OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - HISTORY: Chapter 40 (Abbott, John S. C., 1875)
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			Chapter XL
		Lives of Governors - Continued
	
   			   Hon. Duncan McArthur	
   Duncan McArthur, who was Governor of Ohio from 1830 to 1832, was like many
others of our most successful men of Scottish descent. He was born of poor
parents in the year 1772, in Dutchess County, New York. When eight years of
age, his parents moved to an humble log cabin in the solemn wilderness of
Western Pennsylvania. Duncan was a stout lad and was hired out at day's work
and month's work on the adjacent clearings. Nothing can be more cheerless in
aspect than the commencement of clearings in the gloomy forest. The dead, 
girdled trees, with their leafless, skeleton branches deforming the sky; the
blackened stumps; the decaying trunks of gigantic trees, uprooted by the 
wind; the rough and broken soil; the rank weeds, and the comfortless looking,
windowless hut of logs, all combine to present a picture which to the eye of
taste is revolting.
   Amid such scenes, a day laborer, coarsely clad and coarsely fed, Duncan
McArthur was reared. Little could he then have supposed that he was to 
become one of the most wealthy men in the nation, that he was to occupy the
highest posts of honor, and take his stand as the acknowledged equal of the 
most distinguished men. He contrived, by occasionally spending a few weeks 
in school, to pick up a little learning, so that he could read and write. 
Having naturally a strong and inquisitive mind, he was ever gaining additional
education and rising in mental culture.
   Like most of the young men of his day, who had energy of character and
their fortunes to make, he decided to emigrate to the West. With that object 
in view, and having no money, when about eighteen years of age he enlisted 
under General Harmar, for his campaign against the Indians north of the Ohio
River. In a previous part of this volume we have given an account of that
disastrous expedition. Barely surviving the perils and hardships of this
terrible campaign, in 1792 he again enlisted as a private in that terrible
war with the savages, which for so many years desolated our western frontiers
with smouldering ruins and blood.
   At the battle of Captina, which was foung in May, 1792, young McArthur
took a conspicuous part. The conflict took place in May, 1792, in what is now
Belmont County, Ohio. The American troops, a small band, were attacked by an
overwhelming force of savages. We find the following statement in reference
to this event:
   "The commanding officer was shot early in the action. McArthur, although
the youngest man in the company, was chosen in its command. His conduct on
this occasion was such as to elicit the hearty applause of his associates.
Young McArthur showed the best of judgment, and fought in such a manner as 
to protect his men from the fire of their enemies as much as possible. When 
the order for retreat was finally given, Captain McArthur, with a gallant
little band of troops, covered the retreat and ordered the wounded to be sent
in advance. This fight made him the general favorite of the frontiersmen."
   Returning from this campaign, Captain McArthus, still a young man, but
twenty years of age, hired himself out for a few months to work at some salt
springs in Maysville, Kentucky. Looking for jobs wherever he could find them, 
he ere long engaged as chair-bearer to assist General Massey in surveying the
Scioto Valley. There again he was employed as a scout to watch the proceedings
of the Indians and to give warning of their approach. This was one of the
most difficult and perilous of enterprises. It required the greatest sagacity,
coolness and bravery. The scouts, two only together, had to paddle up the
lonely river and penetrate the forests to great distances. They were ever in 
danger of encountering bands of hundreds of Indian warriors. If captured, 
death, by the most awful torture, was their inevitable doom. Several of his
adventures we have already described.
   In the Spring of the year 1793, four of these heroic scouts were employed
continually to explore the Kentucky bank of the river, a distance of about
150 miles from Maysville east, to the mouth of the Big Sandy. Bands of Indian
warriors, more ferocious than wolves, were continually crossing the river 
from the northern wilds, carrying woe and death to the humble homes of Kentucky.
The object of these scouts was to keep a vigilant eye upon the river, and 
give the immediate alarm when the savages appeared.
