability to grap- ple with questions as soon as presented, and his good judgment in settling them, made his administration very popular."
At the close of his term of two years he declined a re-nomination and re- sumed the practice of law in Cincinnati. In 1869, President Grant chose him as Secretary of the Interior. The appointment was received with universal ap- proval. The position was environed with difficulties. The reforms he urged met with opposition. He was unwilling to surrender points which seemed to him important, and, after a few months, tendered his resignation, and retiring from the Cabinet, returned to his law office in Cincinnati.
Since that time, he has vigorously engaged in all those civil duties which can promote the welfare of his fellow men. In 1873, being intrusted with the re- sponsible office of President of the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway, he removed to the city of Toledo, where at the present writing, he resides. I can- not close this brief sketch more satisfactorily than in the words of Mr. William H. Busbey, who, from his personal acquaintance with the governor, is entitled to speak upon his moral, social, and intellectual traits :
" Ex-Governor Cox is a man of fine culture and great strength of character In person he is tall and commanding ; in manner the personification of gentle. manly dignity. As has been intimated, he is a genius in mastering details and in concentrating his powers of mind for immediate and determined action. He is thorough in everything he undertakes, and however brilliant or worthy any special act of his may appear at first glance, it is sure to be more brilliant or worthy on investigation. The power to meet emergencies, to master things, and the disposition to grapple with questions of all kinds, are distinguishing characteristics. He examines carefully, decides quickly, acts unhesitatingly. He entered the Ohio Senate without legislative experience, and yet his qualifi- cations were those of a leader. He entered the army with complete knowledge as to a soldier's duties-as far as the opportunities of civil life would allow. He could excel any of his subordinates in executing all the minutiæe of the manual and drill, and surprised old officers by the fact that he fenced well. He planned a campaign or conducted a battle with a full sense of the emergency to
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be met, and a full knowledge of plans to meet it. As a soldier, he was without parade or flourish, a man of unfailing resources, and in all his career there is the record of no blunder in the management of a department or the conduct of a battle. Where others learned by mistakes, he avoided mistakes by the appli- cation of principles.
" He plunged into the first complications of the war, ready to meet the difficul- ties and competent to act. At the close of the war, he entered a critical po- litical campaign, as ready to meet the issues presented, and more fearless than his party cared to have him, in grappling with vital questions over which the people were puzzling.
" Imperious and earnest in carrying out measures which meet his approval, he is frank and determined in opposing measures that he cannot approve. But he always leaves with his opponents a clear conviction of his honesty of purpose, a respect for his integrity, and a consciousness of his ability."
HON. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. [See page 689.]
The parents of Rutherford Birchard Hayes emigrated from Windham County, Vermont, to Delaware, Ohio, in the year 1817. Delaware then, half a century ago, in the center of the state, was a small but unusally pleasant village of four or five hundred inhabitants. Here Gen. Hayes was born, Oct. 4, 1822.
At the age of twenty he graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio, and commenced the study of law at Columbus. After three years of study, having attended a course of lectures at the celebrated law school of Harvard University, Mass., he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of his profession at Fre- mont. After remaining here four years, he removed in 1849 to Cincinnati. In 1852 he married Miss Lucy Ware Webb, of Chillicothe, and was thus fairly em- barked upon that ocean of life which is ever swept by storms.
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