   The names of the four young men who quite signalized themselves in this
service were Duncan McArthur, Samuel Davis, Nathaniel Beasley and Samuel
McDowell. These heroes went in pairs, through the pathless, uninhabited
wilderness, two leaving each extremity of the route each week, and meeting
nearly opposite the mouth of the Scioto. The vigilance of the howling savages
was such that it was dangerous to fire a gun at game, or to build a fire, 
lest the smoke by day or the gleam by night should bring the moccasined foe,
with his soft tread, upon them. Occasionally the four would unite in exploring
some solitary stream. Two would, as noiselessly as possible, screening themselves
beneath the overhanging foliage, paddle the birch canoe, while the other
two would advance on foot, through the dense forest, about a mile in advance,
keeping a sharp lookout.
   After spending several months in these perilous labors, Captain McArthur
again engaged in the service of General Massey, as assistant surveyor. In 
this employment he was occupied for several years. He assisted in laying out
several towns, and among others, Chilicothe, where he finally took up his
residence. It was in this service that he laid the foundation of his large
fortune, for thus he became acquainted with the richest lands in Ohio, and
was enabled to make investments which afterwards brought him in perhaps an
hundred fold.
   With increasing wealth and reputation, and ever growing confidence in his
own abilities, he began to feel ambitious of political distinction. There 
were, however, other men in his county of equal ambition, and men of far 
higher intellectual acquirements. Captain McArthur had formidable rivals to
contend against. In the year 1805 he was elected to the State Legislature.
His round-about common sense and his industry enabled him to take, from the
beginning, a very respectable position in that body.
   His services as a soldier influenced him to take a deep interest in the
military organization of the state, and he rose in office until he attained
the rank of major general. In the war of 1812, he marched, as colonel of one
of the Ohio regiments, to Detroit with General Hull. In this unfortunate
expedition Colonel McArthur was second in command. Upon the surrender he 
became a prisoner of war to the English, and being released on his parole, 
returned to Ohio, deeply mortified and exasperated. Much as General Hull's
military character suffered from this expedition, the reputation of Colonel
McArthur remained unblemished.
   Soon after this he was elected a member of the Congressional Legislature
on the Jeffersonian, or Democratic, ticket. He succeeded Hon. Jeremiah Morrow, 
and was elected by an unprecedented majority. Being released from his parole
by exchange, he immediately resigned his seat in Congress and re-entered the
army as brigadier general, under General Harrison. In 1814 he succeeded 
General Harrison in command of the Northwestern army. He proved an able and
a gallant officer. At the battle of Malcolm's Mills he defeated the British
with great loss on their side.
   Upon the declaration of peace, General McArthur again retired to his farm.
But he was immediately sent to the Legislature, and soon after was appointed
Commissioner to the Indians at Detroit, Fort Meigs and St. Marys. For three
years he was employed in these arduous duties, by appointment of the President
of the United States. After filling several state offices, he was again, in
1822, sent a representative to Congress from the Chilicothe district. Having
served one term very acceptably, he declined a re-election, and devoted his
energies to his long neglected private affairs. He was now a man of large
wealth, and his business was widely extended, in furnaces, mills, and real
estate.
   In 1830 he was chosen Governor of Ohio. The two years of his administration
passed tranquility in the ordinary routine of business. Weary of public life, 
he retired to his beautiful residence, called "Fruit Hill," near Chilicothe.
Here he spent the evening of his days until his death, which occurred in 1840,
in the 68th year of his age. About ten years before an accident befel him
at Columbus by which he was dreadfully mangled, and which caused him the most
excruciating pain. This accident was the ultimate cause of his death.
   Governor McArthur was emphatically the architect of his own fortune. He
died, leaving his children the legacy of a good name and a large estate.

			Hon. Robert Lucas

   The romance of frontier life, with all its hardships, has peculiar charms
for the imagination. The log house in the primitive forest, crowded with game
of every variety; the crystal streams flowing by the door; the boundless
prairie, at one time a perfect wilderness of bloom, with its flowers of
gorgeous hues, again blazing in sublime configuration, and again covered with
deer and buffaloes, whose numbers are to be counted by thousands; the Indian
canoe, floating like a bubble upon the sea; the bands of savage hunters and 
warriors in their picturesque costume, all these combine to give attractions 
to men of imaginative mood.
   Amid essentially such scenes Governor Lucas passed his early days. He was
born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, Virginia, on the 1st of April, 1781.
His father was a descendent of William Penn. His mother was of Scotch extraction.
Dissatisfied with slavery, Mr. Lucas freed every one of his adult slaves and
made humane provision for all. He then removed to the soil of the Northwestern
Territory, north of the Ohio, which was consecrated to freedom.
   He took up his abode in the beautiful but solitary village of the Scioto at 
the commencement of the present century. Ohio had not then been admitted into
the Union, and there were but few settlers scattered over its vast expanse.
Robert was then about nineteen years of age. We infer that his father was a
man of considerable means, since he was able to give his son a good practical
education. A Scotch schoolmaster taught him mathematics and surveying. As a 
skillful surveyor he found renumerative employment immediately in the new
and unexplored territory. In 1810 he married Miss Elizabeth Brown, who died
two years after, leaving an infant daughter. In 1816 he married Miss Sumner, 
a young lady from Vermont, who had accompanied her parents in their emigrants
from the rugged hills of New England to the fertile prairies of the West.
When young Lucas was but twenty-three years of age he was appointed County
Surveyor of Scioto County. The standing of the family is evidenced by the fact
that his elder brother, Joseph, was at that time associate judge of the Court
of Common Pleas. When twenty-five years of age, he received a commission as
justice of the peace for Union Township, Scioto County. In those days every
able-bodied man was bound to be a soldier. Robert Lucas passed through all
the military grades to that of major general of the Ohio militia.
   In the war of 1812, when the military science of Great Britain was united
with the ferocity of savage warriors, all the energies of Mr. Lucas were 
called into requisition. He sent twelve hundred of his brigade to march to 
Detroit. Placing himself at the head of a small company of picked men he
advanced through the forest to Greenville to watch the movements of the 
Indians. The volunteering his services in the dangerous capacity of a scout,
he passed through adventures of peril, of hardships, of hair-breadth escapes, 
the detail of which would fill a volume.
   Governor Lucas accompanied Hull's army in crossing the Detroit River and 
invading Canada. He took so active a part in all the movements there that
many, dissatisfied with General Hull, and inspired with confidence in the
military ability of young Lucas, indiscreetly urged him to take the commmand,
which, of course, he refused to do. Hull's army, defeated and humiliated, 
retreated across the river, and Detroit was surrendered to the enemy. From
this surrender, Mr. Lucas made his escape by putting his sword into his
brother's trunk, exchanging his uniform for a citizen's dress, and walking
into the town before the British. After taking notes of all that was transpiring,
he embarked on board a small vessel and reached Cleveland in safety. He was
this year commissioned as captain in the regular army, and rose to the rank
of colonel in that service, when other duties called for his resignation. In
1816 he became a member of the Ohio Legislature, and for nineteen consecutive
years served as one of the Presidential Electors of Ohio. In 1832 he was 
elevated to the distinguished honor of chairman of the Democratic National
Convention, in Baltimore, which nominated General Jackson for his second term
of service.
   Robert Lucas had thus become one of the most prominent men of Ohio. His
name was known throughout the state. In 1832 he was elected governor of Ohio,
and re-elected in 1834. He declined a third nomination. It was during his
administration that the perplexing question rose respecting the boundary line
between Ohio and Michigan. We have already described the nature of this 
controversy and its results.
   Governor Lucas removed from Portsmouth, in Scioto County, to Piketon, in
Pike County. Here he resided twenty-two years. He was then appointed by
President Van Buren Governor of the Territory of Iowa. To this office was 
joined the great responsibility of Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
   A journey from the interior of Ohio through the pathless wilderness to the
banks of the Upper Mississippi was then a great undertaking. It occupied
weeks, and exposed one to great hardships and not a few perils. We have not
access to any record of the incidents of this journey. The governor set out
from home, leaving his family behind him, on the 25th of July, and did not
reach Burlington, then the temporary seat of the territorial government, until
the middle of August. He was accompanied by Mr. Jessie Williams, as clerk
of the Indian Department, and by Mr. Theodore S. Parvin, as his private
secretary. It was not until the next year that his family joined him.
   His subsequent history was troubled and eventful, as he was called to 
encounter many very serious political difficulties, and to struggle against
the most formidable opposition. But this portion of his career is connected
with the annals of Iowa rather then with those of Ohio.
   God preserved his life through more than the allotted three-score-years
and ten. He died on the 7th of February, 1853, at the age of seventy-two.
It is said that all the members of the family save one were gathered around
the dying bed of the affectionate husband and the tender father. His remains
now repose in the cemetery adjoining Iowa City.
   Iowa is much indebted for her prosperity to the impulse given by her first
governor. He zealously advocated the common school system, now one of the
crowning glories of the state. No gambler or drunkard could receive an
appointment from him. Through his influence probably Iowa was, it is said, the
first of the states to enact by the popular voice a prohibitory liquor law.
The marble shaft which marks his grave bears the inscription,
			Robert Lucas
		      Died February 7th, 1853.
		Aged 71 years, 19 months and 6 days.
   He served his country in the war of 1812; was elected twice Governor of
Ohio, and was the organic Governor of Iowa Territory.
   "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live."

			Hon. Joseph Vance

   Joseph Vance was Governor of Ohio from 1836 to 1838. He was born on the
21st of March, 1786, in Washington County, Pennslyvania. The blood of the 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians circulated in his veins. In 1788 his father, a
poor man, with his small family, emigrated to the Northwestern Territory.
Joseph was a toddling babe two years old. The family floated down the river
on a raft, and for a time resided in solitude and silence of the wilderness
of the southern or Kentucky shore of the river. These were the dreadful days
of Indian warfare, of war-whoops and tomahawks and scalping-knives. The
savages were numerous, and were led at that time by a renowned Indian called
Captain Pipe, and by the renegade white man, Simon Girty.
   Mr. Vance built him a strong block-house, where his neighbors could join
him for defense, in case of alarm. Their home was in the region to which we
have alluded as traversed by McArthur's scouts. Here young Joseph became
acquainted with McArthur, and a friendship was formed which lasted through
life.
   In the year 1801, when Joseph was fifteen years of age, his father crossed
the river into Ohio. After moving from place to place he reared the first
cabin erected in what is now Urbana, Ohio, and became a permanent resident
there. Under these circumstances the educational advantages of Joseph Vance
were very limited. He had no instruction save the little teaching which his
father could give him, and six months' schooling from an itinerant Irish
schoolmaster.
   Young Joe, as he was familiarly called, commenced life as a plow-boy and
a wood-chopper, ready to turn his hand to any job which might present itself.
He was a stout, energetic boy, never afraid of hard work, and remarkably
skilled in swinging the ax. After working very industriously one season he
laid up sufficient money to purchase a yoke of oxen. With this team, having
purchased several barrels of salt, he traveled through all the distant and
scattered settlements of Kentucky, peddling out his load at the log cabins.
   This shows certainly very remarkable force of character in a boy of fifteen.
The cattle moved at a snail's pace. The roads were often horrible, with bogs
to wade through and rivers to ford. The gloomy forest was to be traversed, 
the path being often obstructed by gigantic trees blown down by the wind. 
Often for weary leagues he would find no cabin. At night, all alone, he would
camp out, building a large fire to keep off the howling wolves and panthers,
and standing guard through the night, rifle in hand, to protect his oxen
from these ferocious beasts of prey.
   The chivalry of this world is not all to be found on the field of battle.
The arduous enterprises of peaceful life often call into requisition all
the noblest and most heroic traits of human character. Young Vance continued
this business for several years, finding it very profitable. He often 
suffered severely from hunger, thirst and exposure. Not infrequently he would
find a stream so swollen by the rain that it was necessary for him to wait
several days in the tangled forest on its banks for the water to subside so
that he could cross the ford. Sometimes he would find a swamp so wet and soft
that it became necessary to unload the team and drive the cattle over first, 
and then roll each barrel over by strength of hand.
   At twenty-one years of age Joseph Vance married Miss Mary Lemen, of Urbana.
Two years after that he was elected captain of a rifle company, which was
several times called out to fight the Indians in the murderous excursions
upon which the savages entered just before the war of 1812. As a rendezvous
for his company on its expeditions, he built a strong block-house on the
edge of a prairie, a few miles north of Urbana, which the wary savages could
not approach unseen. With his brother John, in 1812, he piloted Hull's army
through the pathless forest to Fort Meigs, now Perrysburg.
   It was extremely difficult at that day to transport goods to those distant
wilds. They were carried through the dark and dense forest, across the country
to Fort Findlay, on the upper water of Blanchard's Fork. There they were
paddled or poled in canoes down the shallow and winding stream to the Auglaize.
Thence they pushed down that stream, full of whirling eddies and shallows, 
upon which their boat not unfrequently grounded. Upon reaching the Maumee
they had good boat navigation to Fort Meigs. The remarkable fact is stated
that on one occasion, when hopelessly stranded on the Auglaize, having
unavailing used every effort again to get afloat, a friendly Indian chief
appeared upon the bank and shouted out to them in broken English:
   "Get heap brush; make big fire; heap smoke; make cloud; get rain."
   This indicates, it has been said, that the theory of M. Espy, the Storm
King, was not original with him. The industry of Joseph Vance was untiring.
Whatever he undertook prospered. In the midst of all these accumulated labors
he was in 1812 elected to the State Legislature, and continued a member of
that body for four succeeding years. Increasing in wealth, he, with two
others, in 1820, purchased a large tract of land upon the upper waters of
Blanchard's Fork and founded the town of Findlay. At the same time he was 
elected Representative in Congress, and for fifteen years, until 1836, continued
a member of that body. He was always at his post, and though seldom attempting
to speak, was highly regarded for his sound judgment.
   Politically, he was a Whig, and a warm admirer of Henry Clay. In the year
1836 he was elected Governor of Ohio. Nothing in interest occurred during
his term of office. From the gubernatorial chair he retired to his farm near
Urbana, intending to spend the remainder of his days free from the agitations
of office. But the voice of the people soon called upon him again to the 
State Senate; and in 1842 he was re-elected to Congress. In 1850, while
attending a constitutional convention, he was struck with paralysis, and died
at Urbana on the 24th of August, 1852.
   Governor Vance had left behind him a high reputation for industry, ability
and enlightened patriotism. To his tireless energies the state is much indebted
for its prosperity.

			Hon. Wilson Shannon		

   In the year 1802 Mr. Shannon, father of Wilson Shannon, emigrated from 
Pennsyvania, and took up his residence in Belmont County, Ohio. One year
after Mr. Shannon had reared his humble home in these solitudes, through
which Indian bands were ever roving, his son Wilson was born, on the 24th of
February, 1803. In this deep seclusion and silence of the wilderness Wilson
remained, assisting his father in the varied duties of the farm, until he
was very limited.
   In 1818 he was sent to school, for one year, at what was called the Ohio
University, at Athens. With such preparation, at the close of the year he
entered Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky. In this school he
remained two years, and then returned to his native county, to commence the
study of law. Having completed these studies, he opened a office in the little
struggling village of St. Clairsville, which had become the shire town of
Belmont County.
   Here, for eight years, Mr. Shannon continued engaged in the various pursuits
of a country lawyer, ever rising in reputation as a man of ability and 
integrity. In the year 1832 his neighbors indicated their estimate of his 
worth by nominating him as the Democratic candidate for a seat in Congress.
But Whig principles then ruled the state, and Mr. Shannon, as expected, lost
the election.
   Two years after this, in 1834, he was nominated for the office of district
attorney of the country. His appreciation by his neighbors is evidenced in 
the fact that he was chosen by a majority of twelve hundred votes. The duties
of this office he discharged with such ability that his reputation was greatly
extended. In 1838, the Democrats of Ohio, in looking over the state in search
of the most popular man they could find as their candidate for the gubernatorial
chair, selecteed Wilson Shannon. He was nominated by the convention, and after
a very closely contested election was chosen by about thirty-six hundred
majority.
   At the close of the term he was re-nominated by acclamation. Hon. Thomas
Corwin, one of the most popular and eloquent of men, was the Whig candidate.
Party politics then ran very high throughout the whole nation. The slavery
question was becoming one of absorbing interest. Martin Van Buren and William
Henry Harrison were rival candidates for the Presidency.
   Governor Shannon addressed the people in nearly every county in the state.
Mr. Corwin did the same. In this conflict "Greek met Greek." "Tom Corwin,"
as he was familiarly called, possessed unrivaled powers to move the masses.
The day of election came. "Tom" was chosen by a majority of fifteen thousand
votes. The personal popularity of Governor Shannon was manifest from the fact
that the state went against Van Buren, the Democratic candidate for the
Presidency, by a majority of twenty-five thousand.
   Governor Shannon, retiring from office, returned to the practice of law in
Belmont County. Two years after this, in 1842, the Democratic Convention
again, with entire unanimity, nominated Governor Shannon for the chair of the
chief executive. Governor Corwin was again the Whig candidate. Both men
canvassed the state. Governor Shannon won by about four thousand majority.
   In the Spring of 1843, the National Government tendered to Governor Shannon
the office of Minister to Mexico. In June he repaired to the "Halls of the
Montezumas," and discharged the then exceedingly difficult and delicate duties
of ambassadore at the Mexican Court for two years.
   Upon the annexation of Texas, when the Mexican authorities renounced all
diplomatic intercourse with the United States, Governor Shannon returned home
and again resumed the practice of law. In the discharge of these peaceful
labors he continued for seven years. In 1852 he was nominated as the Democratic
candidate for Congress from the Belmont district, and was chosen by a majority
of thirteen hundred votes. His action in Congress gave such satisfaction to
his party, then in power, that he was appointed by the President Governor of
the Territory of Kansas.
   The direful conflict which soon culmination in civil war was even then 
beginning to develop its energies upon those far-distant plains. It was the
great struggle between freedom and slavery with soon deluged our land in one
of the most sanguinary wars this war-scathed globe has ever witnesses. Of
Governor Shannon's administration in Kansas we know but little. No mortal man
could then satisfy the antagonistic parties. After holding the office about
fourteen months, in 1856 he was superseded by John W. Geary.
   In 1857 Governor Shannon removed his family to Kansas, and opened a law
office in Lecompton, then the capital of the territory. His reputation was
such that he immediately entered upon a very extensive practice. An immense
amount of litigation grew out of contested land claims, under the preemption
laws of the United States. Upon the admission of Kansas as a state of the 
Union the capital was removed to Topeka. Governor Shannon then removed to the
City of Lawrence, where he still resides, in the year 1874, revered and 
beloved by all who know him. He has already passed his three-score years an
ten. May a kind Providence lead him serenely through the evening of his days,
till his laborious and useful earthly life shall terminate in translation to
a better land.


			Hon. Thomas Corwin

   In the year 1793, when the present State of Ohio was an almost unbroken
wilderness, Matthias Corwin - a man of some note in his day - took up his
residence in what is now called Warren County, Ohio. Though one of the most
respectable and honored men in the state, his children in their wide seclusion
and log cabin could enjoy but a few advantages of education. His son Thomas
was a bright boy, who was sure to triumph over all adverse circumstances.
   The first school the boy entered was held in a log shed which his father
and some neighbors, who were anxious for the education of their children, had
constructed by the labor of a few hours. It stood upon the right bank of a
little stream called Turtle Creek, about a mile from the thriving town of
Lebanon. A young man by the name of Dunlevy, who subsequently attained some
distinction, taught the school. It was however in operation only one or two
months in the year.
   In 1803, eight years after Mr. Corwin's removal to that region, the growing
settlement numbered about fifty families, mostly dwelling in log houses and
quite scattered in the cultivation of their farms. A continuous school was
established. Still Thomas could attend only during the winter months. His
services during the summer were required in the labors of the farm. He was, 
however, an earnest student, eager to learn, and endowed with unusual natural
abilities. His leisure hours he improved, and thus laid the foundation of his
future fame and fortune.
   Thomas was about fifteen years of age when, in 1812, our country became
involved in the second war with Great Britain. Our unnatural enemies were 
stimulating the savages all along our northern frontier to kill, burn and
destroy. General Hull had made his disastrous surrender of Detroit. All the
plans of the War Department in the Northwest were thus deranged. Our soldiers,
unsupplied with food, were in danger of starving.
   In this emergence Judge Corwin, the father of Thomas, determined to send
a team to the extreme frontier loaded with supplies for the suffering troops.
Young Thomas drove the team. This is almost the only exciting adventure during
his life. He was a politician, a statesman, an orator. His great efforts and
his great triumphs were in addressing popular assemblies and in legislative
halls, And yet this apparently trivial incident probably exerted a powerful
influence in promoting his future success in life.
   The backwoodsmen in former years were very fond of striking titles. Strange
as it may seem, there were thousands who in those days of comparative ignorance
deemed a man better qualified to fill the highest office in the state because
when a boy he had driven a wagon through an almost pathless wilderness. And
played in youthful years will doubtless be developed in mature life.
   When in 1840 Thomas Corwin was candidate for Governor of Ohio, the rallying
cry of the campaign was "Tom Corwin, the Wagoner Boy." A vast assemblage of 
his supporters wwas congregate at Columbus. One of the speakers roused the
enthusiasm of the masses by the following words:
   "When the brave Harrison and his gallant army were exposed to the dangers
and hardships of the Northwestern frontier, separated from the interior, on
which they were dependent for their supplies, by the brushwood and swamps of
St. Mary's country, through which there was no road, where each wagoner had
to make his way wherever he could find a passable place, leaving traces and
routes which are still visible for a space of several days' journey in length,
there was one team managed by a little, dark-complexioned, hardy-looking lad,
apparently about fifteen or sixteen years old, who was familiarly called Tom
Corwin. Through all the that service he proved himself a good whip and an
excellent reinsman. And in the situation in which we are about to place him
he will be found equally skillful."
   A popular song aided in exciting the enthusiasm of the masses during this
successful canvass. The first verse, which we give, will show the character
of the whole:
			"Success to you, Tom Corwin!
			   Tom Corwin, our true hearts love you!
			Ohio has no nobler son, 
			   In worth there's none above you.
			And she will soon bestow
			   On you her highest honor;
			And then our state will proudly show
			   Without a stain upon her."
   In this mysterious life of ours we seldom know what are blessings and what
are calamities. Thomas returning from the frontier, resumed his labor upon
the farm. One day he seriously injured his knee, which so crippled him that
for some time he was incapable of performing any physical labor. During tedious
months of confinement his only resource and his delightful resource, was 
books. He thus enlarged and disciplined his mind, laid up valuable stores of
knowledge,  and acquired that command of language which made him one of the 
most effective extempore speakers our country has ever known.
   The scholarly tastes and habits he thus acquired led him to engage in the
study of law. He was a hard student, and acquired the reputation of an 
accomplished scholar. In 1817 he was admitted to the bar, and at once took a
commanding position. He was not only a well-read lawyer, but he was a sound
reasoner and an eloquent speaker. The reputation of the young lawyer rapidly
increased. In 1822 he was elected to the General Assembly of Ohio. He served
but a short time, and very wisely retiring from the Assembly, devoted all his
energies to his profession. His practice became very extensive and lucrative.
   In 1829 partisan politics ran very high to the digust of all sober men.
Mr. Corwin, much against his will consented to be the candidate of the
intelligent portion of the community, who wished to rebuke the demagogism of
the times. The popularity of Mr. Corwin was such that he was elected by a
large majority of votes. In 1830 he represented his district in the Congress
of the United States, where he continued, by successive elections, for ten
years.
   In 1840, as we have mentioned, he was nominated for governor at a great
mass convention, held at Columbus. He was quite triumphantly elected. He
served but one term, from 1840 to 1842. The fluctuation of politics gave a 
rival candidate a plurality of votes. The office of governor, with the limited
powers which, under the constitution, he then possessed, had few attractions
for Mr. Corwin. Facetiously he remarked:
   "The principal duties of the governor are to appoint notaries public and
pardon convicts in the penitentiary."
   A generous and humane spirit characterized the administration of Governor
Corwin. He made special inquiry into the conduct of those in the state's 
prison. If there was anyone whose deportment had been good during his 
confinement, and who gave promise of reformation, the governor would sign a
pardon a few days before the expiration of his term, that he might be saved
the disgrace of lifelong exclusion from all political franchises.
   His two annual meetings were greatly admired for the sound doctrine 
advocated, and for the eloquence with which his ideas were expressed.
   In 1845 Mr. Corwin was elected to the honorable and responsible post of
United States Senator. He discharged the duties of this office with distinction,
until 1850, when President Fillmore appointed him Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1852 he returned from public life to his home among his old neighbors and
friends in Lebanon. He had now a national reputation, and though regarding
Lebanon as his home, he opened a law office in Cincinnati.
   But it is seldom that one who has occupied a responsible position amidst
the excitements of Washington, can long be contented with the tranquil scenes
of private life. He consented again to stand as a candidate for the Thirty-sixth
Congress, and was triumphantly elected. He never rose to speak unless he had
something important to say. The consequence was that whenever he appeared
upon the floor he commanded the undivided attention of the house.
   There were occasions when he exhibited powers of eloquence which were 
rarely excelled. No man was more quick of discern the weakness of an adversary's
position. In wielding the weapons of sarcasm and ridicule he was almost unrivaled.
These dangerous powers were so under the control of his amiable and gentle
disposition, that he rarely excited the animosity of his opponents. The 
unquestioned sincerity which pervaded every word he uttered, gave great
persuasive power to all he said.
   In March, 1861, President Lincoln appointed Governor Corwin Minister to
Mexico, for which post he sailed the following month. He remained in Mexico
until May, 1864, when he returned to the United States, and opened a law
office in the City of Washington.
   Mr. Corwin continued here in the practice of his profession until his 
death on the 18th of December, 1865.
   While in attendance at a party given to members of Congress and other
prominent persons from Ohio, at the residence of Mr. Wetmore, on the evening
of December 16, he was suddenly stricken down by an attack of apoplexy. In 
two hours he became unconscious, and remained in this condition till death
relieved him. His remains were conducted to his old home in Lebanon, Ohio, 
by a committee of Congressmen and other prominent citizens of Ohio.
   Governor Corwin, in his conversational eloquence, ever drew social groups
around him. Though not a man of collegiate culture, he was highly educated
man, far surpassing in his mental furniture thousands of those who have spent
listless years in collegiate halls. From boyhood he had exhibited, in private
life, the utmost integrity and purity of character. In his profession career,
a high sense of honor distinguished him. He was a diligent student through 
his whole life, ever enlarging and strengthening his mental facilities. And 
when, at a good old age, he was summoned from the scenes of his useful and
active earthly career the whole nation mourned the loss of one of the most
illustrious of her sons.